Something unusual from the heyday of quartz...
Jan 8, 2019 22:07:03 GMT -8
via Tapatalk
mikeyt, HiBeat, and 12 more like this
Post by tritto on Jan 8, 2019 22:07:03 GMT -8
So, who's up for a resurrection post?
High quality 17 jewel quartz movement from the days before quartz was cheap (circa 1982). Classic line from a major Swiss brand. Slimline two-tone retro goodness.
What could it be?
Snagged off Gumtree as part of a job lot, along with a Capri skin diver. Non-runner. Seized bezel. One of the hour markers floating around.
The first thing was to decase and free up the bezel - not so easy, it took a few goes in the ultrasonic and some work with a knife.
Then I sorted out the sticky pusher at 2 - more on that later - and glued a floating lume marker back on the dial.
Once I'd sorted out the case, I set about tearing down the movement and taking a lot of photos. This is quite a complicated quartz movement and there's not much out there about how to service them. Amongst other innovations (which probably didn't catch on) are a magnetic cannon pinion, repelling magnets between the centre wheel and second wheel instead of a jewel, an insanely complicated dial side for jumping the hour hand and controlling the date change, and a push button at 2 to advance the minute and seconds hand instead of using the crown like a sensible movement.
Circuit removed. The coil tested ok.
Train bridge removed.
One of the unusual solutions is that there is no centre wheel bridge. The centre wheel and second wheel are each fitted with tiny ring magnets. When the two wheels are pushed together the magnet repel. As a result, there is no lubrication between them. Saves space by removing the need for a bridge between them too.
On the dial side, there is a complex series of wheels for advancing the date and allowing the hour hand to jump forwards by an hour at a time independent of the minute hand. They were rather tricky to get lined up so they worked properly.
The steel wheel is actually a magnetic cannon pinion. The cannon pinion only relates to the hour hand as the minutes are set electronically.
To set the minutes and seconds you pull out the crown, press a button at 2 for five seconds, release and then press again. While you hold down the button the time advances rapidly (hands wizzing around the dial).
It was a fiddly job, and was all for naught when it didn't run when reassembled. The circuit was dead! I set off to find a donor. One turned up on Gumtree last week and I got it for a good price because the seller figured it was broken when he couldn't set the minute hand (stupid non-intuitive system!).
When the donor arrived I stripped out the circuit and put it in my project movement. It's alive!
Then I had to go back and oil all the jewels - there are 17 of them, but I'd done a few that you can't otherwise get at as I went). I let the bare movement run overnight then set the hands and cased it up this morning and it's done.
It's not something that will win popularity contests amongst today's WIS, but it's a bit of retro two-tone fun and I feel pretty good about getting it up and running.
High quality 17 jewel quartz movement from the days before quartz was cheap (circa 1982). Classic line from a major Swiss brand. Slimline two-tone retro goodness.
What could it be?
Snagged off Gumtree as part of a job lot, along with a Capri skin diver. Non-runner. Seized bezel. One of the hour markers floating around.
The first thing was to decase and free up the bezel - not so easy, it took a few goes in the ultrasonic and some work with a knife.
Then I sorted out the sticky pusher at 2 - more on that later - and glued a floating lume marker back on the dial.
Once I'd sorted out the case, I set about tearing down the movement and taking a lot of photos. This is quite a complicated quartz movement and there's not much out there about how to service them. Amongst other innovations (which probably didn't catch on) are a magnetic cannon pinion, repelling magnets between the centre wheel and second wheel instead of a jewel, an insanely complicated dial side for jumping the hour hand and controlling the date change, and a push button at 2 to advance the minute and seconds hand instead of using the crown like a sensible movement.
Circuit removed. The coil tested ok.
Train bridge removed.
One of the unusual solutions is that there is no centre wheel bridge. The centre wheel and second wheel are each fitted with tiny ring magnets. When the two wheels are pushed together the magnet repel. As a result, there is no lubrication between them. Saves space by removing the need for a bridge between them too.
On the dial side, there is a complex series of wheels for advancing the date and allowing the hour hand to jump forwards by an hour at a time independent of the minute hand. They were rather tricky to get lined up so they worked properly.
The steel wheel is actually a magnetic cannon pinion. The cannon pinion only relates to the hour hand as the minutes are set electronically.
To set the minutes and seconds you pull out the crown, press a button at 2 for five seconds, release and then press again. While you hold down the button the time advances rapidly (hands wizzing around the dial).
It was a fiddly job, and was all for naught when it didn't run when reassembled. The circuit was dead! I set off to find a donor. One turned up on Gumtree last week and I got it for a good price because the seller figured it was broken when he couldn't set the minute hand (stupid non-intuitive system!).
When the donor arrived I stripped out the circuit and put it in my project movement. It's alive!
Then I had to go back and oil all the jewels - there are 17 of them, but I'd done a few that you can't otherwise get at as I went). I let the bare movement run overnight then set the hands and cased it up this morning and it's done.
It's not something that will win popularity contests amongst today's WIS, but it's a bit of retro two-tone fun and I feel pretty good about getting it up and running.