This Roamer belongs to Jeff, my wife’s uncle, and he got it in his early twens. It hasn’t been working for ages, and he would like to wear it again.
The dial and hands have seen their share of bad treatment, but, considering the age of the watch, they aren’t too bad.
Lovely case back, with the Swiss Cross on it.
The dial isn’t too bad – a sizeable scratch at 3, but that’s to be expected at that age.
Very nicely executed date change mechanism, and very snappy.
You can see the gears for the auto winder on the left. The clutches are a bit stiff, so it’s almost impossible to manually wind.
Auto winder clutch wheels and rotor bearing.
If you are wondering about the “3/4” on the barrel bridge – this is the instruction to disengage the auto winder so that you can let down the mainspring. Turn the screw 3/4 turn, and then slide it to the side.
The old mainspring in the barrel.
And all goes into the cleaning machine.
I start off with braking grease on the wall of the barrel, and then put in the new mainspring.
Barrel bridge and intermediate bridge for the centre wheel in place.
And the movement is ticking again.
Auto winder and rotor bearing in place.
The winding pinion is missing a tooth, but I’m lucky in finding a new one on cousinsuk.
First adjustment on the timegrapher, with the mainspring barely wound. Nice.
The movement has a split winding stem, and it goes into the case back, which is then pressed into the case itself.Back together and looking good.
Thank you so much for documenting your repairs and sharing them free! I am grateful to this unique contribution to the hobby that is this resource, it’s great to explore and find smaller brands with nice interesting movements that are still affordable. I want to ask a question regarding the reverser wheels here, can they be opened for cleaning or are they a sealed unit? Would be hard to clean if they are seald.. Any tipical wear points in these movements in your experience? Thank you again for the awesome watchguy site you made! George.
The reverser wheels can’t be opened if I remember correctly, but you can clean them as a whole in the cleaning machine, and lubricate them afterwards.
My Stingray Roto 44Date came back from service. But I can’t change the date manually. Can you help? Thanks Peter
Hi, i have a Roamer Rotopower 44 automatic, the crown came of and the ax is broke, please help me find the spare parts to fix it.
Roamer rotopower – 44 – hallmarked gold case.
Any info regarding this (new to me) and info on replacement crystal welcomed!
Check cousinsuk.com for the crystal
Perfect – thankyou
But how to identify the correct lens? I am trying to source one for a friends watch (same model)
Roy
Measure it.
The data sheets on the Cousins site are a brain-boggler.
The exterior case back numbers on this watch are:
305 467
307 382
305 776
308 491
An interpretation would be greatly appreciated!
Roy
You mentioned that the clutches were stiff, making it difficult to wind. Did cleaning make manual winding easier, or is that due to the design?
The reverser wheels usually get better by cleaning and oiling them. But this is an automatic watch, and it doesn’t really need manual winding, and the reverser wheels don’t like it.
Roamer Rotodate Brevete MST 437. I too have this same watch which was past down from my great grandfather. Took my a while to figure out what it was. I was wondering if anyone knows what this watch is worth now a days. Its in great condition works fine.
Hi Christian, thanks for sharing this information and your insights.
I wonder what your opinion is on the quality of these particular movements. (MST 436,437,470 and 471) I read on the internet; “This is the movement Rolex SHOULD have put in the Sub”.(Richard Sexton, July 2001) Do you agree? I have read other articles by you, in which you are more outspoken about the quality of the movement concerned. Very curious to your answer. Best regards Paul
MST movement are of very good quality, but sometimes a bit overconstructed, e.g. a simpler construction would have worked just as well, and lasted longer.
Many thanks for that, I have one of these watches. Very proud of it to .Cheers.
I have the exact same watch. Sadly it is waiting for service and I hope the parts are still available. In the flesh it is quite understated.
I have refrained from using it in fear of damage.
Interesting seeing one stripped down.
Thanks Christian
Nice looking watch. Are there really 44 bearing jewels in this movement? The rotor looks to have 28 jewels printed on the face, although it is difficult to make it out exactly as the print has worn off in places.
Apparently it does indeed have 44 Jewels – including “7 ruby balls” on the rotor bearing!
http://www.ranfft.de/cgi-bin/bidfun-db.cgi?10&ranfft&&2uswk&MST_437
Seems a little excessive 😉
“Jewels in the 44 jewel version were allocated as follows: Movement 19, automatic winding device 8 (hole jewels), coupling clutches (2×5) 10 ruby balls, and ball bearing for rotor 7 ruby balls. Development took considerable time and demand for an automatic with date was a problem, the MST441/452 (a modified Felsa 4002/4007) was introduced as a stopgap”.
http://roamer-watches.info/MST436.shtml
I have a rather nice Avia with a Felsa 4009 in it – should get that looked at really…
Thanks for the link Cirrus. Interesting reading, which I have saved in favorites for later.