Date Wheel for an AS 1931 from mid 1970s

[RichardF]

I don't suppose anyone would know where I could source a Date Wheel (aka Date Star?), ref 2557 with date at 3H, for an A Schild 1931 alarm watch from the mid 1970s. From inside a lovely old Memostar Alarm watch. I've tried all my usual internet searches but no joy. Any ideas would be very gratefully received. Many thanks.

[mikepilk]

I'm rebuilding a 1931 at the moment.

According to Jules Borel database, the Date wheel 3H is common to 

If you do an ebay search for "as 1568 date disk" you will find one. It's got red numbers though. 

 

 

[AndyGSi]

17 hours ago, RichardF said:

I don't suppose anyone would know where I could source a Date Wheel (aka Date Star?), ref 2557 with date at 3H, for an A Schild 1931 alarm watch from the mid 1970s. From inside a lovely old Memostar Alarm watch. I've tried all my usual internet searches but no joy. Any ideas would be very gratefully received. Many thanks.

Do you mean Date Wheel 2557 or Date Star 2556?

[RichardF]

Andy, apologies for the confusion. The date wheel with the numbers. The 2557. The tiny little plastic teeth have worn away on the one I have.

[RichardF]

Mike, thank you so much for taking the time to help me out. Sounds perfect and red numbers that move are better than black ones that always say the 12th!  And thank you for putting me onto the Watch Material Interchange List. What a fantastically useful database.

[AndyGSi]

1 hour ago, RichardF said:

Andy, apologies for the confusion. The date wheel with the numbers. The 2557. The tiny little plastic teeth have worn away on the one I have.

Plastic teeth? They should be brass and if they've worn away then the red one on eBay pointed out by @mikepilk will be no good as this is just a replacement disc.

[mikepilk]

Sorry, I didn't notice it was just the disk. I didn't think such things existed !

[AndyGSi]

42 minutes ago, mikepilk said:

Sorry, I didn't notice it was just the disk. I didn't think such things existed !

It is a bit of an odd ball when the part is just a blank.

[RichardF]

Thank you both for your help and input. Really appreciate it and the Interchange database is brilliant.

The date wheel in my AS 1931 is a one piece plastic affair. Same shape as the metal one on sale but with the numbers as part of it. One of the plastic teeth had worn down so the tiny metal spike on the Date Star (part 2556) missed and the wheel didn't rotate. However as I couldn't find a like-for-like replacement out there, I've managed to repair it with the tiniest speck of superglue to lengthen the worn away tooth. Now the spike just catches and all's well. Sorry I can't do a photo as I've put the face and hands back on. Working out the logic to get the hands aligned with both the date wheel and the alarm is another story!

[AndyGSi]

17 minutes ago, RichardF said:

Thank you both for your help and input. Really appreciate it and the Interchange database is brilliant.

The date wheel in my AS 1931 is a one piece plastic affair. Same shape as the metal one on sale but with the numbers as part of it. One of the plastic teeth had worn down so the tiny metal spike on the Date Star (part 2556) missed and the wheel didn't rotate. However as I couldn't find a like-for-like replacement out there, I've managed to repair it with the tiniest speck of superglue to lengthen the worn away tooth. Now the spike just catches and all's well. Sorry I can't do a photo as I've put the face and hands back on. Working out the logic to get the hands aligned with both the date wheel and the alarm is another story!

I think you'll end up having to uncase and remove the dial again to setup the alarm.

This is copied from another site.

Roll the time forward until the date clicks over to define the 12:00 position.

Roll the alarm backward until the hour wheel aligns with and pops up into the alarm unlock wheel.

Place alarm hand and hour hand aligned with 12.

 

[mikepilk]

The last time I serviced one of these, I made the note to : "Pull out the winding stem before removal". I found that, like some ETA movements, if the stem is removed without being in the hand setting position, the yoke can come out of the slot in the clutch wheel. 

I also made a not of :

Operating instruction: 
Wind watch: crown at 4h
Set time: pull crown at 4h and set time. If you set the time reverse and pass the alarm time, this will be set reverse simultaneously. 
Wind alarm: crown at 2h.
Set alarm: pull crown at 2h and set alarm time. The alarm time can only be set reverse, setting forward is inhibited by a freewheel.
Enable alarm: pull crown at 2h. 
Disable alarm: push crown at 2h

The Nekkid Watchmaker services one -

 

Edited December 29, 2024 by mikepilk

[RichardF]

Andy, actually you can do all those things with the face attached. Roll the time setting forward until the date just clicks over. Very slowly turn the alarm until it goes off. Everything is now at 12 o'clock so just put the alarm and hands back on. Seems to be working ok on mine and I've attached a photo. I'm going to let it run for a month to double-check that the date wheel clicks forward every day.

Mike, thanks for your help and those instructions. Actually I was lucky in that I obtained the watch with its original box and instructions which I've attached here for interest. It's a really lovely piece. The service video was fascinating. I see that his one also has the one-piece plastic date wheel. Coincidentally when you first see his watch it is showing 12 as the date. This is what mine showed because 12 is in the window when the tooth next to 1 is being moved by the Date Star spike (or in my case, not being moved!).