r/watchrepair

Hey all! After a couple successful services on modern NH movements, I've decided to give a try at restoring an mid century wittenaur i found on Ebay. Everything is going fine so far, just waiting on some movement parts to arrive.

I feel silly but my biggest issue is finding this case tube, I've searched the resources kindly provided on this subreddit but im unable to find listings for a notched case tube like this. All I can find are solid all the way through. This seems to be a non shouldered tube, but its hard to tell from the damage.

Would you guys recommend I purchase a whole tube and make the notch myself?

Thanks for the help!

Hi everyone,
I’m hitting an absolute brick wall with a Seiko 7S26 movement service, and I’m at the point of total frustration. I’ve spent countless hours going back and forth on this, and I’m completely stumped.
To give you the full picture, the watch did run before I serviced it. Even after the strip-down and rebuild, I briefly had it running with the original hairspring. However, the amplitude on the timegrapher was absolutely terrible, and the hairspring clearly needed replacing.
The movement also has a brand-new mainspring, so the fault doesn’t appear to be related to a weak or worn mainspring.
After replacing the hairspring, I hit a wall. As you can see in the attached video, if I give the balance a puff of air with the blower, it wakes up and runs—but only for a couple of seconds before coming to a dead stop.
I have removed the train bridge, reassembled it, and double-checked everything. With the pallet fork removed, the train of wheels spins completely freely and smoothly under power. I’ve also removed and reinstalled the pallet fork multiple times and checked the pivots; they all appear to be fine. To rule out a faulty fork, I even swapped in a completely different pallet fork and pallet bridge. Same issue.
Hairsprings and adjusting them are still pretty new to me. I originally warped the stock one, so I bought a replacement and then managed to get that out of true as well. I bought another brand-new hairspring already mounted on a different balance cock—and here’s the kicker: that brand-new balance assembly gave me the exact same “stops dead” symptom.
I ended up damaging that second new hairspring, so I went back to the first replacement. I watched Alex’s videos on hairspring manipulation, bought the proper tweezers, practised on scrap springs, and managed to true it back up (pics attached). It looks flat and centred to my eye.
Because this identical “runs for two seconds and stops” issue happened with both a brand-new factory balance assembly and my newly trued balance assembly—but the movement previously ran with the original hairspring—I’m completely second-guessing myself.
Is it possible I’m missing a major drop in power delivery that only shows up when the pallet fork is installed? Or am I missing something subtle about how the balance is sitting or engaging with the pallet fork?
Before I completely lose my sanity and throw this movement in the bin, does anyone have any guidance?
Pictures of the trued hairspring and a video of the blower test are attached. Thanks for any lifelines you can throw me.
Edit: I’ve had to post the video in a separate comment as Reddit won’t allow pics and video in same comment. Edit 2, looking at the hairspring picture I can see that there are 2 coils stuck but this was taken before I recleaned in Ons Dip

Coworker found out I work on watches and tossed me this Baume & Mercier MVO 45216 in the morning and asked if id take a stab at.

By lunch time it was 15min fast (4 hours elapsed).

Got it home and tossed it on the timegrapher and it couldn't even pick up a decent reading.

Discovering it was a 7750 movement I got pretty excited. Ive worked on Seiko Chronos and a ST19 but always wanted to dive into the ever famous 7750.

1st headache: B&M tries to be cool and requires a special die, kinda like a Rolex casebqck but slightly larger to open the caseback. Rubber ball wouldn't work and rubber/silicone dies would work either. Let's go ebay!

Once those arrived and finally got a good look at the movement, it appeared that the balance spring was slightly lopsided and some coils were touching.

Ordered a new balance complete as I didnt want to eat up alot of time on my coworkers watch. I woukd had to spend time trying to bend it back into shspe to just mess it up and ha e to wait on a new one to arrive.

2nd Headache: Apparently its damn near guaranteed that the tube on the chrono hand will separate from the hand since it's so damn tight on the post. At least that's what happened to me. Once again, didn't want to waste time so I bought a new hand. Ill practice staking it back together since I'm now done with this watch.

I ran into a couple minor "speed bumps" but once I "figured it out", i was good to go and it all came together quite nice.

That little Oscillating Pinion was a pain in the ass to get sitting upright!

I was so relieved once I got everything back together and saw my readings on the timegrapher. After assembling and oiling, I'll let it run for about 24hours before checking and it looked good. After all the chrono partsvwere put back on with the dial and hands included, checked it again and... phew.

Success!

I then decided to polish up the bracelet and case a bit because it was beat to hell.

3rd Headache: these B&M bracelets endlinks were a damn nightmare to get back onto the case. I dicked around with this for close to an hour until I finally got once side installed.

Screw B&M with their proprietary casebacks and bracelet endlinks... so frustrating.

Learned alot, had fun, got frustrating at times but now i have and extra 7750 to play with (donor movement i didnt end up needing) and maybe use it to build someone at work a watch. I got a watch running like shit back into shape by swapping out a few parts and got to sink my teeth into a 7750 finally.

Hi everyone!
I‘m a total newbie to watch servicing and repairing as this is the very first watch I‘m tinkering with.
I‘ve done the basic stuff like a battery change or a bracelet change but have never really worked on a mechanical watch before.

I bought this one from Chrono24, knowing that it was broken. I‘ve read now that this is not the best way to ease yourself into the hobby but I am invested now in trying it out still.

I have been lucky enough to find a person on YouTube that has completely serviced this watch but am missing some informations still/have a few questions I wanted to address to you all.

So, the first one is about cleaning the parts. I‘m based in Europe and was wondering if anyone had an advice on which cleaning method/products are the easiest to find and relatively the best. Should I clean every part with the same product?

The second question is regarding oils, grease and lubricants. Which are the most crucial ones and which can I possibly pass on? Also, should I really grease the balance wheel if I procure a new one since the one in my watch is broken?

Third question… the balance wheel. I found out that mine snapped off at some point and will need to replace it. The movement is an ETA 2789 and I found the complete movement online for 120€ and the balance wheel for 90€. Is there an alternative to the original one? Can I source it from a different but similar movement?

Lastly, I will attach a picture of all the tools that I currently own. What would you advice me to buy next?

To whoever reached the end of this post, thank you! I appreciate your time and any advice or information you can give me.

Hi all! Just wondering if I need a new stem or if I made an error

I can wind the watch fine in my movement holder. It seems like the original stem and crown.

I pulled the crown out to time setting position and then pushed the setting lever button to remove the stem to put the movement into the case. Since, I can only move the hands with the crown fully pushed in, see the pics for crown position. Do I need a new stem, or do I need to try and correctly position it back in the movement?
If a new stem needed, what's my best avenue?

I'm confused as an original stem and crown surely can't lose length?

Many thanks!

Mishap happened while trying my hand at my first vintage watch movement ST1686. The centre wheel and 3rd wheel got crushed by my cell phone, bending the wheel and spectating the staff from the centre wheel. Are they an easy fix or should I go look for replacement parts?

Absolute beginner... Just finished a beautiful 1913 Elgin pocketwatch that still needs some regulation adjustment. Now I'm a third of the size in a Waltham late 60s, supposedly seiko made s-33/UT-33 automatic movement. The watch runs sometimes, and kept good time for hours in the heat outside 90f+ but stops running inside where it's 70F. I assume it just needs cleaned and new oil. Does anyone have any advice before I dig in further?

Hello guys good day!

Paano kaya to mawala? Parang moisture or tubig napunta sa loob

Nakalagay muna siya sa container na may silica gel tinanggal ko na din yung bezel and pinull out ko na din yung crown

Thank you guys and God Bless

I'm having a heck of a time finding the correct size crown for this Delta Impex wind up watch. All the ones I have don't fit. It seems to be slightly larger stem than most other watches that I have laying around for parts.

Case Barrel-
OD: 2.52mm
ID: 1.41mm

Stem-
OD: 1.16mm
Length: 12.76mm

If anyone can point me in the right direction that would be super helpful. Thank you!

Hi, I just got this from eBay and whilst I love the darkening of the dial, there is also a good bit of dirt on it and the glass. Some of it looks slightly mouldy but it also seems to be on the surface rather than under any finish. Any top tips on what to try and what to avoid?

After for far to long. I finally got a good service in my st36! Now it may drop in rate or amp or beat error in the next week since this was my actual first successful service (I still have plenty more to learn) But heres hoping!

edit: if this continues to keep good time I may put it in a 6497 orphan pocket watch case.

From what I understand u can fix this in any way. Is there any way to polish somthin like this.

EB8800 movement. Ran 1.5x speed when I got it. Wanted to trouble shoot and fix.
Demagnetized it already.
Lost the jewel on the balance cock so got a full new balance and hair spring and pivot from another watch.
Pegged the jewel and other part the pivot staff goes into.
Oiled jewel.
Regulated, got beat error down to 0.5ms (though when I close it up, it somehow pops back up to like 20ms when I reopen it).
Regulated again.
And it’s still going 1.5x speed.

I keep moving the regulator arm further towards the stud and still just can’t get it happy.

Help!

Sharing a simple 3d printed magnetic parts finder I designed in case helpful to anyone. It has the magnets embedded within the print so that the "catch surface" is smooth and easier to located small picked up pieces.

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:7378438

I was very excited to spot this tonight. It needs the bottom hand put back on, a new crown, and a major clean, but that’s ok because it’s mine now. It starts running after a shake, so that’s great.

Hi everyone! I just ran into a new issue I haven’t seen yet! I took apart a Bulova 11AOACB yesterday because it was dirty, and started pre-cleaning today. When cleaning the date driving wheel, I found that the spring that is usually held under that top plate has come out somehow. Does anyone know how to put it back in? I’m thinking I have it in the right orientation in the photo, but I’m not completely sure.

I’m in the process of restoring a Jean Cardot and noticed the Incabloc pivot jewel is cracked.

I haven’t replaced one of these types of jewels yet, I will give it a try, but before I do, just wanted opinions if this crack will greatly affect performance? Could I just leave it or should I definitely replace it?

It’s for the underside of the balance wheel.

So I picked this one up at a very good price and figured that it was worth the risk, as replacement movements aren’t very expensive.

Here is what I have noticed.

1. The first thing was when setting the hands with the crown pulled out, the hour hand will spin but the minute hand stays still. I also cannot seem to get the date wheel to spin.

2. With a new battery installed (392) the second hand twitches back and forth in one position and does not move. I have not tried taking the hands off yet.

Before I go investigating further on my first quartz repair, what are your thoughts?

Thanks!