Vintage Rolex Oyster Chronometer Repair
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.
Breitling Chronograph. Valjoux 7730. Rusty
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:
Tag Heuer. ETA Valjoux 7750 Service
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.
Poising a Balance and Positional Error
One of the important things to consider when regulating a watch is positional error.
Positional error occurs on mechanical watches and can be caused by many factors. These factors could include a poorly sprung balance spring (out of true), a worn or bent balance staff pivot, not enough (or too much) oil on the balance endstones and possibly the balance being out of poise.
If the rim of the balance wheel has a heavy point then we consider this out of poise.
To test for this we need to use some special equipment – the main tool being the “Poising Tool”. A poising tool is a small bench tool which has the facility to be made completely flat by use of height adjustment screws. The tool will have two adjustable jaws and the balance pivots will be rested upon these jaws.
Broken Mainspring – this one is really gone!
An old pocket watch comes in for a routine service. I discover it requires a new mainspring as it is “winding forever”. Upon opening the barrel I come across this:
