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The tech info is confusing, but I have seen these where the regulator is one piece and it is possible to run out of adjustment. You can rotate the hairspring on the staff a bit counter-clockwise, which will mean you have to rotate the stud holder counter-clockwise to bring it back in beat; this will give you a few more degrees of adjustment.

I'm sure i started a thread for this about two years ago, no eyed deer where that went to ( ok so its a goat, what ya gonna do ? Shoot me ? ) . I'll try again. A new place where we can post wacky ideas that work ( i have lots, they dont always work, but then neither do i if i can help it ). Heres one - so i dont get the typical ultrasonic cleaning thing which goes something like this, parts in a mini mesh basket in a lift out basket in a glass jar in the US. ( see picture 1, yes i have pants on today so lets not get too excited ) This seems like an awful lot of barriers for the cavitations to penetrate before they reach the actual part, 3 in fact. We can eliminate two of these very easily, like so by putting the parts directly into a small tin that will float. A tin with a lid is great , i have a few that i use that float very well in fact. An alternative is one of those tea lights after the candle has burned out. Dome the bottom of the foil to create a keel to stop it tipping over, the watch part also settles in the bottom to give it more stabilty. I use a small US occasionally, next to where I'm working if things just need a quick rinse, gives you a good example of how i do things sometimes, part goes in the foil tub placed in the water then i drip a little cleaner into it. Works a treat though the US could do to be upgraded. For plates and bridges you can also hang them off copper wire draped over the side of a glass jar or tin. A little tip or trick can often save stress when tryin to get our heads around something, like parts that are just not cleaning well enough, that has just a very simple answer to it. More ideas people please, teamwork makes the dream work an all that Another quick one folks, this time for drying parts. I feel this needs to be quick to stop that white ring staining that often happens when the part is removed from an IPA rinse, commonly seen around the jewel holes. This involves 2 pieces of apparatus besides the dryer. 1 x wire egg cup and 1 x half of one of those spring loaded 2 part tea strainers. The wire egg cup allows the warm air to pass through the mesh basket. This basket is suitable for plates, bridges and a few other parts that have enough mass not to blow away , although as you can see my dryer is speed controlled .Obviously if you are drying small parts leave them in the mini mesh baskets that have lids and use a bigger basket holder. Hairdryer is fitted to a small microphone stand.

That's wonderful Modern TVs can be very confusing. That's not related to her stroke

The first step is now complete. Hard to avoid "a slightly" elevated pulse before the first hammer blow but it may not be so strange when what is under the hammer can cost several hundreds to replace if something goes wrong. Repairing a Rolex by hitting it hard with a hammer feels unreal The operation appears to have been successful so far. The rotor looks completely intact without a trace of impact. I was worried that the decoration would be damaged or even worse that it would bend, but I now understand why the rotor is not at risk of damage. 100% of the energy from the hammer blow ends up on the rotor axle. I had hoped that the axle would come off after the first blow but I had to hit it three or four times, and really hard before the axle came off and the rotor jumped up a bit. Now the next pulse-booster remains, to rivet the new axle. Wish me luck and shout if you see anything strange in the pictures. Now I'm going to have a cup of coffee with real cream and breathe out

In my case the money shifted from expensive watches to expensive tools. I enjoy them just as much! Welcome!

"Unknown Fossil"? I think I've been called that before.

Finally figured out why my hands are so god damn steady. My mum 87 years old , 4 weeks after her stroke and has a macular hole in both eyes, she wiped the floor with me and my lad at a kids stacking chairs toy game. Here she in rehab placing the last chair into position, bloody ' Supergreatgreatgran' i hope I'm half as fit at her age

Yes, that's true. I do the same for barrel bridges. But without too much reflection, I followed someone on YouTube with the flat punch. Jon to the rescue please! That's wonderful!

I am really confused. You say the case measures 35mm, yet the oring shown is 40mm. You say it's a flat oring, yet in your photo it looks like a round oring.

Thank you all for your precious help!

I tried to drow how the missing day wheel should look like. You see where the post for it must be, probably the hole is threaded. On the wheel must be small pin, that shifts the calendar.

Never Aaagh. Stop it. Argos?

As @Nickelsilver says, turn the collet on the staff anticlockwice so the studd carrier will move anticlockwice too, in oorder to keep the beat error 0. This will free space for the regulator to be able to go furder on the spring (away from the studd carrier)

Hi everyone, I've been here two years now almost to the day and have loved every minute of it. During this time I've connected with folk that have suddenly disappeared leaving me sad and wondering why they left and what happened to them, its now my time to leave for a while. But first i want to thank everyone for all the help, advice and banter over the last two years I've met some incredibly kind and amazing guys. My time has become limited and precious, so watchrepair and visiting the forum is taking a backseat for the moment, although i may pop in occasionally when i have time. This is due to a personal life change regarding my 87 yr old mum who had a stroke on Sunday. My learning here is on hold while i do some teaching of my own, helping my mum to talk and communicate again . Thanks again for making my time here so enjoyable and i hope to join you all again soon. Take care and look after yourselves, make every minute of the day count, time is so precious x.

No she was pretty crap with any technology long before she had that . She still has her wicked sense humour , she'll never lose that, hilariously funny old lady .

Thats a shame Ross, i know you'd make a fantastic job of it. Doesn't actually take up a great deal of room, it measures a mere 11" x 7". My missus found something similar in Argos for , 14 quid, you cant go wrong for that price. My kids still owe me a father's day pressie , I've just named it . Here are some different jars that i picked up, ideal size, pound shop £1.40 each . The clever bit is getting the right clearance so the basket holder scoops in past the edge of the glass jar, thats a combination of holder height, holder spindle reach ( so it drops into the jar at a steep angle ) and the size of the jar mouth. Its all doable Ross, all doable. If you decide to have a go, give us a shout , I'll talk you through how the basket is made up, and the bits needed, you're looking at about a fiver max for that bit, though you need to solder or find someone to solder the mixer whisk to a 6mm connector bolt.

Thats really kind of you, shes doing ok thank you, went back home 2 weeks ago after her 2 months of rehab, the nurses were amazed at her progress, at 87 she was fitter than half of those nurses that looked after her . I've been very busy arranging things in her home for her, assistance stuff and contact alarm buttons etc. But she is doing marvelously, speech can be difficult for her sometimes when she is tired, words fail her a lot and doesn't grasp things too easily, took me 3 days to teach her how to turn on her massive new TV , her road sense is quite worrying considering she was so bright before her stroke. But there is a good few years left in the old girl despite what happened and her failings, us Brits are tough as old boots.

That looks great, @VWatchie When you insert the new axle (before riveting!), check if it holds in place by itself (i.e. a bit of friction). If it just falls out, it may be good to take a flat punch that just fits as indicated in the picture below and close the hole ever so slightly. But before you actually do that, maybe @Jon can confirm/deny that this is a good idea. Hahahaha, absolutely! I'm just seeing this. That's still very recent... my sincere condolences! I hope you have many lovely memories to focus on.

I'm only seeing this thread now, dear @Neverenoughwatches. I hope things are going well. I wish your mum and you all the best! Remember to take care of yourself!! If you're not in a good state, you can't help.

Oh gosh! Would I like to do the same? Would really enjoy such a project. And, within my capabilities. But. Big But. No room for such an item to be stored. Dreams are made of this post. Long may our members do DIY.

100% this. Keep a big distance to that "watch repairer" who said it wasn't worth cleaning. Just look at the "anglage" on the bridges of the movement. Gorgeous and most likely finished by hand! That's nicer a finish than that of pretty much any Rolex you'll find.

You are taking 2 pins out at a time ? Sorry this might be a silly question. These links are 1 piece with the pins at either end. Sometimes the links can be stiff to get clear of each other and sometimes with tight tolerance need a nudge. Tom

Hi, I wanted to share my replacement of an old yellowed crystal. Original crystal was yellowed and it was not possible to make it clear with abrasive and polywatch. In fact the polywatch seemed to dissolve the crystal making a sticky mess. I think the crystal was nitro cellulose and not acrylic. Crystal dimensions were 13.3 x 13.3mm and I found one on eBay described as 14 x 14 and model S7. Upon receipt it was found to measure 14.5 x 14.5. After careful rubbing on 600 grit abrasive sheet I got it to size so it would just snap into place. I had to be very careful to keep the edges square. I finished the edges with some finer paper and polywatch aiming to produce a nice 45 degree bevel on the edge. I finished off with some Minecol UV glue and had to illuminate with UV from the back side for nearly an hour to get it to set. Never had much luck with that glue as I have read that it should work in minutes. Result is a big improvement. The watch has an FEF270 movement by the way, just waiting on a donor movement for some parts (stem and balance).

Nice job Steve careful shaving down to size gives a good result, i prefer not to glue just a good tight locking in of the crystal as they are originally. But yes what a difference it makes.

Just a quick correction from my post above. Not sure why I put it as a 585 balance (maybe the effect of coming out of Covid) but it is a 3035 balance.

Nice job. I usually replace acrylic crystals as they are so cheap - about £3 for round ones. Cousins have a good range of shaped crystals - including 13.5mm x 13.5 mm square. I recently switched to using UV glue. I illuminated it from both sides and it set nicely.

That should be fine.

When I saw the pictures, I was going to say that it should now be easy to convince the owner of the importance of a full service. Glad it's going that way. That's very sad. My father passed away of cancer just two years ago. It must be hard for the sons to focus on the business. Good luck to them!

I did a little research online in forums and it looks like the Caliber 5 is a standard grade movement. see pictures in this thread https://www.watchuseek.com/threads/can-you-help-me-about-the-grade-of-tag-heuer-calibre-5-movement-grade.4911629/ And also on caliber corner https://calibercorner.com/tag-heuer-caliber-5/ None of the images appear to have a glucydur balance wheel. At least as shown in this thread https://www.watchuseek.com/threads/luxury-and-normal-watches-using-same-movement.1934121/page-8 whenever I open my aquaracer I’ll post an image of the movement and balance wheel. However just given that it’s daily rate ranges from +4 to +20 in different positions (see my earlier post for all the different positional rates) it makes sense that it is a standard grade. it’ll be a fun project to eventually swap the movement with a top grade sw200

The image below is from a different watch it's using the etachron system of principles exactly the same three separate components layered on top of each other each one is independently adjustable sort of. Reason I make the reference sort of is classically if you move one like if you move the beat L chains the regulation so you have to cut I go back and forth and moving everything. Which is why suggest putting the regulating arm back in the middle and moving the regulating pins and the stud moving them until you're reasonably close and then finish up with the regulating. Three adjustments unfortunately part 303/2 shows up as one part but it's actually two separate parts the arm is independently movable to the regulator pins. Part number 375 is for holding the stud that's what you used to adjust the beat. Although it's conceivable as it shows is one part it might actually be one part but it's still supposed to be independently adjustable. The little fuzzy but I found a picture online if you look you'll see that each of the three components are separate components layered together.

Next time I’ll know! All part of the experience. I enjoy a little sarcastic humor but the entire process has always been enjoyable. I learn something every day.

Hello all. I saw this today and thought you would like some photos.

I can second that. Where I worked we were agents for Longines I must have repaired hundreds. I had a large stock of spares as well, plus all their service manuals.

I bought a lot of 6 watches in August 2023 from the Bay. It was a typical 1 nice watch and 5 fashion type quartzs. $72.96US so £9.66 each with the exchange rate. Not 404 but is a 10.10! The crystal was badly scratched and scuffed but the listing did have Tissot as one of the brands. As the photos were not good I remember thinking it might be a seastar and I sniped it. It ran out of the parcel! The gasket had turned to tar and I had a bit of date wheel learning curve as well as dial. But I really like the 2591 in house movement and think these early 70s seastar are great. The dial on this has applied badges as well. All in all just the new gold ring armored crystal and I got to learn a bit about Tissot and this family of calibers that allowed me to pick up more expensive pieces and restore. Edit for spelling and Grammer and to add a side shot. There is wear of the GP on the lug in the one spot but rubbed out a bit and doesn't jump out at you on the wrist.

Yes, it's a problem if you're not familiar with them as a 3rd tier brand with 90% of the cases being monoblock, especially if you get one of their chromed cases with faux joints like you ran across. The Benrus and Belforte watches (1st and 2nd tier) more often than not had some opening instructions stamped on the front loading case. It is easier to tell when you get one of the Sovereign anodized aluminum one-piece cases, especially in Hot Wheels purple!

I suspect his was old, fissured plating and that the combination of your US cleaner and the solution you used did for it. I’ve had the same thing happen with old plating using US and a particularly aggressive, locally made, cleaning solution. With one old movement, the barrel came out of the cleaner with not one speck of the original plating attached. The rest of the movement and all the other plates and bridges were entirely untouched. So now, any particularly flaky looking old parts, I keep out of the US and instead clean them by hand in non-polar solvents.

And did you follow them (the flaked suggestions)? Frank

Final product with crystal and band.

If you are good at your work the word will soon get around. Word of mouth is the best form of advertising and it is free. I was lucky I worked for a jeweller and served my apprenticeship and improving which was 7 years. After a time my master retired so all the equipment was passed on to me and it pretty much everything and a vast amount of stock. So I started out with my own business and had a great little earner. One thing I did was contact the main high class makers such as Omega Rolex that sort of class to get their price lists, I didn't need to contact Longlines as the shop was already a service agent, I just let them know what was happening and they were fine about it. Just showing a customer the price list of what Omega would charge and telling them my price I ended up making enough to keep my wife at the time and me very comfortable. But I was more interested in high grade clocks, which again was a good step. Your best bet is to start with friends and family then you have to decide which road to take. Do you want to just keep horology as a hobby or do you want to make it as you main income. If it is for you as your main income it will cost a lot of money to start. I never had the internet when I started so much of what you have said would never have been a chose for me.

Hello forum, i have some things i would like to say today if thats ok. Being here is something of a sanctuary for me, talking about something that i love doing with folk that i have become fond of ( yes quite surprisingly under all that craziness and verbal brawn lays a soft heart of gold ). I imagine that the same can be said by many of you , a certain number of us are here daily both learning and offering any advice that we are able to. Quoting our experiences both successful and failures for others to learn from. For me at the moment just making this post is a distraction from my current bubble but also from the world around me for various reasons. Its a place not just for teaching and learning but to make others laugh and smile and be part of a community. I would even go so far as to say we are a team, supporting and encouraging each other when needed and when we are down, my own situation with my mum being a perfect example of everyone's kindness. Thats the soppy bit out of the way . So my mum has been moved to a brand new facility after making amazing progress with her speech and word recognition in hospital ( poor mum has had to suffer my company and my teaching to the full extent of her visiting hours barring one day off for me that my sister insisted upon ) her consultant calls my mum his medical miracle , and will be starting her intensive speech rehab today after her initial assessment. Things I've learned about having a stroke, and I'd really like everyone to take note of the causes and outcomes of having one. Please do your own research I am a joiner and not a doctor , i just want to make everyone aware and just get checked out if you notice anything in yourself that you are unsure about, any risk of having one can be reduced with either medical intervention or/and a change of lifestyle ( which would be my own preference in an attempt to limit my risk, something i have now noticed in myself ). I do know a few of you here have experience but this is what i have become aware of and how it has affected my mum and me. First i want to touch on the effects of a stroke, not only to the sufferer but to the whole family, we all know how dementia affects lives. A stroke effecting language is almost instant non aggressive dementia. Like being in a foreign country where you can no longer read, write or speak to someone without some form of very basic sign language gesturing ( when annoyed i think everyone understands the middle finger ). But a stroke can affect movement ( fortunately my mum is virtually unaffected with her mobility, the nurses can't believe she is 87 and just had a stroke, she's like bloody Supergran, in fact she is a great great grandmother to 2 toddlers ) . Improvement after a stroke carries on for years afterwards, but from what i understand and now believe after being with my mum almost every day since it happened for 7 hours a day, language rehab should be started as soon as possible when the patient is out of danger and physically able. The brain is ready and set to go and rewire itself soon after injury, in a similar ready state to young children ( when we say kids brains absorb information like a sponge, thats pretty much true in early stroke patients) After the first few weeks maybe a couple of months things start to slow down and lesser progression carries on for the years following . After a day she could manage only one word, which was my cue to get on her back and start pushing her progress. Day two i wanted to see how capable she was so i had her writing on a whiteboard ( it wasn't great tbh ) . Day 3 and until she left the hospital most time with her was spent on picture/word recognition on my laptop, picture books, some writing and teaching her to play cards again ( i refrained from gambling for real money, though i was tempted, as I'm pretty good at poker , she has a few bob and i have space for another watchmakers lathe in my watchroom ) Now i suppose i have to back off as the rehab place is fairly intense focused and visiting times are crap as they interfere with all the physio and rehab going on . So i only have 2 hours max a day with her sometimes only 1 if her grandkids want to visit, but she is in good hands and i know she will get as much help as she needs , and as difficult as it is to admit i probably need a bit of a break and distract myself. I'll end this post for now but i want to come back and talk about what caused this and hopefully remind some of you to think about how we live , what to do in the event of a stroke and how we can lower our risk. I'm not a pussy by any means and very little frightens me, but seeing this first hand has put the fear of god into me if i ever had to suffer the outcome of a stroke. My mum is a tough old cookie and i imagine i will be just as tough, but watching the frustration on her face when trying to communicate completely tore my heart into pieces. Please dont let this happen to you, do everything you can to avoid it, I'll come back soon to talk more about as long as everyone is ok with it, take care for now x

Hi @Neverenoughwatches, I will keep you and your Mum in my prayers. A caregiver's job is a tough one. I have known nice little old ladies to undergo drastic changes in their demeanor after suffering a stroke. Patience and understanding is essential in all circumstances. Never lose your cool or be condescending. Try and enroll in a caregivers training course. It really helps. You cannot take on the role of a caregiver 24/7. You need to get a relief caregiver. You need to take care of yourself before you can take care of others. Do not be afraid to ask for help. Hope to hear from you soon.

Most people never service quartz watches (actually a lot of people never service mechanical watches either, unless they present a problem). Unlike mechanical watches, accuracy is rarely affected, all what happens is that they draw a bit more current so battery has to be replaced more often. Like it or not, one has to admit that that quartz movements are a major progress, not to mention solar.

Whaa... I'm amazed that is even possible