Watch Services Articles in July, 2011

Breitling watch repair. Valjoux 7750.

This watch was recently serviced incorrectly. I found several issues and one glaringly obvious fault.

First of all it was aparent that the balance wheel was not turning correctly (sort of sticky) – this is usually due to a bent pivot (quite unlikely with Incabloc settings), or lack of lubrication. The real reason is illustrated below.

I also found that the watch was heavily over-oiled especially the train (train of wheels) pivot holes. A huge (in watch terms) blob of grease was found on the escape wheel.

Breitling Service

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This nice old Rotary was handed in for repair with a broken stem and filthy movement. The problem is with the stem. The movement has no calibre and does not appear in any of our reference books so I have no choice other than to make a new winding stem from scratch.

I do this with blue pivot steel. First annealing the steel to make it easier to turn and cut the thread. Here are some pictures of my work.

Vintage Rotary Watch. Broken Winder.

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This is a very gorgeous watch handed in for repair to our workshop. It was a pleasure to work on. The watch was a complete non runner. The case was quite scratched and it needed a new glass.

Rolex Before Repair

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I love these vintage Breitling watches. A joy to work on. This one was in quite a used condition as you can see from the initial picture I took:

Before Starting.

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The ETA Valoux 7750 is a very popular movement found in TAG Heuer, Breitling, Omega, IWC, Panerai and many other luxury brand watches.

It is recommended to service this movement every 3 – 5 years.

This watch requires a specific stripping proceedure starting with the ocsillating weight, the dial then the calendar works, followed by the chronograph and autmatic works. Followed by the escapement and train of wheels and then the keyless winding mechanism.

Once stripped the watch is ultrasonicaly cleaned and then assembled following a very specific oiling regime. Special synthetic oils are used, standard watch and clock oil will not do.

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