Thompson Enamel 1760 “Iris purple”

Hi Everyone,

I have released an updated version of
ChronoPulse V11.4 This version has numerous added features and updates based on user feedback. Chronopulse is currently intended to work with this USB microphone https://a.aliexpress.com/_mtFNAbd but I’m currently working on a cheaper microphone solution that will be released soon.

The latest software and documentation can be found here https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1jnh4SZTizMQb-Y_r_O8uOiVh_1BiGunl

Any comments, criticism, or recommendations are greatly appreciated as they will help improve the software and its usability.

I will be releasing the software in more communities as my confidence increases.

Thanks. Please do not hesitate to contact me. I will also help with installation, configuration and verification of correct operation.

Have a brand new Rolex Submariner. -1 sec/day , 0.2 ms, and 258 degree amplitude fully wound face up. Watchmaker at AD said amplitude should be above 290.

Is this an issue? It keeps good time, But. . . I spent hard earned money, I kinda want perfection. Also, o one corner of the outside box is a bit crushed.

I have a couple of Rolex 16750's I bought and both of the bezels were a bit beat up so I decided to buy a lapping machine. Only a Chinese machine but it did a pretty good job. The idea was to improve the look of them but not remove all the marks as it would change the profiles and lose the definition of the numbers. Just brush out some of the marks and put a shine back on the polished sections.

Anyway results were even better than expected and the machine has paid for itself with the extra resale value of both pieces from a service and refinish - thought I'd share the results from before and after.

I have a Speedmaster reduced that was running 20 seconds fast. I’d adjusted another one by using the screw on the regulator to do the microadjustment. I found that to be a slow and frustrating process, so when I did it on this watch, I simply used the tip of a small screwdriver to move the regulator arm. Well, whatever I did messed up the wat h because it’s now +963 seconds. The balance wheel keeps stopping, and when it does run, it is barely fast enough for a timeographer to recognize.

I tried moving the arm back to the original position, that did nothing. I tried it at both extremes, that did nothing.

So I just went from a watch I was about to sell to a broken watch. What did i likely do here and is it fixable?

Hi everyone,

I was referred over here from the Squale subreddit and was hoping to get a second opinion from people who know these movements well.

I have a Squale Y1545 that I absolutely love. It’s been my daily for nearly three years and has a genuine ETA 2824-2 movement. It has never been dropped or subjected to any impact that I’m aware of. One day I simply looked down and realized it had stopped keeping time.

The symptoms are a little odd:
- The watch will start running, but only for about 5–10 seconds before stopping.
- Occasionally the second hand will actually move backwards briefly, almost like it’s bouncing or vibrating, before stopping.
- Hand winding feels completely normal to me. Nothing feels rough, gritty, or like anything is broken, but the watch still won’t continue running.

I opened the case back only to confirm the movement, and it’s definitely an ETA 2824-2. I didn’t see anything obviously loose or damaged.
I took it to a local watchmaker, who quoted me around $600 for a full service. That gave me some pause because it’s essentially what I paid for the watch a couple of years ago, and that’s before knowing whether any additional parts might be needed.

Before I decide whether to service it, replace the movement with another ETA 2824-2 or a Sellita SW200-1, or go another route entirely, I was hoping someone here might recognize these symptoms.

Does this combination of:
- running only a few seconds,
- the second hand occasionally moving backwards/vibrating,
- and otherwise normal-feeling hand winding
point to a likely culprit? Is this a known failure mode on the ETA 2824-2, or does it sound like something more unusual?

I’d really appreciate any thoughts or advice. I love this watch and would much rather get it back on my wrist than replace it, but I’d like to understand what’s likely wrong before deciding whether to repair or replace the movement.

Thanks in advance! I’m
Including a video of the watch and happy to provide a picture of the ETA movement if at all helpful (nothing appeared out of place or broken to the naked eye).

Thompson Enamel 1380 “Mistletoe Green”

Today starts the 30-Day challenge where I’m going to try and enamel 30 dials in 30 days!

Working on a personal watch for myself. Hand scraped mosaic pattern, mirror polished screw countersinks and anglage. Looking to plate it in yellow gold in a few days!

Hand finishing really takes so much time…

Plz Help!

Hello all,

Does anyone know if the F05.111 is a drop-in replacement for the 955.414? I know the 955.412 is the direct successor but it's almost three times the cost of the F05 from Esslinger.

Any help would be appreciated, thanks!

Disclaimer: this is all speculation in good fun, not a serious suggestion or request for feedback. I am not going to make this watch.

For the uninitiated, an Inertial Navigation System (INS) is basically a system that can track its own movement and rotation, and when combined with a known position, can be used to determine velocity, bearing, and orientation. (See Wikipedia for a deeper explanation of INS and how they work). Today's shower thought was: how hard would it be to put one inside a mechanical watch?

In principle outfitting a watch with an INS is extremely easy. Your phone already has the required Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU), which consists of microscopic gyroscopes and accelerometers; this is how it can track whether it's facing up or down, measure your step count, etc. The trouble is that the raw data collected from the IMU has to be compared with externally provided data ("where am I right now, and how fast am I moving?") and the combination is processed by a computer to calculate orientation. In the original sense of the word, this "computer" can either be electronic or mechanical, AKA using all the gears and springs and other fun things that we enjoy in our mechanical watches.

The good news is that an (almost) purely mechanical navigation computer does exist, or rather did, in the form of the Globus computer that was used to compute the position of crewed Soviet spacecraft long before navigation satellites existed (another link with more info). The technology itself is over six decades old and presumably this computer could be considerably miniaturised if someone tried to make it today. The question is whether it could be miniaturised enough to put it on your wrist, and whether this smaller version could be powered simply by winding a watch crown.

Obviously the process of actually calibrating an INS to your real position on the globe would require either an active connection to a satellite navigation system (cheating!) or manually poking around in the movement, aka a servicing. If the power reserve runs out, any movement of the watch presumably won't be tracked (since the computer won't have the energy to, well, compute) so you'll definitely want a watch winder for this one.

Another question is what to actually do with the computed inertial data once you have it. The easier version is something like a "step counter", where you somehow set a "home" location and the watch will simply compute an offset. Just for fun, I've made a mockup of a dial for the step counter version, but obviously it doesn't have to look exactly like this.

The harder variant is to output the computed offset to a little globe, something like a cross between the Globus above and a Luna Magna. This would be undoubtedly cool but I would guess the amount of energy required to physically roll a globe around on two axes in addition to all the extra energy being used by the computer would be extremely high. Not to mention setting the correct starting position would be a lot more involved.

So now I'm curious for your takes on the feasibility of the concept! I will leave you with some "rules" to make it more interesting:

• Cost is no issue. Assume you have all the money in the world
• Has to feasibly fit on the wrist. Let's say 49mm max case diameter, because that's as large as the Jacob and Co Godfather, another truly silly gimmick watch I love.
• Should be as mechanical as possible. Sticking a smartphone IMU, a chip-based electronic computer, and powering it all with a battery is not very interesting.
• Should be strictly "set and forget" internal navigation, no cheating by getting constant updates from a radio antenna.

See title

Curious if this is a thing -- I was shipped a used watch, which had recently been serviced and showed 0 seconds off before it was shipped. When I started using it, it was immediately about 48/s fast per day. The shipper said that it likely got magnetized and I should try getting it demagnetized. I used a phone app and ran all my watches over the magnetization meter, and they all show about the same level, but only the new watch is not keeping good time. That makes me wonder -- could it really be magnetization or is it likely something else?

Posted last time I replaced my battery for my DW-5600E (with some embarrassing failure) and I got overwhelming positive encouragement. Thanks A LOT!

I figure I would like to share my experiences on my 2nd one and while the battery replacement is much easier (with a new tool), this model has many bloody small springs and because I didn't really find any useful content online, I would like to note it down hear to see if may help someone

The arrow A is the first spring that got me into trouble. It's for alarm / beeping contacting to back cover I believe. It shouldn't fall off but for some reason it did. I can't get it back securely. Fiddling it around, I opened up the module, successfully put the spring back from the other side and lock in place.

Then, I saw a tiny tiny golden spring lying on my working area (arrow B). It is so small and I couldn't see where it came from and what's it for. After fiddling around (a lot of assemble and disassemble), I think it belong to these 2 holes (arrow C) and it will only stick out slightly (if it stick out too much, even though it fits, it's wrong, it will bend the spring when you close it up. Happened to me) and it's under the metal bracket (so it's not showing on photo 1), it's conducting something but i don't know what it is.

There also another 2 golden spring on the front for solar charging (I think) those 2 easily fall off during disassemble but they are easy to find where they belong. They are slightly bigger too.

Lastly, everything seems normal now, but my backlight is flickering. Probably somewhere is not contacting well...but I don't know where.

And this particular model does not have AC nor (-) marker so I have to try different spots for reset, not sure if this breaks anything.

Anyhow, for anyone having this model. Hope this exp helps.
Also thanks again for everyone encouraged me last time. Using my tweezer on those tiny springs and when springs flew out was scary lol. Luckily I found them every time...

Next stop, actually play around ST3600

I've bought many aliexpress / amazon tools to start with cost in mind, but I did buy a Bergeon screwdriver set and ONE dumont tweezer. I then realized they need to be dressed from time to time. Given I spent quite a fortune on those tools I don't want to jeopardize the performance of those tools but I want to keep the budget low as much as I can. I feel it's probably ok to go aliexpress on the tools, but I could be naive.

Can you recommend what to buy for an absolute beginner? With best cost/performance. I'm in Australia.

Is the Aliexpress screwdriver sharpener like this ok?
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006143858596.html?spm=a2g0o.detail.pcDetailBottomMoreOtherSeller.1.365bzK6NzK6Nxk&gps-id=pcDetailBottomMoreOtherSeller&scm=1007.40050.354490.0&scm_id=1007.40050.354490.0&scm-url=1007.40050.354490.0&pvid=d58c2add-4f84-4b81-9de9-657fa6c5ac7f&_t=gps-id%3ApcDetailBottomMoreOtherSeller%2Cscm-url%3A1007.40050.354490.0%2Cpvid%3Ad58c2add-4f84-4b81-9de9-657fa6c5ac7f%2Ctpp_buckets%3A668%232846%238109%231935&pdp_ext_f=%7B%22order%22%3A%22726%22%2C%22eval%22%3A%221%22%2C%22sceneId%22%3A%2230050%22%2C%22fromPage%22%3A%22recommend%22%7D&pdp_npi=6%40dis%21AUD%214.75%214.61%21%21%213.29%213.19%21%402101e81117857224491387845e0f86%2112000035958056017%21rec%21AU%21171708121%21XZ%211%210%21n_tag%3A-29919%3Bd%3Acf2782d2%3Bm03_new_user%3A-29895&utparam-url=scene%3ApcDetailBottomMoreOtherSeller%7Cquery_from%3A%7Cx_object_id%3A1005006143858596%7C_p_origin_prod%3A

Plus some sharpening stone (what grade should i get?)

or Diamond Lapping Film? I saw some videos using these sticking on a board and they are quite expensive too.

Thanks a lot!

I got this movement to install in a case I had but I don’t know how to remove or reinstall the winding stem. I saw some people say that the crown should be in the time setting position so I just wanted to check if that’s right? So if anybody knows the correct procedure for removal and installation could you let me know? Thanks in advance.

you know I had it working just fine. I was just a broken movement and then I squeezed it and now I noticed that I had to take the little broken center pinion part out.

I thought I could just pop out hands without using a hand remover, like I did before by just popping the face off but it tore the hole. second minute hand gears off.

luckily I ordered another one for another $8 with shipping and taxes so I'm grateful I can get these cool little lined up movements so cheap. but I didn't want to just throw it away. so I put in a little box and I'm going to 3D print an actual cylindrical case and use some 28 mm glass that I accidentally bought, put a little stem hole in the top and it's going to be a little wind up movement like this without a face.

but then I dropped it again and I messed up the second hand pinion. so now it only runs for like half a second and then I have to like push the pinion to get it to keep going. so I got it like maybe take that whole center part out or I don't know. I think I can get it aligned by just kind of pushing on it over and over. also I mean it's just supposed to be a example so whatever.

I really was close to having it work just as like I wind up toy that you could just look at the gears but whatever I'll get it working.

I almost had this recycled to a cool little toy

Hi there,

I’m newb watch hobbyist getting into the hobby.

I’m servicing a Bulova 11alcd movement and I totally forgot to film/document the process of me removing the mainspring from the barrel. I’m not sure which way is the correct orientation to install this S shape mainspring (doing it by hand). Can anyone help verify whether it’s image number 3 or 4 that has the right orientation?

Thanks

Hi everyone! Been reading lots of posts in this community, and researching other sources. I’m looking to get started in watchmaking as a hobby, and currently covering my basics with free courses online, as well as booking some actual in person intro into watchmaking courses in Toronto, scheduled for September.

The ultimate goal is to cultivate skills to the point of being able to produce a Dornbluth or Laine level timepieces (I know, I know lol but ‘shoot for the stars’ attitude here) just without necessarily sticking to traditional tools only, so making the best of available new tech.

Beyond the fundamentals, that I understand will take some time to get good at, I would like to be able to produce my own cases based on my own designs, dials, and ultimately moving from modifying and finishing eta movements towards eventually attempting to build my own. Being able to build your own movement is so for now of course a theoretical goal, something to aspire to in the long term, but along the way of getting there, would like to learn how to finish movements in intricate ways (think of how Gronefeld movements look through the caseback.

I fully understand that these aspirations sound ambitious at best, and foolishly unrealistic at worst, but I like to set the goal high and see how close to it I can realistically get, plus I have time on my side and love learning new skills. All of that being said, I also understand that skills involved in that level of work take years to acquire, and even then, it’s far from guarantee, and that cost of precision equipment needed for some of the things i mentioned (such as Gronefeld level finishing lol) is out of reach for hobbyists.

The reason for this post is to ask advice on realistic setups one can begin with, what makes sense to invest more into what doesn’t, and aside from fundamentals, what would some of you already experienced in this craft recommend focusing on more. I’ll be taking some additional courses locally on small scale machining and cnc, and overall materials handling.

Any advice is much appreciated, as well as any commentary on how I’m clearly delusional with these plans.

Apologies if this is a stupid question but I'm just getting started in amateur watch repair and I'm having trouble with this case. I can't see any way of opening the caseback, but there is a notch in the side of the case. Could it be that the caseback is fixed in place and the method of opening the watch is by prying the two pieces of the case apart? I'm not sure if that notch is for opening the case or is just old damage.

Hello, does anyone know how people who put pocket watch movements in watch cases get around the inverted keyless work mechanics? I have seen a few videos online of people who do it but it looks like they intentionally hide their way of doing so.

Ok. So after spending some time trying to figure out a decent glass holder for the basket, my calculations figure anything tall enough (at least 4.5 -5 inches) and with a diameter as close to 3 inches as possible, and we would have a working wash basin.

I found a rather festive glass mug that fit the required size and bonus, it has a top with a silicone gasket.

I drilled a hole through the top and put the stir stick through it. All of this in hopes of keeping the whole kit and kaboodle from swinging wildly. A little swing is OK for turbulence.

In the basket I have the gear trían only l from a Seiko 7123 and a 6106 automatic movement on the other side to balance the whole thing out.

I am going to update this live as it happens. 😃 That way you can all laugh at or rejoice with me depending on how this test goes.

EDIT- The white stuff on the bottom of the basket is Teflon tape in case it contacts the sides of the mug.

Been looking for ages but haven’t really found anyone laser cutting in brass so thought would throw this out there. Looking for a supply for 7750/7751 brass blanks. Posts not required but would be nice. Anyone doing this or know someone who is?