Guest Post – Repair: Junghans cal 693 (J93s1) by Sean

DSC01502After seeing Christian service a Junghans ‘Max Bill’ in a previous post, I decided I loved the clean dial, and to see if I could get my own. I found this poorly watch in a job lot for £10, and although it’s battered, the dial is in great condition (with the little bauhaus 4 :-)), and it runs. That’s a good start! Continue reading

Video: Putting together an ST2130 (ETA2824-2 clone)

It’s been a while since I’ve put up a video, and I always wanted to do one of me putting together a watch movement. A bit tricky, as you are of course more nervous with the camera running, and because I can’t use the microscope whilst filming (as you wouldn’t be able to see anything), so I have to do all the things I usually do under the microscope just with the optivisor.

Nevertheless, here we go:

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How To: Replace a broken curb pin

IMG_6908This doesn’t happen too often, but it happens… The curb pin (that is the tiny little pin that sits on the regulator and limits the effective length of the hairspring) is broken off and needs replacing. When I took this photo, the curb pin was still there, but after the regulator came out of the cleaning machine, it was broken off – bad luck!

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A drop of oil …

IMG_7034Just to show what the right lubrication in the right place can do… I was looking at a client’s Omega Constellation this morning, as he wanted a quick assessment of the watch. He had a 14 day return option from the seller, and he wanted to make sure the watch was fundamentally fine.

So on to the timegrapher, and it looks terrible. All sorts of things could be wrong here, especially the hairspring… Continue reading

How To: Re-attach dial feet with a soldering machine

A common problem – broken off dial feet. As a regular reader of this blog you will know that I dislike dial pads (the sticky bits that people stick dials to movements with) quite a bit, and I don’t have any in my workshop, and I hope I will never have.

They are basically pure evil. Not only do they make the dial stick up too far from the movement, but they don’t hold properly and will move with time. So don’t even think about using them 😉

I have a couple of watches in my workshop that need new dial feet, and Neil, one of the poor clients suffering from broken feet, pointed me to a dial soldering machine on eBay. This is just what I wanted, so I went out and bought one. Not cheap, but if it does what it says on the tin, well worth the money.

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How often does a watch need a service?

How long is a piece of string?

Most manufacturers have an answer to this question, and it tend to be around 5 years. So every 5 years, you may fork out a small fortune to have your beloved watch serviced. Not a cheap pleasure, but you want to keep the value of your watch, so you just have to bite the bullet.

Let’s see what happens if you don’t.

This lovely Rolex Oyster Perpetual Datejust Chronometer belongs to my father. He bought it new in 1973 for around DM 800 (= EUR 400). He has been wearing it ever since, and he rarely takes it off. It goes into the shower, swimming, and wherever he goes.

In the mid-80s, he forgot to screw the crown in after setting the watch, and went for a shower. Some water got in, but he brought it straight to his watchmaker, who dried it out and serviced it.

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