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I picked up this alarm watch at a flea market several months ago and recently decided to investigate. I am not finished, but well on my way. As you can see, there was significant water damage. Running these parts through my L&R cleaner was not enough to clean them, so I did manual cleaning with one-dip and cotton swab (the dense pointed kind). The wig-wag was stubborn--the two gears would not release from the plate. I soaked it in Kroil overnight and that did the trick. There was some rust on the balance staff, but not actually on the pivots themselves. Nevertheless, I chucked it a step-chuck on my lathe and burnished the pivots. The watch is running and I have confirmed that the alarm drive train is functioning. Since I am missing a stem for the alarm, I have not done the final assemble of the alarm components. Surprisingly, there are lots of parts available for this movement on Cousins. I will probably get a couple of stems and maybe some other parts that I deem necessary. The watch is running at weak amplitude (about 190) and shows some poising issues. I will work on that. The last two pictures are after partial reassembly.

I've been contemplating getting one of these for some time now, after working on a few spring loaded centre seconds pinion movements. It's not an absolutely necessary tool to have, hence the procrastination. Then it hit me, all I need is a flat base with a screw in it. So I scrounged around for something suitable and ended up with this. This is some rubber thingy that is supposed to stop furniture with casters from moving around. In fact, any flat material with sufficient thickness to hold the screw in the centre would do.

Back about 6 decades ago - I started collecting pocket watches. My favorite Saturday morning activity was going to a local flea-market, wandering the isles of outside tables, looking for something cool to buy. I found what I liked to buy was pocket watches. So I started buying them. It wasn't that frequent that I found one that met my standards (more than 15 jewels, balance wheel still spun, and affordable - around $10-15), but when I did, I usually came home with a new treasure. I continued this search, but there got to be less and less interesting watches at the flea-markets, it seems that others had started doing the same sort of thing and had deeper pockets than I did. So I had this bunch of pocket watches - not a large number - maybe 10-12 total - most of them needing at the least a good cleaning. Somehow I found my interest moving toward railroad-grade watches, and I managed to collect a few - including a Hamilton 950B with a broken mainspring that I had to dig deep to buy - $35 - probably around 1977 or so. This focus has resolved itself to 23 jewel pocket watches meeting the Ball standard for railroad use. I'm trying to collect every 23 jewel watch made for railroad use by every major watch manufacturer. These are usually marvelous movements and a real testament to the sort of precision manufacturing the watch industry in the US introduced in the late 1800's. Then life got it the way, my interests changed and the watches were sitting in a drawer collecting dust. They stayed in that drawer for about 40 years. For some reason about 2 years ago - perhaps Covid isolation started it - my interest in the watches reignited. I pulled them out of the drawer to see what I had and what they needed. I did have some minimal watchmaking skills 50-60 years ago, but my hands are no longer as delicate, or my eyes as good as they were back then, so I found a watchmaker I trusted - and sent him my 950B to restore. If you've heard of "Tim Tells Time" (Tim Chaney) - he does marvelous work. My 950B came back looking at least as good as the day it was new, maybe better. And running just as well - accuracy about 3 seconds/day on the timegrapher (depending on position +/- 3 seconds), 285 amplitude. I also now found a new way to find watches - on-line auctions. These can be addicting. "LiveAuctioneers" is one I frequent a bit, and of course eBay. My background is in engineering and technology - and I found myself collecting Accutron watches from the tuning-fork era. That's since also branched out into other "electric" watches - ones that don't have an "IC" chip - but use a battery and perhaps a transistor to make the movement tell time. Anyway - way too much probably - but I'm hear to pickup tips on repairing the electronic/electric watches and perhaps chat about some of the better railroad pocket watch movements. Thanks for having me.. Don Eilenberger Picture below - my wife's pendant 0 size watch - by Waltham - after being rebuilt by Tim Tells Time..

I'm also rather impatient, but when you have your head down and are in the zone 4 hours feels like 10 minutes, my wife often jokes that I have watches and clocks all around me, but no concept of time once I 'get in the zone'

You need to write Bergeon on it.

for the crown

I've just finished refurbishing a Memostar Alarm with AS 1931 movement (same as 1945 but with date and running at 21600). I was also surprised how many parts are available at Cousins. Like you, I was missing the alarm stem (Cousins stock them) and I needed new crowns. It's a nice simple movement for an alarm, easier to service than a Seiko Bell-Matic. BTW I made a note in my Servicing spreadsheet: "Pull out winding stem before removal". It may have just been wear on my movement, but I found that the yoke could move out of the clutch if the stem was removed in the normal position (like some ETAs). You might find this interesting

Mikepilk. Phew! Just bought one of those dial holders for £7.11p. Feel so much better. Thank you

I hate the cold. Wear a jumper for all but two month each year. Tshirt on selected days only.

That Bergeon Premium Rodico is crap. I regret buying the stuff. I have some Bergeon tools, and they are very good. When I need a quality tool, I don't mind spending money on it. But some people think the sun shines out of their whatsit, and they can do no wrong. Sometimes you don't need to spend £££ just because it says Bergeon. My usual example, dial holder, a bit of plastic with holes in : Cousins version £6 Begeon version £56 I'm interesting in seeing how you would use one too, and not use a staking set stump?

Updated photos with new leather strap and original signed buckle. I like the minimalist strap - plain back with black thread...

Stems are cheaply available on Ali Express (link) or eBay, as for the crown, it may be easier to harvest one from a donor movement rather than just buying a crown. If its just a matter of it unscrewing itself as @RichardHarris123 is asking then blue loctite is your friend, I use the blue medium strength non-permanent version for crowns, which they also do in a stick (like a glue stick) you just poke the stem thread into the blue semi-solid goop and this leaves enough on the thread to do the job without having to worry about excess fluid. Note 90 AED is about £19.00, but it may be cheaper where you are from

I think your axes are mislabelled here. They need switching around.

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.

Yes, I think so

I am pondering polishing it blank and putting one of those decals like I have seen others do. Alternatively, find another dial that is the same diameter, remove and replace the feet. This looks interesting https://www.4customize.com/product/custom-watch-dial-decals/

I will probably be banished for the site but I would have to give it a good scrub. You will loose any remaining letting but I couldn't live with the dial like that.

That all? Plastic pill top, small screw through centre. Made.

could start a new sub-brand: Bergeon-Pro Worked for Apple phones! Ah they already beat me to it:

Oy! No bad words in our forum please.

Something along those lines yes. So are you implying HectorLooi is a Swiss spy working for Bergeon to see what crap they can get away with selling us ?

Thank you for your introduction and welcome to this friendly forum. We all look forward to your contributions and continued involvement.

the crystal doesn't have to fit onto a detachable bezel, it can be pressed into the front of the case. Very curious as to why there is a threaded ring inside though. I do have a record www that i could pull the movement out of but I'm away in just over an hour.

If the parts from China cost 5 cents and someone in Switzerland gets paid 6 cents for putting it together it can be called Swiss Made, right?

Hello and welcome from Leeds, England.

New strap pictures. This one is going into the collection. Will be looking for a president bracelet I think ad well...

A photo of the crystal in the case from the top would really help @B1N9S

It's to bloody could for me to wear a T Shirt. The weather is horrid here today in Mid Devon.

I think we've talked about this before, using a new mainspring to initially overcome the effects of more movement friction than there should be. The aim is to reduce all going friction not to push through the friction with more torque, that in the long run will create more wear.

OK, a little bit more from today's lecture about the main springs. Generally, the spring in the barrel is limited and can't unwind fully. With the blue line is shown the reserve/torque relation when spring unwinding is limited by the barrel. The green line represents the same when the spring is free to unwind fully And the red line shows the minimum torque that is needed for the movement to keep running. The yelow graph shows how the torque changes (from the blue) when the spring gets weaker (set) after 100 years of work. The purple line represents thinner and longer spring in the same barrel. As You can see, using thinner and longer spring will increase the power reserve. The 'set' spring will have the same reserve as a new one with the same sizes, only the amplitude will be just a little smaller. Of course, this is true only when the movement othervice is in good health ( the red line is lo enough)

Hi I'm a new member. I recently pulled a Wakmann 8 hour clock out of one of my small airplanes. My hope is to get it working again.

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!

I'm celebrating with you. Well done.

I certainly do Razz. Ive just started work on this AS554, interestingly enough it had a paper dial made from a postcard , look at the brand name on the dial, very curious.