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semperfi55

I, Watch God(?)

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semperfi55

Read on fellow newcomers, let this be a cautionary tale...

Amateur tinkerers, let this bring you back to the first watch you broke repaired,

Veteran watchsmiths, nothing to see here.

 

As I started hoarding watches, one reality dawned upon me: the cost of service and repair. I had to factor in these costs when buying new watches. So I figured I should invest in some watch tools and learn some skills. Logixa has been an inspiration recently, so I decided I should try my hand at tinkering. 

That was 6 weeks ago. As per my profile interests, I do like procrastinating. 

So this Saturday past, whilst most Britons were busy with the Royal Wedding, I finally decided to fix this:

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One of my Soviet Raketa watches. The main thing going for this watch is the Cyrillic day wheel. Except it's all wonky. Also, remind me to change the strap for a two tone bracelet.

The date function works fine. Changes when I advance watch past 12 midnight. But the day may only change by advancing the watch three days. I suspect that the day wheel teeth were not aligned with the day change mechanism. Or there are teeth missing.

Now, I figured this should be a piece of cake. Remove the caseback, remove the crown stem, pop the movement out, remove the hands, remove the dial, deal with the offending day wheel and retrace my steps out. Simples. At worst, buy a replacement day wheel.

 

Plus, I do have some experience messing about with watches.

 

Exhibit A

My Sputnik commemorative Franken watch

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This beauty wasn't looking so hot when it arrived. No pics of it when it was DOA. With no tinkering experience whatsoever, I popped it open and fiddled with the balance wheel. It must have got the message that I wasn't fucking around because something made it work again!    Talent? Maybe.           Skills? Possibly.              Luck? Most definitely!

 

Exhibit B

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Watch at the bottom is a Fossil Blue. Quartz fashion watch? Shameful I know. But I'll forgive 9 year old me for grabbing that watch almost the moment I walked into the shop. The dial alternates colour between blue and green! Unfortunately, time and neglect has taken its toll on my first watch and so the movement was kaput even with new batteries. Probably corroded by the old battery.

Obviously no point requesting a fresh movement from Fossil. No shops sell this watch anymore too.

Thank goodness we live in the internet era! For GBP 12 I bought the exact same model on eBay. I cannibalised the eBay watch for parts to replace the quartz movement, colour changing circuit and move some of the bracelet links over to my watch. Basically, the only thing not replaced is the case, most of the bracelet, crystal and crown stem. Anyone reminded of the Ship of Theseus thought experiment? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Theseus

 At one point is my old watch not my old watch, given that I have replaced so many parts? 

Fuck that, it's working now!

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Watch goes green,

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Watch goes blue!

Great success!:clap:

 

Now back to the old Soviet watch.

To get me into a tinkering mood, I needed a drink that was thematically suitable.

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Bit of cheap rakia from Bulgaria. Just came back from visiting some old friends there. Nice stuff, many Bulgarian families have their own home setup. Their version of moonshine, if you will. Often, they would use apricots and plum for flavour. The homemade stuff can go up to 60-70% alcohol content. But the retail ones only sell them at a regular 40% so meh.

Ok, nice drink on the workbench. Let's get down to it!

Place the watch in some sort of watch holder and use a plastic ball to open the caseback.

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But it won't open! :(

Ah wait, but with a proper caseback screw tool, done it. So it's a two part caseback. Oh these peculiar Russians...

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And here we have a 2628h Raketa movement

More info on this lovely site: https://17jewels.info/movements-en/movements-r-en/movements-r-raketa-en/1070-r-raketa-2628-h.html

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Cool, now I removed the crown stem and gently remove the movement out from the case.

Onto the movement holder it goes.

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Just to mention,  this is a non-hacking movement, which means the second hand continues going when the crown is pulled all the way out. I believe typical  watch repair convention is to release the mainspring click to unwind the watch in a controlled manner to stop the movement. I didn't do that. 

Straight to the dial protector and hands remover! The rakia is giving a lot of dutch courage!

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Voila!

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Next I needed to remove the dial to access the day wheel. Piece of cake.

Or not. The dial seems to be fixed to the movement! Then I remembered dial feet were a thing so found the potential screws securing the dial feet. They were tiny!

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For my screwdriver to gain better access, I thought it wise to remove this piece. So went about unscrewing it.

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Chaos. This was when I stopped taking photos. Panic mode. Moment I loosened that part, the gears went all funny and started going really fast. Then it all stop.  The movement was now unwound. Crisis #1 averted.

And that is why you unwind the movement first by dealing with this little guy.

Close up

Ok lesson learnt. I'm gonna unwind it properly now. Stupidly unscrewed the mainspring click and a tiny spring popped out. Spent 15 mins on the floor. Found it. Crisis #2 averted.

Finally, watch is unwound safely. Where was I? 

Oh yes, loosen the dial feet. Somehow I managed to unscrew those tiny screws and got the dial off!

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Stupid misaligned day wheel, you have taunted me from the safety of your dial for far too long! Prepare for your reckoning realignment!

Disclaimer: I don't talk to all my watches this way. Interpret that statement however you will.

In my excitement, another crucial photo was not taken, so here's one from the internet.

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This is what you see with the day wheel removed. The star shaped gear at 11 o'clock is the one responsible for day change. My watch looks exactly like this one in the photo. No teeth missing, nothing broken on the day wheel too. Started advancing the watch by 24 hours. Simultaneous day date change! What? Mechanism is fine!

So it must be poor alignment between day wheel and day change mechanism then. The day wheel was indeed slightly bent. That explains it, the day mechanism was working fine but it was not translating to the day wheel due to poor teeth alignment. So I tried bending the day wheel a bit here and there to straighten it out.

Did I break the day wheel when bending it, causing me to rage out and check the watch out the window?

 

 

No I did not.

Pop the daywheel back on and it seems to be working!

Now I start retracing my steps back.

 

Put the hands back on (make sure you advance movement to midnight then place hands pointing at 12). Put the dial back. Put the tiny screws back in and screw them tight.

Too tight.

One of the screw break and half the screw was lodged in securing the dial feet. Well fuck removing the dial in the future, that thing is locked down for good now! Crisis #3 is one for future me.

Placement movement back in case and seal the tomb.

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Yay sort of working now! Day date change simultaneously! Good enough for me :D

 

Highlights

1) Accidentally trigger violent unwinding of movement

2) Loses tiny spring when trying to unwind movement the proper way

3) Breaks screw for dial feet. Swears vigorously.

 

Lessons learnt

1) Work on surface with raised edges so screws and springs won't roll off the table.

2) Stop/unwind the watch before removing hands or stripping watch any further.

3) Drink less (or less strong stuff) when tinkering.

4) Make sure movement is set to 12 midnight before putting hands back on (First attempt without doing so meant day date change happened at 7pm....)

5) Fingers are oily. Wear gloves or the weird finger condom things.

6) Don't start off tinkering with your expensive Noob V25 Sub. Start on a cheapie.

 

 

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Luxuracer

Great 'tutorial'!

You are advancing really fast in this hobby. Just in a very short time you swapped out movement and realign day wheel ... unlike some weasel that we known. 

Your writing is also very entertaining. 

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RollyCR

You should write novels. Fantastic writing.

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Rx4Time

Definitely captivated me.  Never thought reading about watchsmithing could be so harrowing. 

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RandomGuy

Well done!

Yes your writing is very entertaining, but you’ve got mad macro-photo skills too. Thanks for sharing.!

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Chixisigma

Lovely stuff! Congrats on the progress

Chi

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VMSG

Really great, thank you for sharing

 

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zulu44gmt

Time to invest in a roomba


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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GingerApple

Awesome!!!!!

I kept waiting for the inevitable, unrecoverable, fuck-up that would consign the watch to the spare parts bin forever - but it never came!!! Success!!!!!!! You're a legend in my book buddy!

8 hours ago, Luxuracer said:

You are advancing really fast in this hobby. Just in a very short time you swapped out movement and realign day wheel ... unlike some weasel that we known. 

Errrrr, who are you talking about...?

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RussP

Nicely done and executed.

Well written and an entertaining read to boot.

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Foxindebox

:clap: well done you!

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semperfi55
17 hours ago, Luxuracer said:

'tutorial'

Indeed the best way to describe this thread! Thanks Obiwan, it’s been an enjoyable journey but I do recognise my limits. I’m not touching watches more complicated than this unless I have practiced on a similar movement.

@RollyCR Cheers! Needless to say you’ll be invited to the launch for the hacky sequel  “I, Watch God Part II: The Re-repair”.

@teddy875 Thank you! I seldom hear “harrowing”used in a compliment, but I like it :)

@RandomGuy Thanks! No skills, just iPhone 7S haha! My DSLR is still in repair, I’d imagine the photos would be even more insane with that one.

@Chixisigma @VMSG Thank you for the kind words! :D

@zulu44gmt Lol had to google what that was!  I could but then with that money I could buy more repsinstead?

@Gingerbubba Hah kept the suspense to reel people in and troll them with a more or less happy ending! Don’t worry, there will be a time when I overreach and you’ll have a tragic comedy to read through!

@RussP @Foxindebox Cheers guys! Again it was more luck than skill at play here. But reading up beforehand did help massively!

 

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Luxuracer
15 minutes ago, semperfi55 said:

Cheers guys! Again it was more luck than skill at play here. But reading up beforehand did help massively!

Hell no .... This is 10:1 ... skill vs luck.

Luck is when your A7750 stopped working ... then you slapped it real hard against the palm of your hand ... then it ran perfectly again.

Simply put, it is NOT easy to work on watches. 

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Glaude

Awesome work mate, congrats ! Those Russian movement are hard to break, I speak from experience !

13 hours ago, Gingerbubba said:

Errrrr, who are you talking about...?

Shit talking as usual, just how we like him ! 

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Luxuracer
11 minutes ago, Glaude said:
13 hours ago, Gingerbubba said:

Errrrr, who are you talking about...?

Shit talking as usual, just how we like him ! 

There are 2 weasels .... a Fuckweasel and a Frenchfuckweasel ... :rofl:

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Glaude
3 minutes ago, Luxuracer said:

There are 2 weasels .... a Fuckweasel and a Frenchfuckweasel ... :rofl:

Why every time I try to be a dick at you, you come with nice comment like that pfff you really have square nuts ! :lol: 

Of course I'm a weasel !

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FunnyStarSystem

Semper did you just "voila" removing the hands? Seriously, that is not the language I generally use, and it is at this stage that my watch usually becomes so much debris, and I walk away to another hobby.

Cheers for a lovely read even so :beer2:

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