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That's where the big leap happens from following photos taken to reassemble a movement, to spotting something out of place, because you know how the movement should work and you are not making assumptions about what you have found when disassembling. I always tell my students 'Don't assume what you find is how it is meant to be.' Like the brake spring. You'll be surprised what you find when you look at a movement with scepticism.

Print a pallet fork & escape wheel and you've got a Tissot!

Been a few weeks since anyone posted. Heres 25 candidates for the 10:10 club. 25 watches £203.00. I have a few favourites. The Nivada on my wrist, bit small at 30mm but its a lovely little bumper automatic. The Doxa, cant wait to get to this, the Cyma is a nice size, Citizen Eagle 7, Leonidas GSTP. Mickey Mouse Timex.

I'm servicing a nice but very dirty (gasket dust) Enicar Sherpa with a 1141 movement. It has a minute wheel on a ruby post. I've never seen this before. Is it just an Enicar thing, or more common? Well, I'll have to re-think the "nice" comment on this Enicar. I got it from the first owner, who bought it when he was young. He told me he only got it serviced once in the 70's by an east German watchmaker, but it wouldn't run very well afterwards, so he put it in a drawer. What do you think, would a broken, warped and soldered centre wheel influence timekeeping??

If you have found a dial already that fits what you want and are prepared to buy it then there isn't anything actually stopping you attempting the mod on the original.

Experience teaches us that sometimes the benefits of letting things be and living with what you have, can outweigh the risks involved if things wrong.

Not to impugn your amazing work, but a few more plastic parts and you’ll have yourself a nice Seiko!

3D-printing has saved my behind on so many occasions. As long at whatever doodad I need won't require loadbearing capabilities, it's often quicker to make one up than locate it on Aliexpress and wait for the mailman to deliver. Try have a look on www.thingiverse.com... Detail level on resin-printing is insane. A cheap chinese 299USD printer will deliver stuff like this 43mm long Honda Blackbird motorbike model, complete with ittybitty brake rotors, handles and grabrail. I'm now looking for an assortment of watch-sized screws, washers and other tiny bits needed for this hobby. Where do you all source stuff like that?

Appreciate the input folks - I think all things considered, while I might have a closer look at things, it's probably more likely that rather than switching things around I'll look to buy a dial which has exactly what I want already present... there is one, it's just more expensive than messing around would have been (free!).

Post some photos, including the movement and someone will know.

tlb you can do this but like said until removed one does not know if it is the same size window/hole in the dial, I know too that once the windows come out they keep falling out getting tangled in the hands so seal/secure it well when finished swapping, make sure the height is the same or lower too....

Hi! I'm currently working for a low-budget feature film. We're looking for old home videos of watchmaking, watch repairs, and watch fairs. Any tips would be greatly appreciated! Sincerely, Joel

The wobbly crowns of the Boctok divers is to facilitate the setting of the watch while being worn, most are autos. In the video i think the water resistance would have given in well before that, certainly at a sustained pressure.

Gorgeous watch! And that's a helpful confirmation thank you.

Really, are you sure? Look at that quality of that cheap Chinese movement

I still haven't got used to setting/winding mine - there's a certain wiggle required. Weird but apparently very good function for water resistance - you should look up the guys video on YouTube who takes it down to a thousand metres of pressure (or whatever ridiculous depth it was before the acrylic shatters.)

I hadn't seen that post but yes my point was that if someone asks a question that you think is a bad idea then my natural response would be to answer that question and not just ignore it for fear of upsetting them.

A small update for those who are interested. Last Friday I finished the disassembly and for those of you who are interested, I have added new pictures to the link I published in a previous post (please sort by name in ascending order). It was over 300 pictures. In the long run, I plan to create a service walkthrough and then I will have plenty of pictures to choose from. I was a bit unsure whether I should dismantle this cannon pinion-like part on the "Cover mechanism" because Rolex explicitly writes "Do not dismantle". But, since the whole movement is covered with metal debris, I chose to do it anyway. However, I had some headaches because it did not work with my trusted cannon pinion remover nor with some of my presto tools which were all too big. I tried to pull the tube off by clamping it in my staking set and pushing the tube up with brass tweezers, but that only resulted in the tip of the brass tweezers breaking off (easily dressed) but better than damaging the tube. After looking through a bunch of videos I finally found a video where @Markshows how to do it. Many thanks! The parts are now soaking in a degreaser (Horsolov) and I will brush them all off before it is time for the cleaning machine. Getting everything perfectly clean will be a challenge considering the service neglect and damage made by the loose rotor.

A lot can go wrong with a dial, a lot can go wrong with anything in watch repair, but dial finishes dont like heat or solvents or tool slips and they can be expensive mistakes. Scuse the pun but your technique needs to be dialled in before you start so it would be good to practice on something similar and not important to you beforehand. The times we think to ourselves "why did i start this,why didn't i just leave it alone"

Thanks for the encouragement Jon! I'm mostly concerned about hitting so hard that the rotor cracks as illustrated earlier in the thread. I don't mind breaking the axle. I can handle that but the rotor would feel heavy. Come to think of it, I've had worse challenges and succeeded well with them in the end despite having strong initial doubts. There is a lot in what you say! Thanks again for the encouragement, my friends!

I looked up the title Vostok Amphibia. I found it very interesting because apparently the crown disconnects itself the watch when it gets whatever happens to it. I should have been paying attention because apparently they even have a store in the US where they can be purchased relatively inexpensively.

I'm so glad you found it useful

Something to be aware of for those of us wanting to learn about these movements as part of our watchmaking journey. I expect there will be enough around for a short time on Aliexpress etc. but probably worth grabbing one or two sooner than later as one of the restrictions is the bulk buyer cannot resell but must use them themselves. Tom

Just as a reminder this discussion is occurring in a very interesting section of the message board. This is where were supposed to be cheerful and helpful and not negative and well be quite honest a lot of times I just walk away and don't even bother because too many rules and I'm going to hurt somebody's feelings etc. etc. Always important to share your thoughts with a photograph so we grasped what you're trying to do. I'm not sure you actually going to know that until you take it out. Typically although I watch repair the word typical isn't exactly correct because it was way way way way too many variations. But as somebody else said you have a square hole in the dial the frame typically will push in so is going a little bit of a flange and probably just Glue. The markers often times will be almost riveted in place depending upon a variety of factors As usually things like that would be the last thing on the dial as long as it's not stuck to the finish you should build to probably push it out being very very careful not to get your fingerprints all over the dial or damage anything's if you're lucky. Then you should bill a push it in and glue it would just a very tiny bit of some sort of glue Then the best thing of all would be more photographs like to dials both of them and the backsides the dial so we can see for the future. Then if anyone else ever asked the questions we can refer them to this discussion and others can learn from whatever we learn here

It's literally removing one date window from a dial and fitting another the same size but ever so slightly different shape, because apparently that's important to me!

Thank you I've now corrected that - but no change Would I have done damage putting the battery in with the disc in that location ? My next step is to dig a multimeter out and check battery voltage...

The insulating disc isn't positioned correctly. The tab circled in red should go under the contact circled in yellow.

I think by the time you've sorted an alternative movement along with new hands & spacer and crown swap you'd be better just waiting to repair the original.

It's really a shame we don't get a picture of the watch just a description. Then yes it sounds like a classic American pocket watch which means put it back in the case that would be the easiest way to solve the problem unless we get a picture and we can see if it has the mechanism to run out of the case. As it be much easier to find with picture if we only knew which watch the Swiss Then what does this watch have in common with the original title of this discussion that occurred two years ago?

The speed control on my unit is pretty good, I can adjust it from 0 to 2000rpm. I been using it at 200 rpm and works fine. Unfortunately I have to pit a timer since my stirrer doesn't have an alarm when it stops. But I am happy with my unit. You can find it on amazon for less than 100$

Got this wonderful 1971 $8 eBay find running. Other than a broken mainspring and a crack in the crystal, it just needed a good clean up. It did have a beat error problem, but I got it adjusted to a 0.6ms BE, a 260° and positional error of +/-30s. Not bad for essentially a novelty watch probably not expected to make it much past the '70s. I think the hardest part was fitting the pallet fork without jewels. Those holes are TINY! That brass plating was 10 kinds of awful so I just polished it off for now. I might nickel plate it. Or 24k rose gold, for such an elegant timepiece.

PhilB You have a wonderful journey ahead. Come on in, the waters fine.