Watch of Today

[stroppy]

1 hour ago, Cad101 said:

Here's the 10 bob LUCERNE Stroppy. Gave it a service and stuck a strap on it. Its so 70's

 

Very nice and so 70s!  The brand is till used today...watches coming out of China, of course.

 

Here's what I had on today:

 

 

 

[ramrod]

19 hours ago, Cad101 said:

Here's the 10 bob LUCERNE Stroppy. Gave it a service and stuck a strap on it. Its so 70's

 

i have the same underwhelming little piece. i bought it on ebay thinking it was a multi-jewel winder. wrong! it's a one jewel wonder that has it's crown frozen. it has a fake screw off back - it just pops off.

one of these days i'm gonna see how many times i can skip it across the local pond.

[Cad101]

I have a jewelled movement but no case but this one runs well and keeps excellent time after I serviced it.

[rodralph]

Working from home today, so I decided to keep it simple.

[WileyDave]

Up and running today, fairly innocuous Croton auto, "Aquamatic", movement is gold colored and also marked "ANEN F506", at first I thought is might be a Felsa, turns out it's an AS1916, beautiful blue dial, can't really tell from wrist shot. His Vanguard auto friend to the left is also 17j, UT37. ENJOY!

[svorkoetter]

I've been wearing this almost every day since I finished it in mid-September.

The first picture is from yesterday evening, waiting for the guy next to me to taxi away so the fuel truck could safely approach.

The other two are from this morning. It snowed overnight, and was still snowing when I left for work.

[noirrac1j]

The New York Jump Hour... Hmm. That would have to be the Sicura then...it looks just like an old school parking meter

Edited April 6, 2016 by noirrac1j

[ramrod]

jump hour watches are awesome. someday.......

[stroppy]

I wore one exactly the same as pictured today (too lazy to photograph my watch so I googled the model name and found the same watch).

"Felicia" was an Aussie company that would order a run of watches with certain cases, dial plates with their names and (usually) ETA movements.  Final assembly (casing of the movements) was usually done here in Sydney, I believe.  The "bread and butter working man's watch" of the 60s and 70s in Australia before the Quartz invasion.  They were well made and reasonably-priced and sold through the Dunklings, Edments, Prouds and Angus & Coote chain of stores.  Often stand-alone jewellery stores sold them as well.  In Australia they were considered a big step up from the Timex watches of the day.

Now only the Adina Company cases watches here in the state of Queensland but their watches are pretty up-market these days.  Adina make very good time pieces.

 

[anilv]

Monday morning blues.. but I'm going orange!

Aftermarket dial, bezel insert, rehaut, caseback gasket and hands from ebay.

Note :

1. I bought a crystal as well but it doesn't fit this early model case. Diameter is correct but the angle on the sides is wrong..it won't let the crystal ring go low enough to 'click'. It should work on the later cases where there is no crystal retaining ring.

2. The lume on the hands don't like heavy handling. You can see it has chipped at the base of the hour hand. I usually slide a piece of card under the hour hand to make sure it doesn't go too deep and hit the dial, I believe pulling the card out cause the lume to crack.. never had this on original hands!

 

Anil

[noirrac1j]

The orange dial and black and red bezel --that's a great contrast!  Stainless bracelet looks great too.

 

JC

[anilv]

Bought this watch off the'bay.. the bracelet was advertised as non-original but its a Seiko and fits really well.. cant imagine any other small Seiko which would take this strap unless its from a later model. The wear on the strap is commensurate with the wear on the watch itself...they've been together for some time, judging by the crap on both of 'em.

 

Anil

[jeffc83]

This little puppy arrived last night in pretty poor condition but I wanted to wear it today so I got working on it right away.  This one was a "gamble" because the seller said "not working, not a watch person, as-is".  Even though the description almost pushed me away, I saw a Benrus Electronic Technipower watch in the pile of junk watches.  When they arrived last night, all the quartz junk was actually that....broken junk.  However, the Benrus looked like crap too but I thought it might have a chance.  I put a battery in her and nothing.  I put another battery in and nothing.  I take the crystal out, split crown then movement and waddya know, DIRT!  I cleaned it up (not professionally, I don't know how to service electronic movements) put a new crystal in it and voila, a working watch that looks awesome!  Pics below:)

[jeffc83]

On 4/10/2016 at 2:13 AM, ramrod said:

jump hour watches are awesome. someday.......

I too am waiting for......I'm not sure, but someday, I will own one as well:)

[WileyDave]

like those 'easy' ones that don't require a heck of a lot of work to get looking nice, those two piece stems on the old bulova's are a brute to get right, nice find

[jeffc83]

This might be why I gravitated to the Timex's there for a while. (easy to work on) Much appreciated!

[ramrod]

You saved me asking a question, Jeff. I have a gruen and two swissonics with those same movements. Two of them don work and I wanted to inspect them. I didn't know how to get the crown off. Now I do. Split stem? Just pull it?

PS.....ii believe that yours and my swissonics are gruen movements

[ramrod]

Hopefully mine are an easy fix. Where did you find the dirt? Also, what battery are you using?

 

OK.....forget the battery question. I just looked at the pics. 

I'm such an idiot. Bangs head.

Edited April 12, 2016 by ramrod
New discovery

[noirrac1j]

This looks like ESA 9154 is that correct? I've worked on several electronic ESA 9154 and 9157. They can be either finicky even when they are working correctly (suddenly they may stop working), or super strong runners with chronometer-like precision.  Not all of them are split stem either! Please see the image I've attached.

 

P.S. I have plenty of spare parts
 

 

Edited April 12, 2016 by noirrac1j

[jeffc83]

@noirrac1j This is not good to hear that it can just suddenly stop working....any telltale signs when it needs a service?  Now it is good to know that you have parts;)  Yes sir, ESA 9154!  Also, do these movements get oiled like your standard mechanical movement?  Thanks for that diagram...saved for future reference:)  

@ramrod The dirt was all over this thing on the inside....I'm thinking someone left the back off for quite a long time because I have never seen so much of coating on all the parts.  It's a shame the way people treat them.  The crown is a split-stem and some are more difficult than others. (I still have limited knowledge of the PROPER way to remove them, haha)  However, I use a pair of tweezers and fit them between the case and crown and just keep wiggling them inward and the stem will come off. Sometimes it feels like I'm going to break it but haven't yet.  I know I know, one day I really will but so far so good!

Edited April 12, 2016 by jeffc83

[noirrac1j]

Hi jeff

 

Yes the movements can be robust and I've serviced mine using the conventional oils and/or grease for the keylessworks and jeweled settings. The main reason for it to stop working is a fried transistor/capacitor or a broken copper winding in the coil--be careful; with the board if you overhaul. If the movement works sporadically, or you need to shake it each time you re-set the time to get it going, the brake lever may not meeting that peg I talked about. When you pull the crown out, you will see that the hairspring stops right at  the end of its arc just before the impulse stroke. Whe you re-engage the crown the brake lever is release and the hairspring has a klittle" kick start" that gets its swing-arc started, and is then taken over by the induction coil and the magnet that is attached to underside of the hairspring. That is another area that needs to be cleaned very well and properly aligned. Oh one more thing... you cannot take the circuit board off until you remove the hairspring and vice versa( first replace board on, then hairspring).

 

P.S. Also, use a new battery!

 

J

 

JC

Edited April 12, 2016 by noirrac1j
mistakes

[jeffc83]

Finicky little things I see....thanks so much for that!  I'm wearing it now so I figured why not, try the hack...lol, I must not have heard it last night but it makes a clunk when it stops and the way you just explained what it does makes complete sense.  My biggest concern would be not to damage that hairspring THEN the coil!  Was it fairly easy to reassemble?

[noirrac1j]

3 minutes ago, jeffc83 said:

Finicky little things I see....thanks so much for that!  I'm wearing it now so I figured why not, try the hack...lol, I must not have heard it last night but it makes a clunk when it stops and the way you just explained what it does makes complete sense.  My biggest concern would be not to damage that hairspring THEN the coil!  Was it fairly easy to reassemble?

Yes, the assembly is straightforward. Only replacing the the circuit board and getting the hairspring properly aligned are a little bit troublesome.

[jeffc83]

@noirrac1j That's what was concerning me the most, haha.  Will be extra careful when I give it an overhaul, thanks.  I hate to ask but are the Timex Electric's any better?  When I looked at them, they appear disposable even more so than their mechanical counterpart.  I have at least a dozen broken ones and about 5-6 that are working.

[noirrac1j]

I like the look of the Timex electrics, but I've found them to be more trouble than what they're worth.

 

J