Barry has sent us this interesting Glycine for a service having a hunch it might be an early model as it is marked “patent pending” on the case back.
The oscillating weight is not attached to the movement as you can hear it clanking around in the movement, but it ticks when manually wound.
No doubt it also needs a service.
Very interesting screw down crown, I have not seen this feature on later models.
To get the movement out of the case I must remove the bezel ring.
I have noticed on a lot of Vacuum watches tend to have discoloration around the dial; my guess is it comes from the rubber gasket. Between the dial and crystal.
Expecting an ETA movement I’m pleasantly surprised to find a Felsa movement! And as expected the rotor post has broken off.
I start by removing the auto winder bridge.
Here you can see the gear train after I have removed the train bridge.
The crown wheel is mounted on the underside of the train bridge.
I have cleaned the movement and put the balance jewels back in palace to see that it moves freely.
The barrel lid on this Felsa movement is pretty cool as it works both as barrel arbor, lid and ratchet wheel.
The center wheel back in place under it’s own center wheel bridge.
The crown wheel is back in place.
Unfortunately the only way for us to get a new rotor post is to take it from a donor movement.
The gear train is back in place and a new rotor post is fitted.
The Felsa 4000N movement is well built and looks very nice.
Performance is acceptable for a 50 + year old watch:)
The rotor is back in place on the movement and is ready to be cased.
Movement back in case with a new crystal looking very nice! I’m curious when this watch was made as it has the unusual crown and a Felsa movement.
I understand Klingenberg (of Glycine) made a handheld tool to reestablish the vacuum and that is fairly straightforward to use. Did you restore the vacuum in this watch?
Absolutely not. There is a good reason why this construction isn’t used any more. It’s absolutely nonsensical.
Did you relace the crystal with a correct glass one? I am in need of one for my Glycine vacuum. Same case as yours but mine has a gold bezel.Thank you
Hi, thanks for that walkthrough. I’ve one of these minus an oscillating weight – any idea if they’re specific to the 4000n or can one be swapped in from another felsa?
I’m afraid I don’t know that by heart. Just check out the parts sheets and see if anything else is compatible.
Hey, thanks for responding, only saw it now. Got sorted with parts from a 4000n, so good to go
Hi there, any tips on getting the click spring assembly back together, as it’s held with one of the barrel bridge screws, I must be missing something obvious?
Thanks in advance!
I am afraid this is a long time ago. I can’t see a specific problem with the click spring, though.
Very good description of work undertaken, thank you. I have an Allaine watch with a 4000N end movement. Could you tell me how the rotor is actually connected to the post please. Much appreciated.
The rotor has a little slider, accessible through the oval slot. Put the slider to the other side, and you can remove the rotor.
Great blog as always.
You noted that the dial was quite discoloured. Is there no way to clean or refurbish dials? I’ve noticed this on a few other watches too.
Some dials can’t be cleaned as the lettering is to sensitive and would fall off.
HI Mitka,
Did you try your cleaning magic on the dial?
I have tried cleaning a vacuum dial earlier and the discolouration is near impossible to remove.
Good job!!!!
Very cool to see this watch! As you know, I like Glycines,with the Vacuum models being some of my favorites … any way to show a shot of the case back stating “Patent pending”?
With a Felsa movement, this is no doubt a very early model …
There’s a shot of the back in the photo library
http://watchguy.co.uk/cgi-bin/library?action=show_photos&wat_id=1436