Today it's one of my favorites, 6106-8440 from 1970. Original bracelet, I don't remember if I replaced the crystal or not when I first bought it around 5 years ago. I always ran pretty well but lately started hanging up on the day changeover.
I've been servicing this one on and off the last week or two when I can find time to work on it. 23j version, so 4 diafix to deal with but that part went ok. I had the mainspring out a couple times, I think it might just be tired and in need of a new one. MS arbor ports are in very good shape on this one, but the spring has a noticeable kink where the end of the bridle sits. Still has a good power reserve though, so who knows.
I had it running well last week so I cased it up and wore it for a while. Threw it back on the timer and it was terrible! 150 ampl. and timing all over the place. It took a while to figure out, but I had two separate issues.
First, some components were seriously magnetized. With the movement resting in the case on the TG, every time I lightly installed the case ring & wave spring, the amplitude would drop 20+ degrees. I finally checked it with a compass and the needle went crazy. The case was also a little bit affected, and the movement was making the compass move too. I finally got it all demagged and it was better.
Second, was a problem when I would tighten the caseback. As soon as it would start to tighten up, the TG showed a 10-15 degress loss in amplitude, like something dragging. It was repeatable too. Remove the caseback, amplitude goes back up. It was not showing any magnetism when checked with the compass.
Eventually traced it (I think) to the plastic dial spacer. When I initially tore down the watch, I noticed the spacer was cracked, so I carefully glued it. I must not have gotten it realigned exactly, and it was binding up somehow. Installed a spare dial spacer, and it seems to be cured.
I'm still not thrilled with the amplitude on this one, but I'm done dicking around with it, for now at least. When I first take it off and place it dial up on the TG, it will show 255-265 for a few minutes. Then it settles down to 215-220 dial up. After 24hrs it will still be 205-210. It seems to be fairly consistent across positions so I'm gonna just enjoy wearing it for a while.
One other problem I ran into with this, that is something I hadn't seen before; it ran quite well for 4-5 hrs on the TG yesterday while I worked on other things. Then rather suddenly the amplitude dropped into the 140s! It took a minute or two to figure this out. I had it dial down postion in the TG clamp so I could observe the balance. The dial and hands were not installed at this point, but the calendar wheels and mechanism were.
I think what happened was the TG clamp was hindering the motion of the date wheel while the date was trying to change over. I removed the movement from the TG, advanced it with the crown until both wheels clicked over, and the lost amplitude was back. I'll try to remember that one.
I'm still nowhere near a watchmaker but I'm learning all the time and my old 6106 is running, which all I really wanted anyway. I really like the dial on this one, it's a dark gray sunburst with highly polished markers. It has a nice understated look that I enjoy.
Wow, this post ended up longer than I intended.
As they say, if you made it this far, thanks for reading. It's not like there's much else to do anyway for a lot of us right now... I'm working mostly from home so evenings are agreat time to catch up on my backlog of watch projects.
Pics aren't the best but here they are.
Steve
PS- I forgot! I hope Ramon is ok.
