Orient Quartz Diver Mod

[ausimax]

About 2 years ago I picked up an Orient Quartz diver in a batch I bought, it was pretty beat up but was running but you could not set the time.












Investigation revealed that the yoke was bent and would not engage the pinion, as was expected trying to straighten the yoke resulted in it breaking.






I spent the intervening time trying to find parts, or a donor with no success to all intents and purposes the watch model did not exist, Boley has no listing for it nor did anywhere else I tried, so I decided to Mod it to take a modern quartz movement.



First was to find a movement that would fit and day/date features that would fit the dial, I finally settled on a Hattori VX43MH2, the next problem is that the new movement in much thinner than the original and when fitted to the dial the stem would not line up.



My answer was to machine a spacer with ID 25.5mm OD 27.6mm and 0.6mm thick, I tried in aluminium first and almost made it but the material was to soft to stand the pressure of the chuck and collapsed, Its not easy to work this fine on a 7” x 12” lathe.





So I had to resort to turning it out of steel and that was successful, the next obstacle was the dial leg location, wouldn’t line up with the holes in the movement, so I had to remove one leg and notched the movement to take the other leg to help resist the dial rotating and the fixed it with dial adhesive dots.







As with every thing else about this watch I could not find a new crystal that would fit so I had to polish the old one up as much as possible, couldn’t get rid of the crazing it is to deep, however in normal sight it is barely noticeable.



A few creative ides for movement retaining rings and it all came together, no collectors must have, but a nice beater.










And the mandatory wrist shot!

[axb]

And that, Max, is what it’s all about!
Great rescue...

[andycapp]

Any restore that involves a lathe is good stuff in my book!

[ausimax]

Nov 9, 2018 5:18:49 GMT -8 axb said:

And that, Max, is what it’s all about!
Great rescue...

My thoughts exactly, nothing special as watches go, it it just one of those bugs that bite you and you just have to scratch the itch, my next problem is how I am going to get it off my wrist!

[ausimax]

Nov 9, 2018 8:03:52 GMT -8 andycapp said:

Any restore that involves a lathe is good stuff in my book!

I think you may have a lot more skill in that department than me, I am a rank amateur with the lathe. 

[Deleted]

Nov 8, 2018 21:50:19 GMT -8 ausimax said:

About 2 years ago I picked up an Orient Quartz diver in a batch I bought, it was pretty beat up but was running but you could not set the time.












Investigation revealed that the yoke was bent and would not engage the pinion, as was expected trying to straighten the yoke resulted in it breaking.






I spent the intervening time trying to find parts, or a donor with no success to all intents and purposes the watch model did not exist, Boley has no listing for it nor did anywhere else I tried, so I decided to Mod it to take a modern quartz movement.



First was to find a movement that would fit and day/date features that would fit the dial, I finally settled on a Hattori VX43MH2, the next problem is that the new movement in much thinner than the original and when fitted to the dial the stem would not line up.



My answer was to machine a spacer with ID 25.5mm OD 27.6mm and 0.6mm thick, I tried in aluminium first and almost made it but the material was to soft to stand the pressure of the chuck and collapsed, Its not easy to work this fine on a 7” x 12” lathe.





So I had to resort to turning it out of steel and that was successful, the next obstacle was the dial leg location, wouldn’t line up with the holes in the movement, so I had to remove one leg and notched the movement to take the other leg to help resist the dial rotating and the fixed it with dial adhesive dots.







As with every thing else about this watch I could not find a new crystal that would fit so I had to polish the old one up as much as possible, couldn’t get rid of the crazing it is to deep, however in normal sight it is barely noticeable.



A few creative ides for movement retaining rings and it all came together, no collectors must have, but a nice beater.










And the mandatory wrist shot!

I have to admire anyone who can go this far to save a lost cause.

Kudos to you Sir!

[DAHASCO]

Projects are Fun, Anyone can just go and buy a watch   Enjoy  7dfe79adc2f0

[andycapp]

Nov 9, 2018 17:22:08 GMT -8 ausimax said:

Nov 9, 2018 8:03:52 GMT -8 andycapp said:

Any restore that involves a lathe is good stuff in my book!

I think you may have a lot more skill in that department than me, I am a rank amateur with the lathe. 

Don't cut yourself short, man. Some of the trickiest stuff in machining is holding the work. Small, thin and round is not easy to do without distorting the part. Looks like yours stayed round and flat. You must be doing something right! 👍😎

[ausimax]

Nov 10, 2018 8:16:43 GMT -8 andycapp said:

Nov 9, 2018 17:22:08 GMT -8 ausimax said:

I think you may have a lot more skill in that department than me, I am a rank amateur with the lathe. 

Don't cut yourself short, man. Some of the trickiest stuff in machining is holding the work. Small, thin and round is not easy to do without distorting the part. Looks like yours stayed round and flat. You must be doing something right! 👍😎

Took a lot of trial and error, not real hard to get the OD & ID right, but parting off from the stock is the hairy bit, couldn't risk being too
accurate or it could buckle so it ended up about 1.5mm thick, tried grinding it down by hand on an emery stone and diamond plate, but that was just too long winded for me, so back to the lathe, the original stock was still chucked up that was a bonus, I turned a step on it to allow a friction fit of the ring, and tried to face it off.

No a great success, as soon as you started to cut the heat expanded the ring and it came asunder, I couldn't make a tighter fit for fear of deforming the ring during fitting or removing, so the next option was Super Glue, stuck it on with that and it worked a treat, then I only had to try and dissolve the glue with Acetone and work it off with a razor blade.  

[andycapp]

Ha! Awesome!

[andycapp]

Honestly I had never thought of sticking stuff to a face plate or spud like you did until I looked into what and how the Watchmakers do what they do! Always so much to learn....

[ausimax]

An update to the story, the watch turned out to be one of my favorites, took it off yesterday for the first time since I got it going,  next twist to the story, amongst the batch I posted of in what's coming in the mail was a nice Orient quartz dress watch, shoved in a battery and no go, so I started to pull it down and discovered it was riddled with battery acid, cleaned it up and thought it may work, however when I tested the coil it was dead, end of that idea.

About this time I discovered that it was the same calibre as the movement from the diver, I knew it worked and the parts from this one I needed were OK so some transplants were made and the new Orient lives again.

How things work out, I spent 2.5 years looking for a donor for the diver without any joy, then a Month after I modded it and got it going one turns up. 

[Groundhog66]

Nice save, that's awesome.

[yomama]

Awesome project. As you pointed out very unique you looked for one. Love the ending the watch God's getting a good laugh in congratulations on the cool diver

[rogart]

Have such a movement ausimax . A Orient 56910 intact spring. If you like to fix the watch to it's former glory?