Sekonda movement swap - Update and new photos

[Theduke.williams 1,039]

I have been an avid watch enthusiast for the last 10 years or so, and in that time I have tinkered with the odd watch or two.

Having recently semi retired, I have helped out friends whenever I could by replacing batteries in their watches, repairing and replacing clasps etc, and I have somewhat become the go to guy in my village for minor repairs.

One of my friends asked if I could look at his retirement watch, a gold Sekonda, where the stem had pulled out of the movement when he went to adjust the date.

 

I did warn him that this may be beyond my capabilities, thinking that the keyless works will need working on, but said I'd take a look at it, as it may just be as simple as replacing the stem while pressing on the release lever.

I opened the watch, removed the movement and tried replacing the stem, but even though it clicks back home, it falls out when pulling to position 1, so obviously the keyless has failed.

The movement in this watch is a Miyota 2115 and can be bought on Cousins UK for the pricely sum of £3.55, however Cousins list two variants marked (3H) and (6H), the latter being £3.65.

I am uncertain as to what the designations refer to - is there a 6 hand version of this movement? or does this refer to the height of the handstack?

I'm assuming the (3H) movement would be the one for this watch.

I'm feeling fairly confident that I could do the movement swap, but this will be the most ambitious project to date. I anticipate the hardest part will be resizing the stem in the new movement to fit the watch.

I will also need to order a pin vice when I buy the movement to remove / replace the crown.

 

Understand that this watch has some sentimental value for the owner, far in excess of its true value - though I won't tell him that.

Also understand the owner is retired, so cannot afford to pay the silly prices a high street watch repairer is likely to charge.

I really would like to restore this watch for my friend as cheeply as possible, so I would welcome any advice that the members here could give.

Am I being over confident?

 

 

[NCRich 13,764]

3h and 6h refers to date at 3 vs date at 6.  No need to switch over the stems since its the same movement.  Just use the same stem and crown.  All you have to do is move over the dial and hands.  Pretty simple unless you are ham handed.

[Theduke.williams 1,039]

1 hour ago, NCRich said:

3h and 6h refers to date at 3 vs date at 6.  No need to switch over the stems since its the same movement.  Just use the same stem and crown.  All you have to do is move over the dial and hands.  Pretty simple unless you are ham handed.

Oh... That's pretty obvious now, shows what a noob I still am!

Thanks Rich, I'm feeling just a bit more confident now.

I guess my confidence got shattered last time I tried a 'simple' fix for a friend;-

 

[Theduke.williams 1,039]

Follow up - the Miyota movement arrived today and I promptly tore down the watch and removed the old movement.

Fitting the new movement was a breeze - it's just a push fit on the locating pins on the back of the dial.

 

Fitting the hands though.... Hm... that's slightly more fiddly.

I do have a hand setting tool, and eventually managed to get the hands fitted, and I'm quite chuffed that the date snaps over at about 2 minutes past midnight.

The second hand was a bitch to fit though, and I quickly learned that I need some sort of magnifcation to see what I'm doing,

I could have done with a third hand to hold my loupe close to the action, but I persevered and finally managed to get everything fitted with nothing damaged - Hooray.

As you can see the watch really could do with a decent clean, but I  only wanted to get this watch working, setting and returned to my friend in no worse a condition than when I got it, I think I acheived this.

 

 

The second watch in the above photo is a very sad Acurist Skymaster that another friend asked if I could get the hands working on it.

Upon looking closely at it, it was obvious why the hands wouldn't turn - see below;-

 

Yup - the borders had fallen off the display windows and jammed everything up.

I couldn't be sure if the movement may have overworked and failed so I had my doubts about recovering this watch.

I pointed this out to my friend and said I'd take a look, but couldn't give any guarantees,

The Skymaster is a whole new level for me, as it has 2 movements, a quartz module that powers the LCD displays and a quartz movement sitting below that powers the hands.

In order to remove the face you need to remove the stem, and this means you have to strip down and remove the LCD module before you can get to the quartz movement.

This one required quite a large brave pill, but I started stripping down the watch.

 

I finally managed to remove the stem, drop the face out of the case, and remove the offending borders.

Now a competent watchsmith would probably glue these borders back in place, but I am, and only ever will be, a tinkerer, so these borders got placed in a little plastic bag to return to the owner, should he decide to have a full restoration done ( I doubt it).

Watch was rebuilt in the order it was stripped down, and joy of joys, the hands started moving when a new battery was placed in the movement.

The LCD displays were all working, so I'd managed to rebuild the top module correctly, that was a huge relief, however the light wasn't working on the LCD displays.

I was tempted to give this watch back in this condition, but was really bugged by the backlight not working, then it dawned on me what the two plastic spacers were that fell off the curcuit board when I lifted it out of the watch - they were bridge conductors to power the backlight.

Looking very closely at the teardown photos, and adjusting the light settings I was able to see where these plastic bridges fitted - there are cut outs in the plastic backing plate at the top right and bottom left position.

You can see where I fitted the one plastic bridge on the top right.

 

So another half hour spent stripping down and repairing this watch, and now it all works, including the backlight!

 

 

 

Oh man, I feel so good now.

I have stressed time and again to my friends that I don't want payment for my efforts, I enjoy fixing up and restoring to life watches that may otherwise end up in the forever drawer.

I daresay there'll be a drink or two in it for me though.

 

Moral of the story - don't ever be afraid to try! sometimes you'll f**k up (see above link), but the feeling of self satisfaction when you succeed is immense.

If I can do it, anyone can.

 

Guess all that remains to be said is that I now need to improve my arsenal - magnifying glasses are definately on the hit list!

[GenTLe 1,509]

Only trying (and f**king up sometimes) one learns  

Good job!

[Degsy1880 254]

Well done now on to a franken ha