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I've never had a hairspring distort on me by passing the movement or just the balance in a plastic pot over this demagnetiser. Have you seen how fast a cleaning machine spins to spin-off fluid and that does no harm to a hairspring. I was a little concerned when I first used it, thinking it might be too strong, but I was wrong. It is strong, but it does no damage. I pass the part over the demagnetiser and keep going for about an arms length, so about a metre, to properly demag the part.

Landeron 248

Yeah, those were the days! Now, sorry for going OT again but I just can't help myself! As a kid, I saw Draken (The Dragon) pass over my parents' house almost daily going to and fro the air base about 15 km from our house. Me and my friends used to play in the basement and when my mother called from the kitchen "Now they're coming" we'd drop whatever we were doing, ran out and looked into the sky. The roar from the engines felt like thunder and when they had passed we'd look at each other and say "That was the Hammer of the Commander-in-Chief" and it made us feel invincible. Happy days! As said in this video "When it thundered into the sky it immediately became one of the few war birds that Soviet Russia ever truly feared".

Welcome, Simeon! I'm into Soviet watches too (not the political system, and yes, I am able to make the distinction, unlike some). They offer amazing value for money. I like your "Big Zero" profile image. It's a true classic and I have one of those myself. I noticed that the hands aren't the original. Not that it matters a lot but here's an interesting article about the Big Zero if you haven't already seen it.

I'm guessing, but this commercial demag machine maybe produces random magnetic fields to re-randomise the iron particles. So heres one for you, synthetic rubies are coloured predominantly with chromium oxide . But natural rubies and old synthetic watch rubies were also coloured with iron oxide in higher percentages than chromium oxide. Which gave them a degree of.................

Hi Murks. The shape of the stone face tells you which is entry or exit. I have attached a bit of reading for you. TM 9-1575.pdf TZIllustratedGlossary.pdf Hi Joseph Bulova School of Watch Making.pdf

I use on of these Eclipse demagnetisers. https://www.eclipsemagnetics.com/products/workholding-systems/table-top-demagnetiser/ I got fed up with those Mickey Mouse blue things and went industrial You can pick them up on eBay from between £70 to £100. They will demagnetise anything. I mean, anything, from a hairspring to a hammer head. The table is about 5 x 6 inches. You are not going to find anything close to being this good! It will demagnetise the biggest and chunkiest of cases with the movement inside. You'll never wonder again if your demagnetiser did the job.

One final 10:10 shot on this one. Still running fine. May need a full service soon but the numbers aren't saying it has to be now. But then I don't want to damage anything because I don't know the service history.

Hi, My name is Simeon I am based in Sydney, Australia and have recently got into watch repair / watch making. I am very much a learner having serviced multiple forgotten watches, some of which were actually successful! I have a slowly growing collection of watches, mainly old Soviet, a few Japanese and (not pictured) some Raketas, a Poljot Alarm, an Omega Speedmaster Reduced and a vintage (1972) Tissot Seastar. I like unloved vintage watches, with quirky faces and enjoy bringing them back to life through the simple(!) act of disassembly, clearing and reassembly. I am an Electrical Engineer who also undertook a trade apprenticeship so I am reasonably handy - It's fair to say, I know just enough to get myself in trouble.

I haven't done a hunt in a while, but I'd go through the however many pages of results, open tabs for anything that looked like it might meet my specs, review to see what actually meets my specs, then place my 404 bid and move on. If I get it, I get it. I did my homework, and it was worth it. If I don't, there's always the other half dozen or so. No sweat.

Welcome. My mother wears a big zero I fixed up for her- one of the few dials she can read… …and what is the military second from right on bottom? Cabot?

Actually, I am aware that this watch has the wrong hands. The watch is in excellent condition and the dial is genuine, so I have to forgive it that. I do wish I could get some original hands for it though, so I am on the lookout. It looks like I might have to buy a non-runner spares watch for that though as even they are hard to find.

Stories of younger years, love it H

Hi All, I'm Geoff and I've been working on/with watches and clocks since I was thirteen. My dad was a watchmaker and while he did not want me in the field as a profession, I've always maintained a pretty good working knowledge. In the '70's I kinda got pulled back into things because Quartz revolution began and he only had limited electronic knowledge. So we combined skills. He the watchmaker and me the electronics tech. Being here in NY helped because we got to know the folks from Bulova, Seiko, Citizen, and WOSIC. H.B. Freid was my Dad's teacher and I was fortunate enough to get to know him too. I still maintain a bench here at home and occasionally work on watches for friends although the hands aren't what they used to be. Not going to be working on any FHF59 or AS1012's any time soon. Oddly enough though my years working with the field taught me how to work on almost anything else mechanical and mostly electronic. Since I was the one in the family who maintained Dad's cleaning and timing machines. those experiences carried over quite nicely into the worlds of recording and audio as well as others. I look forward to the discussions and maybe still learning a trick or two. Cheers to all and nice to be here.

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

if we look at and understand why steel becomes magnetised and unmagnetised then its possible to work out why some devices are better than others. Simpy it is a parallel alignment of atoms , electrons within a material caused by external magnetic fields. Different magnetic fields cause different alignments and non alignment of atoms. Fields by AC currents are changing atom direction approx 50 times per second ( 50hz ). As a material is drawn away from a demagging device the field is becoming progressively weaker while also changing the material's atom direction having the effect of returning their random directions ( demagnetising ) . To improve on this demagetising effect, try changing the material's orientation as it is drawn away. Fields caused by DC currents have the most permanent magnetising effect as the currect is flowing one way only. A good demagger would produce random magnet fields and disorientation of the material's atoms.

Welcome to the forum, enjoy.

I've seen some pallet jewels from India with one side angled for entry and the other side for exit. Very strange but practical.

Hello and welcome from Leeds, England.

ha ha looks like a WMD.....you know I want one now

I love these boxes, fantastic for spares, mostly Indian, chinese and Russian but exactly as you say scott, you only need to pick out a couple of pieces and they've paid for themselves.

@VWatchie you guys had some decent Air craft, Saab Dracken, the cars were good too the Saab 95.

Could you post a closeup photo of the broken screw that you are trying to remove so that we can better advise you.

You know when you pass pieces through the hole, how far do you continue to move them away from the demag ? With the blue china ones if i don't move the steel far enough away it doesn't fully demag it , i also carry out the process twice. For a tenner its working perfectly for me up to now. Thats a big jobby Jon, even though the blue effort is working fine for me this will look well cool sat in the corner of the watchroom and might pull a few lost parts from their hidding places as a bonus . Flick the switch with a bargepole from the doorway to avoid a zinging barrel arbor taking an eyeball out.

Yup, I have one of those up in my shed and it's extremely effective. I picked mine up at a car boot sale for a couple of quid because nobody knew what it was. Mine looks like it came out of the Ark so I guess that they've been around for a long time. Generally for watch stuff I use an equally ancient pass through type which is usually sufficient but for really stubborn items, particularly tools I use the Eclipse.

Hi Dean, The solution with the alum for the broken screw is good and is generally used by watchmakers from many years, but You have to take off ALL steel parts from the plate. In some movements, the post for the minute wheel, for example, is made of steel. Deeping partly the plate works too, but some marks may left on the line where the solution doesn't cover the plate. Heating the solution is needed to accelerate the process. With the years, a rich collection of screws gathers and then finding the needed screw is not a problem. But till then it will be helpfull if You get some assorted screws lot. The other option is making screws. This is usually for the ones with specific form and sizes that doesn't meet often. But the skill of making screws is something that will never be unnecessary

Very kind of you chief, the problem is the roller table and knowing if it will interact with the fork. Another roller for this calibre is what i probably need the most. It will have to sit for now while I'm away on holiday for a week. Its an interesting little piece with the cardboard dial which i still haven't got to the bottom of yet. Curious as the OP said his 554 was marked Invicta and this made up dial is also branded Invicta.

I've hit this snag a few times and my solution is to hand wind, don't be tempted to crimp in the spring so that it catches the smaller arbor - nothing but misery lies down that road. A new spring is a reasonable solution if you don't mind the wait - given my location this can be more than 2 weeks and postage is often several times the cost of the part so not very practical. Perhaps another brand of winder may not have this issue, but after the pain of buying the Bergeon generic partial set I couldn't face the cost of a second different set. I did purchase a Chinese set when I was starting out, and lucky enough to get a set with steel arbors (most are brass), but they are caliber specific so unless you happen to be working of that specific caliber they are pretty much useless 99% of the time.