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My first attempt! Elgin Sportsman

levic900rr
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levic900rr Member

levic900rr

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I was feeling like I was getting pretty good with my Seagull 3600 so I bought my first project on Ebay. Its a non-running mid 60's Elgin Sportsman! I was looking for a time only watch that was manually wound. (not mentally ready to take on an automatic yet) The disassembly went smoothly. Everything appears to be here so I am hoping a good cleaning and reassembly will get this baby running again. If I can get it mechanically sound I may take a stab and replacing the crystal (I don't have a press yet) and maybe even restoring the case (its in worse shape than I though it was going to be in) 

image.thumb.png.bd61e2c02bb7997eb4343118ae06f9d7.png

 

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Next big decision I have is do I try to manually re-wind the main spring or buy a new one... Learning a lot as I go. 

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levic900rr Member

levic900rr

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19 minutes ago, RichardHarris123 said:

What condition is the old spring in?

Well to be honest, its the first time I've even seen a mainspring in real life so I don't fully know how to assess that 🙂

It looks clean and the curves look smooth to me:

 

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After posting that picture I realized I made the rookie mistake and took out the spring before I made a note of the rotation direction. Anyone have a suggestion for figuring that out?

levic900rr Member

levic900rr

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Awesome thanks for the tip on the spring. I inspected everything during the disassembly and my only thought at this point is that its really really dirty. I should have been more thoughtful and tested functionality of each wheel during disassembly. I was super excited though! lol 

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levic900rr Member

levic900rr

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OK folks, ran into my first issue. I manually cleaned the movement with alcohol and a tiny paint brush. When I picked up the setting lever spring it broke... So I'm off to ebay to try and source a replacement. Hoping I dont have to buy a whole donor movement. 

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levic900rr Member

levic900rr

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13 minutes ago, RichardHarris123 said:

Unfortunately, it seems that elgin used multiple movements in their sportsman line.  So which movement is it? I can't make out any of the markings, what is engraved on this movement?  

720 is stamped on the train wheel bridge. I think that is the movement number?

 

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levic900rr Member

levic900rr

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Yup, I found that as well. Im striking out finding a replacement. Gotta keep looking. Where do you all source replacement parts?

EDIT: I think I found one on ebay. Crossing my fingers. 

Edited by levic900rr
More info
JohnR725 Distinguished Member

JohnR725

Posted
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11 hours ago, RichardHarris123 said:

The spring looks fine. 

I find the website below good for finding parts. the second link has your watch list all the parts and when you click on the parts you can find everything that cross references to that part. this then gives you more watches to look for and then you can take the part number and go to the homepage and do a search there you then get the third link where it looks like it's available.

then the fourth link eBay looks like it might be the right thing

http://cgi.julesborel.com/

http://cgi.julesborel.com/cgi-bin/matcgi2?ref=ELG_720

http://www.julesborel.com/s.nl/it.A/id.25979/.f

https://www.ebay.com/itm/314096891372

 

 

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levic900rr Member

levic900rr

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OK Folks I'm kind of on cloud 9 🙂 I haven't received the setting lever spring yet but I realized today I could assemble most of the movement without the motion or keyless works and then I would know if I could get this thing running (put a bit of wind in the mainspring with a screwdriver). So I did that today and two things happened. IT RUNS! Which is great, but I think I figured out what is actually wrong with it. The screw that holds the upper jewel for the escape wheel is stripped. As I was re-installing the train wheel bridge I saw it move a little, I thought that was odd and figured I would just tighten the screw, but it just spins inside the threaded hole in the train wheel bridge. Back off to the internet to try and source a replacement. In the meantime I'm also off to figure out how to service these balance wheel jewels. I haven't seen this type of setting yet. 

Here is a quick vid of it running! 

https://photos.app.goo.gl/TXAFBU7E1ef2ektF7 

 

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levic900rr Member

levic900rr

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Im REALLY struggling with these balance wheel jewels. I can't find any reference to the type of shock setting it is, which is making it hard for me to search for any tips. I got pretty good with the incabloc springs on my practice movement but these are different. Any tips would be greatly appreciated. 

Sorry for the bad picture... I got them apart just fine (the two little hands squeeze to towards the middle and it hinges up) but I just cant get them back in! 

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Disregard the last post. I took a deep breath and just tried to slowly move each side of the spring back into place and bam I got the bottom one in! Feeling pretty good about myself I flipped the movement over, oiled up the jewel and went to work. I barley touched the spring and one of the arms broke off in my tweezers 😭. Trying to decide if I chalk this one up as a learning experience and give up or maybe try and get a replacement balance? The case is pretty hammered so its not going to be a nice watch even if I get it all serviced up. 

levic900rr Member

levic900rr

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Well I decided yesterday that I was going to try and source a replacement shock spring for this movement. I spent a decent amount of time googling yesterday and turned up empty handed. Anyone have any ideas? I can't even identify the type...

Thanks 

GuyMontag Super WRT Addict

GuyMontag

Posted
Posted

Emmywatch shows that the base caliber for the Elgin 720 is a Jeambrun 23D, as RichardHarris123 pointed out above. Going to that page on Emmywatch shows the shock system as either Antichoc or Incabloc, and it isn't an incabloc so a search for Antichoc showed that the 102 is similar to yours. Searching for Jeabrun 23D on ebay showed some listings that came back with the Westclox m101 where the listing mentioned the Jeabrun 23 as the base caliber.

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levic900rr Member

levic900rr

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Thanks for the info. I ordered up a replacement jewel setting with springs. Now I just need to figure out how to move the spring off the new one and into the setting on the balance bridge... 

OK another crazy question... Now that I have a line on all the parts I need (for now) and I seem to have gotten this movement back in action is there a place to get an aftermarket case for it? Like I said, the case is hammered but I'd love to get this thing in a place where I could wear it a little bit. 

SteveH2k4 New Member

SteveH2k4

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5 hours ago, levic900rr said:

Thanks for the info. I ordered up a replacement jewel setting with springs. Now I just need to figure out how to move the spring off the new one and into the setting on the balance bridge... 

OK another crazy question... Now that I have a line on all the parts I need (for now) and I seem to have gotten this movement back in action is there a place to get an aftermarket case for it? Like I said, the case is hammered but I'd love to get this thing in a place where I could wear it a little bit. 

Do you mind telling where you got replacement setting and springs? Thanks.

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