Identifying movement in an A Lange & Sohn replica

[nellis003 0]

Hi All,

I'm new to the forum - I did check out the "Movements found in replicas" post but still am not sure how to identify the movement in my A Lange & Sohn replica.  

I was in New York back in 2005 and found this watch at a vendor's booth.  All the watches were $5 and fairly cheap looking, but this one looked pretty good and had an interesting face, so I figured "why not" for five bucks.  Bought it and took it home, and haven't really done anything with it until now.  

I'm starting to get into watch maintenance and repair, so I thought I'd take a crack and figuring out an issue with this replica - as you can see from the pictures, it has a regular second hand, and then this unusual pair of second hands that split a minute in half - one hand counts from 0 to 30, the other from 31 to 60.  The 0 to 30 hand seems to work fine, but the 31 to 60 hand climbs to around 45, then drops back to 30, then climbs a little over 40 before dropping again.  Then the 0 to 30 hand takes over as normal.  

Does anyone know how I can identify the movement in order to assist with any diagnosis of the issue?  Related question: there's a button above the crown that doesn't appear to do anything.  Is that just left over from the case they used for the replica, or am I overlooking some functionality?  

Thanks for any advice.  

Nick

[Bill_C 148]

Welcome aboard.

I would suggest taking off the case back and looking for a reference number. That appears to be dual time zone, so does that push button advance the hour on the second time zone perhaps?

Either way, nice pickup for $5. Should be a fun movement to tinker with.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

[nellis003 0]

Thanks, Bill.  

I'll try taking the case off and looking for a number - I just thought maybe someone would know it from the pics or description.  I'll pull the cover tonight and see what I can find.  

The second time zone is adjusted in sync when you adjust the primary time, but then when you turn the crown in the opposite direction it only advances the second zone.  I haven't tried pressing the button while turning the crown out of concern I'd be breaking something inside.  I'll pull the cover and see if that button actually engages any of the mechanism or if it's just a leftover from the case.  

Not bad for $5; although I wore it to work today for the first time in a while and just noticed that it stopped running about a half hour ago.  So... more of a tinkering piece than a reliable one, I guess. 

Thanks again,
Nick

[tribefan 6,768]

With these cheap modified movements you can't assume that it is malfunctioning, it may be working exactly as designed. You can download a timegrapher app and see if it is low or high beat to narrow down the candidates.

Regardless, that is a cool watch. Personally, I would not monkey around with that because you'll never find an exact replacement for that movement if it breaks.

[black263 228]

Silly suggestion.  Turn the watch upside down, so 12 is at the bottom and 6 vertically above it.  Now does the same thing happen.  (I'm thinking something slipping like loose hands or backlash in the system.and if you turn the watch the other way up does that happen.)

[Bill_C 148]

Silly suggestion.  Turn the watch upside down, so 12 is at the bottom and 6 vertically above it.  Now does the same thing happen.  (I'm thinking something slipping like loose hands or backlash in the system.and if you turn the watch the other way up does that happen.)

That's a good suggestion. It very well could be either of those issues. Loose hand could be an easy fix as well.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

[Dr Fun Socks 76]

How do the small subdials run? Seconds? Minutes? Ive got a lange with split seconds that is in a fairly similar layout. I put a gif in the first image in this thread, is it similar?

https://forum.replica-watch.info/forum/a-lange-sohne/8190208-lange-dual-time-split-retrograde-second-repair-movement-nerd-out

[nellis003 0]

Some updates...

I removed the case cover but don't see any identifying numbers.  

Turning the watch upside-down does change the way the 31-60 second hand acts - it seems to struggle a bit more when it reaches the 45 second mark.  Even when I turn it so the 9 is at the bottom, that hand never reaches 60.  So I suspect there's something obstructing it internally.  

Dr Fun Socks - That's it!  I'm pretty certain we have the same movement.  You mention in that post that you don't know much about yours, have you found anything out since?  Huge help to see how the split seconds are done - I'm wondering if that half-teethed gear is in the wrong position?  

Thanks, everyone!
Nick

[Dr Fun Socks 76]

Hi Nick, yeah it sounds like the teeth on the wheel that controls the 31-60 hand could have some issues. Ill be honest i know nothing about the movement but it seems unlikely you will be able to get any parts.
 

You got a bargain if it was only $5 though! I think i paid about $300 on m2m! Ill be honest this isn't a great movement to learn on. There is a lot going on inside there. Its not like you’ve invested a lot of money in it though so your call! You will need a decent set of tools (hand removers, hand presses, screwdrivers, tweezers etc) to get to the point the split seconds mechanism is found. 
 

Does the hand always reset to the right point? If it goes too low then the hand just needs adjusting on its pinion. If not smart money would say the gear is done for and you could be out of luck.