Chriscrawfordphoto
Real Men Shoot Film.
I've got the watch parts all cleaned, including pegging the jewels. Pegging is the use of thin sharpened wooden sticks to clean out the holes in the jewel bearings. You stick the pointed end in the hole and turn the stick to remove any gunk that didn't come out in the chemical cleaners. The holes in the jewels, which hold the spindles of the watch's wheels (gears) are TINY so often the chemical cleaners don't get all the dried lubricants out of them.
I'm ready now to begin reassembly and re-lubrication!
I'm ready now to begin reassembly and re-lubrication!
GMOG
Well-known
Be sure to tell us about the results!
Say, have you got a timing machine? These days there are decent options available for not a lot of dollars.
KoNickon
Nick Merritt
Chris, we are looking forward to hearing about the results!
Chriscrawfordphoto
Real Men Shoot Film.
Yeah, I have a timegrapher. I started out just wanting to regulate my watches because a lot of them right from the factory were off by more than I liked, so that was the first watchmaking tool I bought.
kshapero
South Florida Man
Soon for repair or a CLA. A Citizen pre Eco Drive Automatic. Oh yeah an M10 and a 'Cron 50mm.
Chriscrawfordphoto
Real Men Shoot Film.
kshapero
South Florida Man
Got it an auction about 15 years ago for cheap dollars.
Godfrey
somewhat colored
All luck and good assembly to you, Chris! I hope the Benrus goes together smoothly and is restored to its proper performance for you!
This is the watch I'm wearing today. It's a 1957 Omega Automatic that my friend gave me. It belonged to her uncle, who bought it in 1957 and wore it daily until he passed away about 20 years ago. It had no particular sentimental value to her, she just wanted it to be enjoyed and used by someone who would appreciate it. I had it serviced and fitted a new band, specifically told the watchmaker to "lightly clean the dial and hands but keep the patina intact." It's a lovely watch, keeps pretty good time (about 1 to 2 minutes fast per day, so it could use a little further regulation); I like the fact that it is small and light weight, unlike so many men's watches these days which mostly seem grossly over-sized and over-weight to me.
G
This is the watch I'm wearing today. It's a 1957 Omega Automatic that my friend gave me. It belonged to her uncle, who bought it in 1957 and wore it daily until he passed away about 20 years ago. It had no particular sentimental value to her, she just wanted it to be enjoyed and used by someone who would appreciate it. I had it serviced and fitted a new band, specifically told the watchmaker to "lightly clean the dial and hands but keep the patina intact." It's a lovely watch, keeps pretty good time (about 1 to 2 minutes fast per day, so it could use a little further regulation); I like the fact that it is small and light weight, unlike so many men's watches these days which mostly seem grossly over-sized and over-weight to me.
G
Chriscrawfordphoto
Real Men Shoot Film.
I love it! I agree on keeping the patina; I'm doing the same with Grandpa's Benrus. Everything I've read tells me that trying to remove patina or corrosion from old watch dials ends up ruining them. They look cool with the patina anyway, shows they've had a long life.
GMOG
Well-known
Is that one old enough to have a bumper automatic mech? I forget when Rolex's patent for 360 degree rotating oscillating weight expired, sometime in the late '50s. Before that everyone else had to keep making bumpers.
That watch's patina is at a nice level. I do prefer original finishes with flaws over dials that have been refinished. It would not have left my shop running 1 - 2 minutes fast per day.
ellisson
Well-known
A bit off topic, but here is a different repair that I do not wish to do myself, even if I had the replacement part: it's the overlying glass that cracked when I dropped the watch. It's a curved crystal, so not a flat piece of glass. I can't seem to find who can make or supply a replacement. The watch runs fine, always matches my iPhone time, and it's my favorite with its curved rectangular shape.
GMOG
Well-known
You can get a blank but it would still need to be sized to fit. Crystal fitters use wet diamond wheels to cut and shape glass. You could duplicate that with a small, fine cut diamond sharpening stone and a fair amount of your time!
Godfrey
somewhat colored
Is that one old enough to have a bumper automatic mech? I forget when Rolex's patent for 360 degree rotating oscillating weight expired, sometime in the late '50s. Before that everyone else had to keep making bumpers.
That watch's patina is at a nice level. I do prefer original finishes with flaws over dials that have been refinished. It would not have left my shop running 1 - 2 minutes fast per day.
It's a 'spinner' rather than a bumper automatic wind mechanism:
(Lovely movement ... I had to snap a photo of it while he had the back off of it.
) I'm sure it wouldn't have left your hands needing regulation. The 1890 Elgin National pocket watch you restored for me keeps perfect time! (Which reminds me that I should get some silver polish and do the case again ... It's showing a little bit of tarnish.)
Perhaps we'll talk off line ... Maybe you can do the regulation on the Omega for me..? My local guy is okay (and a very nice person) but I've seen he's not particularly skilled about getting the regulation right on the money.
G
wlewisiii
Just another hotel clerk
My day to day watch is a basic Seiko automatic 5. Nice simple manual watch.
But I really should get my great grandfather's watch cleaned and running right again.
1903 (by the serial) in a third party case. 10k IIRC when I looked it up. Nice watch. My grand mother passed it down to me. There's no one local and I keep forgetting to take it to the one repair shop I know of in the Minneapolis/St Paul area.
But I really should get my great grandfather's watch cleaned and running right again.
1903 (by the serial) in a third party case. 10k IIRC when I looked it up. Nice watch. My grand mother passed it down to me. There's no one local and I keep forgetting to take it to the one repair shop I know of in the Minneapolis/St Paul area.
Chriscrawfordphoto
Real Men Shoot Film.
I have the escapement put back together. I still need to assemble the keyless works (the mechanism that switches the winding stem from winging mode to time setting mode) and the motion works (the mechanism that moves the hands). I had a tiny screw fly away last night, and cannot find the damned thing so I had to order a replacement. Can't finish putting it together till that arrives.
I decided to wind up the movement and put it on the timegrapher, just to see how its changed from before I began working on it. Before I took it apart, the watch was losing about 5 minutes a day, had a beat error of around 5ms, and the amplitude was only 115 or 125, I can't remember for sure (forgot to write it down). Ideally beat error should be less than 1ms and amplitude should be higher than 250.
Here are the results, after I disassembled the movement, cleaned it, relubricated it with the proper lubricants (three types of oil and one type of grease) in the correct places, and reassembled it:
Now, instead of running too slow by 5 minutes a day, it is running too fast by about 4 minutes a day. Amplitude is a very, very nice 305; and beat error is down to 2.4ms.
I thought the movement might have become magnetized, which can cause a watch to run several minutes a day fast; so after looking at the results shown in the photo above, I demagnetized it. It made no difference; so I suspect the man who 'repaired' it for me before did not do anything to the watch but move the regulator to make it run faster. That didn't fix it because it needed CLEANED, which I am certain he did not do. When I was disassembling the movement, it was full of dirt and lint. The jewels looked dirty, too. I could see dried gunk in them when I held them up to a light and looked at them through a loupe.
I cleaned it properly and replaced the mainspring and look at the result: good amplitude and now it runs fast. I can correct that when I regulate it later. I have to wait a few days for my new screw to arrive, so I am going to let the escapement run while I wait in order to let it settle in with the new lubricants. After I assemble the rest of the movement, I will then regulate it. I am confident I will be able to get it keeping accurate time to within a few seconds a day.
I decided to wind up the movement and put it on the timegrapher, just to see how its changed from before I began working on it. Before I took it apart, the watch was losing about 5 minutes a day, had a beat error of around 5ms, and the amplitude was only 115 or 125, I can't remember for sure (forgot to write it down). Ideally beat error should be less than 1ms and amplitude should be higher than 250.
Here are the results, after I disassembled the movement, cleaned it, relubricated it with the proper lubricants (three types of oil and one type of grease) in the correct places, and reassembled it:
Now, instead of running too slow by 5 minutes a day, it is running too fast by about 4 minutes a day. Amplitude is a very, very nice 305; and beat error is down to 2.4ms.
I thought the movement might have become magnetized, which can cause a watch to run several minutes a day fast; so after looking at the results shown in the photo above, I demagnetized it. It made no difference; so I suspect the man who 'repaired' it for me before did not do anything to the watch but move the regulator to make it run faster. That didn't fix it because it needed CLEANED, which I am certain he did not do. When I was disassembling the movement, it was full of dirt and lint. The jewels looked dirty, too. I could see dried gunk in them when I held them up to a light and looked at them through a loupe.
I cleaned it properly and replaced the mainspring and look at the result: good amplitude and now it runs fast. I can correct that when I regulate it later. I have to wait a few days for my new screw to arrive, so I am going to let the escapement run while I wait in order to let it settle in with the new lubricants. After I assemble the rest of the movement, I will then regulate it. I am confident I will be able to get it keeping accurate time to within a few seconds a day.
Shafovaloff1
Well-known
Nice.
Godfrey
somewhat colored
Very good progress! I'm sure it will be extremely satisfying when you're done.
G
G
chuckroast
Well-known
"Time keeps on slippin', slippin' into the future ..."
KoNickon
Nick Merritt
Very impressed, Chris. Too bad about that little screw!
Chriscrawfordphoto
Real Men Shoot Film.
Yeah the damned thing is almost microscopic. I crawled around on the floor looking for it for an hour, but my poor knees couldn't take any more of that concrete floor. I have a workbench set up in my basement for this. The screw I lost was about half a millimeter across the head and no more than a millimeter or so long. Tiny. Modern watches seem to use larger screws than this old thing; but modern movements tend overall to be bigger. This one is about the size of a nickel!