Post by siralan on Nov 25, 2014 4:25:04 GMT -8
Fresh from the full restore of my 6139 6002 with a 6139B movement, I had a 6139A movement in parts and a sample 6139 7069 case, crystal, pushers, crown, dial and hands that just needed to come together.
Now that I have intimate knowledge of the 6139B movement, I was confident that I could get the 6139A movement working.
The clean and rebuild went without hitch until I came to fit that pesky Hammer spring.
I couldn't work out how to fit it, even though I'd had no problems fitting it to the 6139B movement. I spent a long time looking at the Barrel and train wheel bridge, specifically at the operating lever that the spring engages with.
I came to the conclusion that I was missing a part, and that during the disassembly it must have fallen off and then been misplaced :-(
Here is the 6139A:
and here is the 6139B that I was more familiar with:
hopefully you can see the difference between the two, at the very top of the pictures - the small finger plate that engages with the pillar wheel (on the B movement) and it missing on the A movement.
The Hammer spring hooks under this on the B movement, keeping it under tension. I couldn't work out where to hook the spring on the 6139A movement.
Anyway, after much reading of the Technical Guides and looking at images of the 6139A movement I realised the obvious.
The Hammer springs are completely different shapes between the A and B movements - doh!!
Now, I have to confess to another faux pas during the 6139B rebuild. When I disassembled the 6139A movement the Hammer spring pinged off and despite looking everywhere (you know how it goes), I couldn't find it. I've since had two further looks and its still MIA.
Never mind I thought, I have a spare. Nope, my spare was for the 6139B movement.
So, what's the difference? Well, its obvious when you compare them side to side (A at the top):
Luckily Cousins stock this part (only the 6139A part, not the 6139B).
So, once it arrived I completed the re-build :-)
The movement is now fully working and keeping very good time (approx. 20 secs per day) and the chrono functions also work correctly (no issues with the center chronograph wheel I'm pleased to say).
Then it was time to fit the dial and hands.
I must admit I'm always very nervous when fitting dials and hands that have come from Sample cases - they are in almost NOS condition and I'm always terrified of damaging / marking them, especially the hands.
The hands came off nicely, and re-fitting them was going well until it came to the seconds hand.
when I reset the chronograph, the seconds hand wouldn't reset to 12, in fact it was resetting to a semi random position each time.
I realised what the problem was when it took it off - the tube was split :-(
I'm not sure it wasn't split already (i.e. on the sample dial), but no matter, it was now useless.
Luckily I had a spare hand, that came to me painted blue.
So, I stripped the blue paint off and repainted it with a homemade 'orange' colour made from a mix of red and yellow Humbrol enamel paints.
So, finally (!!), here is the finished watch:
I'm really pleased how this has turned out.
The case has a lovely weight to it and whilst the bracelet I've fitted is completely wrong, it actually works really well with the case lines.
Now that I have intimate knowledge of the 6139B movement, I was confident that I could get the 6139A movement working.
The clean and rebuild went without hitch until I came to fit that pesky Hammer spring.
I couldn't work out how to fit it, even though I'd had no problems fitting it to the 6139B movement. I spent a long time looking at the Barrel and train wheel bridge, specifically at the operating lever that the spring engages with.
I came to the conclusion that I was missing a part, and that during the disassembly it must have fallen off and then been misplaced :-(
Here is the 6139A:
and here is the 6139B that I was more familiar with:
hopefully you can see the difference between the two, at the very top of the pictures - the small finger plate that engages with the pillar wheel (on the B movement) and it missing on the A movement.
The Hammer spring hooks under this on the B movement, keeping it under tension. I couldn't work out where to hook the spring on the 6139A movement.
Anyway, after much reading of the Technical Guides and looking at images of the 6139A movement I realised the obvious.
The Hammer springs are completely different shapes between the A and B movements - doh!!
Now, I have to confess to another faux pas during the 6139B rebuild. When I disassembled the 6139A movement the Hammer spring pinged off and despite looking everywhere (you know how it goes), I couldn't find it. I've since had two further looks and its still MIA.
Never mind I thought, I have a spare. Nope, my spare was for the 6139B movement.
So, what's the difference? Well, its obvious when you compare them side to side (A at the top):
Luckily Cousins stock this part (only the 6139A part, not the 6139B).
So, once it arrived I completed the re-build :-)
The movement is now fully working and keeping very good time (approx. 20 secs per day) and the chrono functions also work correctly (no issues with the center chronograph wheel I'm pleased to say).
Then it was time to fit the dial and hands.
I must admit I'm always very nervous when fitting dials and hands that have come from Sample cases - they are in almost NOS condition and I'm always terrified of damaging / marking them, especially the hands.
The hands came off nicely, and re-fitting them was going well until it came to the seconds hand.
when I reset the chronograph, the seconds hand wouldn't reset to 12, in fact it was resetting to a semi random position each time.
I realised what the problem was when it took it off - the tube was split :-(
I'm not sure it wasn't split already (i.e. on the sample dial), but no matter, it was now useless.
Luckily I had a spare hand, that came to me painted blue.
So, I stripped the blue paint off and repainted it with a homemade 'orange' colour made from a mix of red and yellow Humbrol enamel paints.
So, finally (!!), here is the finished watch:
I'm really pleased how this has turned out.
The case has a lovely weight to it and whilst the bracelet I've fitted is completely wrong, it actually works really well with the case lines.
