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Alright, the job is done. I first filed down the stubs flat. I then used a Proxxon hand drill first with a 0.5mm bit to score a point to work from, then a 1mm drill bit to properly drill out some lug holes. I just went slowly, checking the depth as I went. I drilled the inside of the lugs, leaving the outsides unblemished. I was worried that drilling at an angle might be a problem, but it turned out fine. Lug holes don't need to be very accurate, so it was actually easy to create holes to easily accommodate a spring bar. The result is a 'good enough' outcome that worked for me. Thanks for your help everyone, loving the hobby so far. I learn so much with each project.

Just picked this up earlier today. This find just about epitomizes vintage watch collecting for me and what really keeps me going. Hit 2 antique malls today and saw a couple of pieces at the first one but just nothing that I needed. At the second one saw a Accutron 218 but it was 20 minutes behind the actual time. These "malls" have numerous booths of a variety of sellers who likely go in once or twice a week. Considering that that watch should be within a couple of seconds a month, I figured it hadn't been phased so passed on that for now knowing it would need work to run correctly and the price tag. Then I found this Excelle in a display case. I never heard of the brand, but in was an auto and had a little heft. It turned out to be 40mm lug to lug, 35.3mm case width, and 12.3 mm thick. On the spiedel once size fits most flex band. At $10.80US with tax I immediately pulled the trigger with nothing to lose. Before pictures: I spent a nice 30 minutes taking it out of the case and running that through the ultra sonic replacing the crystal and gasket and recasing, but spent five minutes first getting it running close on the timegrapher. Had a new crystal already in stock. I probably could have sanbed and polished the old one, but for $3 there is nothing like a new acrylic that makes a watch pop, in my opinion. The caseback gasket was hardened and just glad it wasn't tar. Changed that as well. Here is the after Pic on a temp black strap while I decide on a leather or steel bracelet. An added bonus was doing some research and finding out the Elgin connection and the movement is a PUW 1563T which is German I am pretty sure and probably why it doesn't say Swiss made on the dial. This movement is supposed to have a hack feature and quickset date by pushing the crown. But neither of those complications seem to be working. Not sure if the stem is cut too short because there is no gap for the crown to move. Either way at some point will need to be serviced and check the keyless works to find out what is going on with the quickset and hack of the sweep second hand.

Welcome to the forum. Yep not a cheap hobby by any means , Ali Express, the Chinese Amazon has some decent tools but should ask the members their thoughts before purchase. A little reading to help you along. TZIllustratedGlossary.pdf

Hello WRT members my name is Willem I am from the Netherlands I haven’t been around a lot on the forum but did asked some advice in the past which helped me a lot. I started 4 years ago with a seiko 5m42-0e69 I inherited from my father. I could wair it because the bracelet was to small. Seiko did not had spare rubber inserts any more so I had to find donor watches but unfortunately also these rubber bands didn’t last long so had to find another I but this seems to be a original SLQ003 watch strap full length and uncut also found out this strap isn’t produced anymore. Than I came to the idea to find someone who can 3D print the straps and it work out well for me and than the journey began for me. This first picture is how I started 4 years ago. I ended up like this. I found all the 0e60/69 different faces and than started to collect all the different 0e39 faces. So now I can close this chapter. From another angle. Not all the faces are shown in 1998 catalog Here you can see all different faces. I will show you later on my watches one by one Here’s is my fathers watch with the printed strap Than I started to experiment with colors. This one bought because off the bracelet but unfortunately broke so I gave it a new color This 0e60 is not shown in the 1998 catalog I needed only one 0e6 to complete the 0e60/69 collection so could close this chapter. Now gonna show you the 0e3 collection. This is the grey dial with golden items and metal bracelet. White dial with golden items White or silver dial with steel items Dark blue dial with steel backcase.

Matt Henning in Massachusetts can do the pivot, he specializes in this sort of work. Hi website is basic but his work is outstanding. https://www.henningwatches.com/index-2.html

Ta. Good man you are

It's a pinion, so no chance of finding one separate from the wheel. Definitely less work to repivot than make a new pinion! (I generally make the whole staff for a balance of pallet fork rather than repivot though.)

Photograph? Please.

Well done Sam, you've successfully completed a tricky piece of work there

Sorry to jump in here guys, but I've read through this whole thread and it seems there are a lot of people who think joining Facebook means everyone will have access to their lives. You could make a Facebook account with a fake name. You could even use your real name if you wanted to and set it to completely private so people can't even find you in a search and you don't have to add anyone as a 'friend', so you won't see anyone's posts. Literally use it to join a group full of members of this site. Admins could even set the group to private and require a password of some sort to gain acceptance into the group, so you can be sure that it's only members of this site that get in. @tomh207 is right, the form with email addresses and names is a bad idea. That will be abused by scrapers. Facebook is only as personal as you let it be. You can be completely anonymous on there if you wish. Don't think of it as Facebook. Just think of it as a watch repair group as that's all you'd use the account for. It doesn't even have to be set up with your current email address. Make a random one on Gmail or any other free provider just for the Facebook account. Tagged you by accident and now it won't let me remove it @Neverenoughwatches

Are you open to other things that would make your timepiece go faster. Does it have a bimetallic balance wheel for instance? Often times they get squeezed they're no longer round the arms get bent in that would speed you up. Also when you're looking at your balance we'll make sure you have even pairs of timing screws. It's amazing how fast you'll go if you're missing one of the timing screws so there have to be opposite pairs in other words if there's a screw on one side there should be a screw on the other side. If the hairspring is magnetized has oil on it or anything that causes it to be stuck together. Or for that matter it's touching anything. Also how was the balance wheel removed from the bridge oftentimes they're unpinned as do not do not have a stud and if that happens somebody will shorten their spring.

Added, with a new unique address for this forum. One simple option for some security would be make them understandable but not correct; like swap the parts before and after the @, and using at rather than the symbol? eg. xyz.com,at,johnsmith It should hopefully prevent web scrapers / spam bots recognising them?

As requested - tricky to get a clear image of the holes, but you get the idea. Notice the new crystal, another first for me, it's amazing what a new crystal does for an old watch! Oh, and the other bit I'm proud of from an 80y old watch: And photos of the movement too if interested...

His feedback is 100%

His reply seems quite honest and fair. Whats his feedback like ?, i tend to buy into the seller more than into the sale. Though i do take risks occasionally if i have a gut feeling i can do ok. Missing and damaged stem can be a red flag but can also mean something quite innocent such as a stem release/set lever screw has come loose and the stem has fallen out and been lost over time. Missing crowns can be less of a problem. One of first things we do when receiving a watch is to try the wind and set functions and rotate the watch back and forth to see if the secondhand starts up. These are good internal indicators that you may get away with only a service to carry out. Things i personally usually avoid are damaged fancy shaped crystals , heavy case damage, watches with certain damaged/ missing internal parts( parts that can't be self maufactured by the average repairer )The idea is to build up a good stock of commonly comsumable parts, this would be, crystals, balance staffs, watch stems and crowns, springs ( setting and shock ) , watch jewels inc. Caps, impulse and pallet stones, timing washers, all kind of screws. Those are mostly at beyond a beginner level requirement .

Certainly looks like a ring that needs unscrewing in that photo. It definitely looks like a thread above the castellated ring as well. Separate to the caseback ring thread. It even looks to be a smaller diameter. I would expect that. Once undone out of its thread, it should fall out of the case. Would it be possible to make a tool shaped like a letter H with one side of the H engaging the castellations in the ring and the other side of the H for you to be able to unscrew it using your hand? Making a tool with 6 'legs' to pick up all of the castellations would be a labour of love.

Welcome to the forum, enjoy.

On the link that I posted, one of the watches has no crown and another has a crown that is not square to the case. Does a broken crown signify that the movement may be quite corroded, hence the stem has broken, and does the bent crown simply signify that the stem is bent? Unfortunately as the seller has a bid on the items, he is now reticent to prise the casebacks off in case he damages something. The seller did reply with this email though. Hi again Michael - brief descriptions; Oris x 2, dials and hands ok and they set ok and one I just wound and it has been running for a few of minutes as I write this response. Rocar, dial ok no crown. No name dial no good and can't pull crown out to set. Roma dial and hands ok, I think it is pin pallet movement. Unicorn, good dial and hands and plexiglass ok for age. All cases and plexiglasses show wear except as mentioned. I have no idea what movements are fitted or condition so please if you do consider bidding, please do so accordingly as I don't like to disappoint my customers - regards and thanks again for your interest - Jim

The incomplete Vertex DD is a new project to sort out. The Seiko gen 1, is my favourite watch to wear and is my daily.

Problem solved. For some bizarre reason, the hook on the wall of this barrel is not properly centered vertically, but is oddly high on the wall, maybe 3/4 up the way up. When replacing the mainspring, this caused the outer coil to be displaced upwards as well such that it protrudes out of the barrel and caused the barrel lid to not sit quite flush to the barrel. Since this is a motor barrel, the lid is actually the first wheel and inner coil tube/hook all in one piece, with no “snap down” action that would have made the problem more immediately obvious. Maybe with an older mainspring the spring’s end hole was enlarged such that this wasn’t an issue, but hard to say how it ever worked otherwise. Replacing the barrel with one from a different model 1900 where the hook was properly vertically centered allowed the lid to sit flush without mainspring interference and the friction problem went away. The bridge was far too thick to be bent (and isn’t), for those of you thinking that was the problem. Placing the removable arbor in the watch without the rest of the barrel proved that the proper end shake was actually there as long as the overall height of the assembled barrel was correct.

You are so true on a lot of what you have said. The main reason for changing the mainspring even if the old one is in good order is because it will take out your thinking that the mainspring is contributing to poor power output or fluctuations in amplitude. If a new spring is fitted that box can be crossed off as a potential source of a problem. Most customers are happy to pay the extra £20 for a new mainspring if they are already parting with a couple of hundred pounds for a service. A new spring is an investment for good running for the future.

According to Borel the 814 and 815 use the same escape wheel. It's kind of an oddball being so long.

Yeah you need more amplitude, and if this is full wind a new mainspring isn't going to get you there- there are other issues. Good news is if that's your max delta at this miserable amplitude it will probably run great when you get it up to something normal!

Your amplitude needs to be higher to get a more reliable reading. Low amplitudes will amplify escapement issues and poise errors not the mention the hairspring may be toing and froing from to regulating pins and the stud. You haven't said what the movement is.

I assume these are the amplitudes used in dynamic timing and not full wind?

The K&D (Levin made the same style too, probably others as well) are a clever design and work well when you get used to them. The only issue is if you wind the spring so that the tongue goes in, there's a really good chance it slips futher and then comes out the next slot, usually breaking off. Best to size it so you can fit it in the barrel with the tongue sticking out.

Hi All, I started this forum over 10 years ago and never intended for it to me a 'for profit' concern. Since then, I launched an online course and I draw funds from that business in order to fund this website. There is also a little bit of funding from Google ads but I don't rely on it because they keep changing the goalposts. The forum costs a few hundred pounds per month to run and Im comfortably managing it. Why a few hundred pounds? I am OCD about backups and not relying on a single company to host those backups, I use amazon S3 to backup hourly and daily, I also use Digital Ocean. I use a separate mail service to handle the serious amounts of emails sent from the site, I am on here most days admin'ing and updating the site or servers/applying security patches and the like - its not a big deal, I enjoy it. In short - you might not see me a lot posting (for my sanity as it's addictive (same on all my social media)) but I certainly do a lot behind the scenes. I can't control my mortality and so there's always that - but other than that, I'm damn committed to this site as I am committed to my commercial site watchfix.com which supports this site. I have no interest in shutting down, selling or otherwise changing this sites format. Having said that, if anyone wants to consider taking on moderation tasks to help (in particular, making sure people post in the correct place and moderating new members posts) that would be very helpful. (Only members who have been active for more than a year please). Finally, thanks very much for your support and kind words - I truly appreciate that. This forum has to be one of the friendliest I am part of - a massive refreshment after reading some of the Facebook groups I'm part of - except mine FB group - that's also great with great people

I for one would have to pass, I'm not joining Facebook.

I know I'm wierd as well, i tripped over my own feet today and landed face first in a huge heather bush with my gob wide open.

ohhh man, your watches are real military watches, mine are just some kind of military style fashion watches in comparison to yours