JLC 929/3 Master Geographic (base JLC 889/2, IWC 3253, AP 2124)

[Knebo]

4 hours ago, mikepilk said:

Beautiful looking movement.

I was going to make a comment about the barrel looking very full of mainspring. But looking back over my pics, I see that auto movement barrels seem to me more full than manual wind. Something I hadn't noticed before.

 

The barrel arbor is really small. That makes the spring appear full in the barrel. But the proportions are correct. 

Definitely the prettiest movement I've worked on so far. 

[Knebo]

FINALLY, the complication module:

- power reserve

- date

- second time zone with day/night indicator and city ring

 

Here is the oiling chart and overview:

NOTE: I decided to use HP1300 wherever 8141 and 9010 were recommended. Also used 9504 instead of HP1300/8141 in some places (see below). 9504 instead of 8200.

 

I randomly start with these two wheels that are identical. But watch out, the seats are tapered, so they have a top and a bottom side. Don't force down if it doesn't fit easily. 
[Note: I installed these wheels before installing the complication plate on the movement, but of course, they can/should be installed when the module is on the base movement]

seats installed

wheels and oiling with HP1300

 

Complication plate installed on base movement. Three mid-sized screws on bottom, right and top. One smaller screw on the left.

 

 

Next, for the power reserve is this set of wheels. They are installed on the extended barrel arbor to trace the level of winding. They are friction fit (with 9504) and the fit is quite "soft" in order to slip easily when the barrel is fully wound (the power reserve indicator can't/shouldn't move beyond 40h, but the barrel arbor will keep turning when wound further by the automatic mechanism or manual winding)

 

Grease the bottom half (!) of the arbor

position the small wheel over the hole of the large wheel.

push onto the arbor, e.g. with hand fitting pusher

oil the satellite wheel with HP1300

upper half of the arbor gets HP1300

another wheel on top

 

carefully oiling the jewel for this pinion (green arrow). This pinion connects to the barrel itself and lets down the power reserve indicator.

A bridge just for the pinion. Oiling with HP1300.

HP1300 for the posts of the two large reduction wheels

 

Then this special wheel (post oiled with HP1300)

position the wheel more or less like this. The cover palate for these wheels has a little pin which will go into the open area of that snail-like top-part of the wheel (indicated in green). The hand for the power reserve indicator will go onto this wheel. Then the watch is fully wound, the pin on the cover plate will stop the wheel from moving further (the wheel on the barrel arbor will start to slip). 

Again, careful when placing the cover plate for these wheels. If the pin doesn't go into the cut-out of the wheel (green marking), you may bend the cover plate.

 

Before placing the cover, plate, I also have to position the spring and lever for the date corrector pusher. It's a bit fiddly and falls off easily.

first the spring

HP1300 on the post

the lever. Just balance the spring and lever in this position and install the cover plate. 

 

AFTER the cover plate is installed, oil or grease here (I use HP1300)

 

Tension the spring/lever and install the screw (sorry, not pictured).

 

Now, I'm testing the power reserve by fully winding until the special wheel is stopped by the pin under the cover plate. This is the position of it when it stops (small indent just a bit visible): 

 

 

Now to the second time zone:

Oiling the bottom pivot of this wheel with HP1300. This wheel connects to the keyless works (when the stem is pulled out the the middle position, see earlier post on keyless works) and allow the setting of the second time zone (meaning: change the hour in the second time zone for a given city/time zone)

A seat here

HP1300 on the outside of the seat/post

This wheel now (which basically copies the time from the home time to the second time zone)

 

oiling post with HP1300

 

placing the wheel

 

greasing the click within this wheel. This click ensures that the second time zone hour hand can only be set in full-hour increments.

oil the seat/post inside the wheel with HP1300

I ended up removing the wheel again to place the inside wheel and ensure that the click engages properly (and that the combined wheels are "flat")

then I replace it again as a unit, followed by the next wheel (held by the tweezers in this picture)

And oil the post again with HP1300. the wheels are then secured with a screw (not pictured).

 

 

Another post with HP1300 and the wheel in the picture (this will, via another wheel, connect to the second crown to allow changing the time zone)

the cover plate for the second time zone mechanism

HP1300 for this pivot

 

 

 

now the DATE (easy peasy). Post with HP1300.

date wheel. position the spring. A bit of grease on some of the teeth.

testing the corrector and spreading the grease. clean off excess grease after a round.

 

oiling with HP1300 and placing the hour wheel

 

HP1300 for this last wheel that engages with the second crown for the time zone

wheel placed (bottom left of picture)

oil the post of the day/night disc with HP1300

ATTENTION: the placing of the day/night disc needs to correspond with the placing of the hour hand of the second time zone (i.e. if you place the hands at 12 noon/midnight, the disc needs to show the middle of day or night). This was a bit of trial and error.... unfortunately, I didn't take a picture of the final/good positioning of the disc, but here's my suggestion:

1. take 6am/6pm as the basis (remember to place the second time zone hour hand accordingly)

2. try to position the day/night disc in such a way that you see both blue and white approximately equally (i.e. day is coming or night is coming). The window on the dial is approximately where I drew the green circle in the picture (so the positioning on my picture is now for noon).

3. put the dial on an check. Correct disc, if necessary.

[note that the below picture doesn't match the disc position on the previous picture]

 

secure dial screws (2x)

 

Hand setting:

1. set the second time zone hand according to the day/night disc position (e.g. as described above, if white and blue show to equal amounts, set to 6 o'clock).

2. set date hand to any date (make sure you are NOT within 10pm-2am because the hand will still be moving and you'll end up with a date hand that is off-target)

3. wind the watch fully and place the power reserve hand to 40

4. set time until the date pointed clicks over. Now place the remaining hands (including minute hand of second time zone.

 

check hands carefully from the side, particularly to make sure that none of the hands in the recessed sub-dials are deep enough not to touch the main hour hand

 

place the movement in the holding ring (quite easy because there's a positioning pin) and oil this post on the ring

place this pinion (full leaves on top, 4-leaf to the bottom)

  

place the city ring, but NOT like this! Ensure that a city is centrally aligned with the little arrow below the second time zone sub-dial. Using the M in GMT may be the easiest. But any city will do, just the middle of the word needs to align.

Don't forget to re-insert the pin into the tube for the date corrector

(above the crown)

plenty of silicone grease into the crown

 

place case on top, turn around, insert crown. Remember to loosen this screw before inserting the crown; and to tighten it again afterwards.

secure the movement ring with two blued screws

and two casing clamps+screws. Plus installing the rotor with 3 tiny screws. (note, these are 0.8mm screws with a relatively wide slot -- so dress the screwdriver accordingly)

 

DONE!!!

Tempted to scratch my name into the caseback, but didn't... 

 

 

 

Please refer to this thread for an extensive discussion on dealing with rebanking/"knocking" in this watch (with a happy ending!):

 

After solving the re-banking, this is the sort of timegrapher reading I get. An impressive calibre, I must say. 

Dial up, fulll wind, after an hour of settling down

the delta across positions all horizontal and vertical positions is approximately 10s/d (dial down is +4 and crown down is -6). Everything is 2-3 s/d faster when the wind reduces by several hours. On the wrist during the day and dial up during the night, it's running at an average of +3.

 

 

 

Edited January 13 by Knebo

[mikepilk]

Write the service date with a Sharpie.

[Kalanag]

Thank you, Knebo, for this excellent description of your service work! You’ve done an amazing job!

Knowing how small this movement is, one can truly appreciate the level of difficulty involved. I’m impressed!

Were you able to figure out where the washer you found is supposed to go?

Karl

[Knebo]

1 hour ago, Kalanag said:

Thank you, Knebo, for this excellent description of your service work! You’ve done an amazing job!

Knowing how small this movement is, one can truly appreciate the level of difficulty involved. I’m impressed!

Were you able to figure out where the washer you found is supposed to go?

Karl

Thanks a lot! 

Good memory about that washer! No, I didn't. It doesn't show up in the service manual and it didn't really fit anywhere. So I just assume that it came from somewhere else. 

 

 

 

[joelcarvajal]

This is such a blessing @Knebo!  I was asked to worked on the same Watch model and I was thinking of declining it but then I saw this extensive walkthrough.  So happy that you shared this.

[Knebo]

8 hours ago, joelcarvajal said:

This is such a blessing @Knebo!  I was asked to worked on the same Watch model and I was thinking of declining it but then I saw this extensive walkthrough.  So happy that you shared this

That's great! 

I hope it'll help. Also make sure you see the two manuals (base calibre and complication module) in my first post of the thread. 

Don't hesitate to post here if you have any questions. 

Good luck! 

And please, if you find this washer, let me know where!

On 12/2/2024 at 10:42 PM, Knebo said:

have an unusual problem. I part appeared during cleaning. I meticulously took pictures of every part I disassembled, but this one isn't captured and I am sure that I didn't see it. Maybe it was stuck to a plate or wheel and I didn't notice it. It's a thin washer-like piece. I found it in the basket compartment with the second time-zone pieces:

 

Edited February 14 by Knebo