Service: Vixa Legionnaire / Valjoux 7750

IMG_7171I haven’t had a Vixa in my workshop yet, and now is the time 😉

Where exactly Vixa Uhrenfabrik is I don’t know, I’ve googled around, and found everything from an address in Italy to posts that the company doesn’t exist any more… all that doesn’t matter too much, as it has a bog-standard Valjoux 7750 inside.

Bob sent it in for a service.

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And a service it needs!
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First look at the movement…IMG_7177
A fair amount of dirt on the side of the movement.IMG_7180
The bottom plate looks nice and clean, though.
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Quite a bit of dirt in the chronograph layer of the movement.
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I have ranted about it before, but I still don’t like the click/click spring construction of the 7750.
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The gear train with the slider for the hacking second feature.
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Have a look at the top pivot of the fourth wheel! There is a huge blob of dirt. My only interpretation for this is way too much unsuitable lubricant – e.g. a gallon of whale oil that somebody put into the jewel to re-lubricate the movement.IMG_7209
Even though the watch only has a date display, the wheel for the day wheel change is present on the bottom plate.
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The pushers get a clean as well.IMG_7332
Reassembly starts with the usual new mainspring.IMG_7337
The base movement back together and beating.IMG_7340
I do a first adjustment of the movement.IMG_7343
And now it’s time to put the chronograph layer back together.IMG_7347
Then it’s time for the bottom plate with the hour recorder and date mechanism.IMG_7351
With the movement back together, I can put the dial and hands back on.IMG_7356
The movement gets cased, and I install a new case back gasket with a bit of silicone grease.
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Some of the black paint in the engraved numbers on the bezel has come off during cleaning, and I touch them up with a tiny bit of black paint.

4 thoughts on “Service: Vixa Legionnaire / Valjoux 7750

  1. Thanks Christian, I really liked to see the progress of the work online. And it certainly needed that service. Good job 🙂

    The vaguely Hanhart/XX style and the dial attracted me to this watch. Also, I didn’t have a 7750 so this was an inexpensive route to ownership.

    The shades of black in the dial look great with the white hands and give a real feeling of depth to it.

  2. Phantom watch companies are an odd thing… I have a handful of perfectly nice, well executed watches made by companies that don’t seem to exist any-more – and may never have done if you believe the internets.

    That dial is really nice… they must have had some history and experience behind them!

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