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Well spotted @Nucejoe You can see it not seated properly at the arrow. As a result the hairspring does not sit between the regulator pins correctly. In the bottom pic you can see the hairspring going all the way through the pins, where it should be hidden by the boot for a portion

Yet more low cost USSR madness. This time in the form of a Seconda 15 jewel - Zlatoust Watch Factory (ЗЧЗ) - stopwatch. Rather surprisingly this came in within the 404 club rules too, since I was the only bidder. There are no pictures of the movement, but it is possibly a Zlaust 4282 or a Zlaust 4282(new) The seller claims it runs, but the reset is a little temperamental. It almost certainly needs a service, and probably has never been serviced. I would guestimate it is from the late fifties or early sixties, however they continued to produce these into the 1980s. The Zlatoust watch factory still produces mechanical watch and stopwatches to this day.

I got this guy on the way. This is the second 6309-7040 I'll have restored, I got some practise with the one I'm wearing now. Will be replacing the bezel+insert, dial, and hands to give it a birthday, but will keep all the original parts with it for posterity. I'll be looking to upgrade it with barrel arbor jewels too, I've got a couple spare mainplates/bridges in case I screw it up though.

The blue "snail track" is just the typical tachymeter scale but rather than ending at 60 units per minute after one full second hand revolution (as you would see on a Speedmaster) it keeps going to allow slower processes (or speeds) to be measured over multiple minutes of tracking. The red track is a telemeter scale, used to judge distance by measuring the difference between when a visible action occurs (such as a lightning bolt or a cannon being touched off) and the time it takes the sound to reach the observer. I think a dial like this and the balance stop mechanism was meant to fancy up the watch and invoke an old-timey vintage feel to what is not a high-quality movement and may have been sold as a "junior" watch. However, since I've found more than once that the only watch that starts ticking when I look over a newly-acquired lot of movements was a pin-pallet Timex or dollar pocket watch, I'm not going to cast any aspersions!

Send it back or take it back it will be under guarantee. If you open it and fiddle around with the guarantee will be void.

OK, you probably all know this wrinkle, but it was new to me. I've been trying to adjust the last coil on a Breguet overcoil so that all the various bits lined up. I was doing this on the upturned balance cock (with the spring removed from the balance of course). I saw a video where the watchmaker took an impression of the bottom of the balance cock on a thin sheet of rodico, which captured the location of the curb pins, the stud mount position and the jewel hole. This is carefully removed from the cock, and the holes transferred to a piece of paper with a pin poked through the rodico. I repeated this 3 times to get a sense of 'repeatability'. I then drew the curb pin circle from the centre with a pair of compasses. You can then drop the hairspring on the diagram and see where everything needs to be, and tweak accordingly. Much easier!

I haven't done much carpentry but this has been my idea - build a work surface that I can tilt with a screw - with a lip around it and sized to my work mat

Whatever approach you see as less risky and feel more control over the task is right for you. Regulator arm is made of spring and snapps back in place. Rgds

Okay, thank you for the advice! The original cock was raided/destroyed so it was unusable sadly. However everything seems to line up "correctly", and Yes - I oiled and cleaned the cap-jewels.

No, just put the cock balance up on a flat surface, lift the balance alittle and hold it above the cock,then press the cock so the regulator will 'click' on it's place. The whole thing is 'NOS', does it mean that You didn't dissassemble the incablok and clean/oil the bearings in the setting? Another thing - it is not so right to replace the cock, especially if the original one is present. The correct thing is to replace only the balance assembly. If replacing the cock, must be checked if the balance stays upright and if the axial free play is correct.

Now that we have the correct movement number which we do know has dial screws here's what he's referring to so one of the dial screws is found. Unfortunately these gifts over the other one but still now we know where it is So yes a lot of the time style screws are found in notches and go in at a angle especially with dials that have calendar mechanisms or the dial feet have to be on the very edge as there's no place else to put them with calendar discs etc. Then somebody else servicing a watch unfortunately skips over things like the dial...But we can also look at his movement pictures and based on the video image above we can make a wild guess of this is where one of the dial feet screw is. So once you grasp where that one is the other one should be easy to find.. https://watchguy.co.uk/service-omega-constellation-calibre-564/ Okay I will make a wild guess if you look at where the dial screwed those then you can see the whole look dial foot was into and it has a little bit of a taper so the flick will go in versus having just a straight hole as there's quite a few holes on the plate. So my guess is this is where the other dial foot is and unfortunately at all the pictures above were looking at the wrong angle we really can't see this

Hello! The keyless or motion works might have water damage. You have to get access to the dial side of the movement (ETA 988?) by removing the LCD. I would not recommend this task for e beginner in watchmaking. Update: The ETA 988 seems to have no keyless works. The hands are set electronically. So a stiff crown should be caused by friction (corrosion?) between stem and tube and has nothing to do with the movement most likely.

Dr ranfft shows a picture of 564 with the date disc, you don't want the razor to hit the disc. Push on the free end of dial foot DO NOT PRY the dial plate. Good luck

I hate people are cleaning out the junk drawers and putting these kinds of problems out there. I guess the present state of the market incentivizes it…

Hello folks, my name is Jaime (female) and I live in Galveston, Texas. I'm new-ish to the interest of quality watches and the basic repair and identification of authentic vs counterfeit watches. I hope to learn and gain experience while being a member of this platform. I promise any knowledge that I have or constructive suggestions will be shared. I love to learn and I love to educate others. I'm grateful to have found my interest in watches completely accidentally, stemming from another interest of mine, which is jewelry, both real and fashion or costume jewelry. I bid on a 50 pound box of donated jewelry and upon receiving it, I found there were some watches contained within. Not recognizing any brands, as the only brand I was even aware of at that time was Rolex, and maybe Fossil, Timex, and other department store brands. So research is what I did. Within the box I discovered a ladies Mido, a Movado museum watch, an Android (not the smart watch, this is analog) and three Citizen and a Fabrigé. I'll quit chattering now. I hope that I've found the right people!

Thanks @mikepilkand @Nucejoe, I can see now and pretty obvious once pointed out. Hehe.

Wouldn't make regulating more precise, makes a mess of pin-boot slot. The oscilator seems out of beat. Farnkly this watch needs all adjustments listed by girls skirt brew unless your are Irish. lol Rgds

What effect will that have?

8 day strike. Rack striking, this particular gathering pallet was not popular it was prone to wear. It strikes on a gong. Date no later then 1930. The hands are in the style of spade. The movement looks in good condition.

Hi. Probably around thr mid 1900’s . 1930/49 by the style. O.H will be along shortly with a more accurate dat I am sure. A closer date would be around the 1920s.

Well based on the way today has gone because I haven't purchased a new free standing oven for the lovely wife as quickly as I got a new car, I can only imagine how things are going to go when Liz has a look at our accounts, as she does, and then a package arrives from the UK. Which is probably going to get here just before my tools order from the US. If all of a sudden, I go offline in the middle of a post, I am probably sitting on my lounge with an axe in my head. I love her, but crikey today has been hard work.

I recently bought a Star Lathe from Switzerland, 1920's more or less. I am learning watch makers turning but I am familiar with larger lathes and would recommend it. Nice solid lathe up to you. lets learn together best Jules By the way I also bought the book "The modern watchmakers lathe and how to use it" Archie B Perkins, what a book I haven't finished it yet but highly recommended. Cheers...Jules

Answering my own question : I've just completed service/repair on a Movado 150MN which was re-banking. (Odd that the two watches I'm currently working on have the same problem!). The mainspring measured 1.30 x 0.11, which is incorrect. When fitted with the correct 1.30 x 0.10, the amplitude is about 270°. So a reduction in thickness of 0.01 was enough to fix it. [ I remember reading that wound springs can be considered as rectangular beams in bending, with moment of Inertia bd³/12 i.e. it depends on thickness cubed. So (0.10/0.11)³ = 0.75. So a reduction in strength of 25% - quite a lot ]