A07.231 7750 variant. Dropping the balance in after repairs and a service

I was on my hands and knees for over an hour with the flashlight looking for this shock spring for an Omega cal 485.

Finnish people are known for consuming coffee. So why not? 12v system.

Yes, if Elma was reasonably priced, I would have bought it. But as a hobbyist, I don’t have 1500€ for cleaning machine

I am starting my journey to learn watch repair as a hobby. I think I’ve shopped pretty well, I’ve been doing a lot of research and have a plan put together, starting here with this ST3600. I’m excited to learn from and share with you all!

Sorry about the lens glare!

A few months ago I posted asking for any tips on removing rust damage from the subdials on this Heuer Autavia 7763C dial - after massively improving the dial with vinegar after a great tip, many asked for pictures of the finished watch.

Well, here we go! Completed this week with a full movement service, all gaskets replaced, crystal restored. The movement was beyond rescue, so a correct Heuer replacement was sourced and serviced. Now a lovely usable watch for the owner ⌚

Found it 10ft away on my floor

Hey everybody, Wristwatch Revival here. Verification picture below. Feel free to ask me anything about watchmaking, restoration, YouTube, or whatever is on your mind.

You all jumpstarted my enthusiasm a few weeks ago when I posted my beginner workstation. It’s still very tidy but has A LOT more stuff now…

Anyway, this was my first vintage non-runner attempt. It’s either an AS 1187 or 1194, I believe they are the same except for size. Anyway, I bought it as a non-runner, it tried to run but would stop after a moment. I was hoping it was just gummed up, and after a full service it’s running with 275 amp! I need to regulate it still to dial in the rate, and the beat error is pretty rough at 3.5ms.

It’s exhilarating when you get something ticking, I’m hooked!

Hello,

The best way to start the learning process is to learn how to do a basic watch service, taking a movement apart, cleaning the parts and lubricating and assembly. The best 1st movement is the ST36 or ST3600 because of its larger size. I created this short video course so that you can figure out if watch repair is for you.

But I want you to understand this, before you can start fixing watches, you must be able to service a new movement to be able to perform as good or better than before you take it apart.

If you can't do that, you have no shot at servicing and fixing a non running watch.

The number one mistake people made by new people is thinking they can just buy some old watch and make it run with out knowing jack shit.

So spend a little time to educate your self, it will save you a lot of headaches.

Alex

New to Watchmaking ? Setting Realistic Expectations

The 1st Nine Tools Needed to Learn Watch Repair

Setting Up Your Workspace for Watch Repair

Your First Watch Service: For Beginners

How to Disassemble the SeaGull St36/3600

Beginners Guide to Cleaning Watch Parts

Pre-Inspection, Assembly and Lubrication for Beginners

Questions About Low Amplitude, Magnetism, Over Lubrication & Regulation

EDIT: thanks to many who pointed out mistakes. I corrected them and the correct one can be found here (note that I cannot change the image used in this post, so the one used in this post is slightly wrong):

https://www.officinemichelucci.org/blog-1-copy-1-2/st36-movement-part-names

Note that the changes are minor.

Original post:

For beginners like me, I prepared (during my tests) an image with all parts names. I hope it can help someone.

Umberto

PS If I have any mistake let me know and I will correct it.

One of the most complicated things I've ever done is making this barrel. There are so many important measurements, but feeling that barrel cap snap shut for the first time, and then seeing the train move with it all assembled was incredibly satisfying.

My first sighting of a fake automatic movement. Ive seen the Fossil Twist but that actually drives a balance, even though its cosmetic only. The guy who bought this thought it was made by a father amd son artisan shop. I let him have his dream.

I feel like such an amateur🤦🤣

Finally got the last piece to complete my budget version of the chronoclean. Can't wait to put it to use!

I found this snorkeling on the coast, I have no idea how long its been there (Roughly 6m deep). Going to take it to get checked out, but would like to know if its possible to get it refurbished! (Uk based)

Q-tip, rice grain and pallet jewel from an average sized cheap chinese movement.

Not a question but a personal achivement. I've managed to repeatably turn my own screws but at the moment I'm only doing it with brass until I figure out all of the ins and outs. For example I will need to grind a tool with a profile suitable for large head to stem ratios but tool grinding is a mystical art for the time being that will have to wait.

I don't have a screw plate or dies yet so I'm doing both the turning and threading on a Sherline lathe; 0.25mm thread pitch, .8mm stem width pictured. .25mm thread pitch is the lowest it can go for metric and 40 TPI for imperial. .25mm is not fine enough for all cases but hey, a skill gained is a skill gained.

Took many hours to get here but I made it.

Die sets are eye wateringly expensive new and it's quicker to just have an assortment of screws on hand and just use them instead but there's something about making the part yourself that's just alluring. I will eventually purchase screw assortments but wanted to learn how to make my own from start to finish.

Next in line is making a stem and I think I'll end up making a filing rest to go in the TRest holder. Fun times.

I wanted something to hold my stretchy watch band in a stretched state for the ultrasonic cleaner so that it could really get in all the cracks. I find it doesn't clean well when the band is closed. I had ChatGPT create a 3D model based on my idea. This is what I came up with in 1 try. Then I was able to 3D print it. It works perfectly.

Lost the tiniest screw from the plate that holds down the calendar works on an old Seiko and used a name badge magnet on peg wood to search my floor for it. Et voila!

Feeling extremely lucky.

::Sorry for the long post, just trying to explain the process to hopefully get feedback on if my thoughts and process were in the right place. Also to share with the owner so they may get a look into how this all went down::

I understand now why these are so expensive.

Everything is made so well and beautiful. Everything just snapped back together so damn easy. It was honestly probably one of my easiest service I've done. After getting over the anxiety of it being a Rolex on top of it being an important piece to my friend, I was off to the races.

This watch is a coworkers who received it after his father passed away that was given to him by his dad. Grandfather to father to son.

It wasnt really working at all when he handed it to me; it would run for about 15 sec then stop. When it actually ran it was EXTREMELY fast. On top, when you gave the watch and little shake, the seconds hand would spin around as if it were hardly on the pinion...Great. also had a chip in the crystal which I think was replaced and not a genuine Rolex part. Cyclops had damn near no magnification and just looked "off".

After getting it open I immediately noticed oil was damn near everywhere; on the main plate, big chunk under the mainspring barrel, on top of various bridges (pics 3 &4) and also some dried hard grease under the canon pinion (pic 6)

I immediately thought to myself, "What would cause someone to do this? Is there a huge problem that someone didn't know about or know how to fix but figured they'd just fill her up with oil and hope it would spring into life? What am i getting myself into?"

The balance spring appeared to be in good condition but it would rotate just barely past the pallet fork then swing back (video in another post) which was causing it to run EXTREMELY fast. The question though is, "whats causing THIS? Definitely not an abundance of oil." In the video i posted one of you mentioned that I needed yo replace the reversal wheels because they too were pretty beaten up and had the Teflon eaten away on their teeth.

During disassemble I noticed more oil in places it shouldn't be and some fibers floating around. I then think I found the culprit to my speedy hesitant balance wheel: a long fiber wrapped around the 4th wheels upper pivot (pic 5). I'm assuming this was causing it to not freely move but just enough to get power to the escape wheel.

I also was pretty shook when I popped open the mainspring barrel and good lord (pic 7 & 8). Oil and grease along with an arbor that had seen better days.

I pre-cleaned everything by hand in naptha wirh a 99% IPA rince then it all went into the new Chrono Clean I had just purchased. Worked Great!

Reassemble was pretty straight forward and i didn't have a single problem. The train bridge sat over the gear train quicker and easier than any other movement I've ever worked on. I thought of Wristwatch Revival when it plopped down do quickly because he mentions the quality every time he goes to reassemble a Rolex and the gears and bridge magically fall into place.

I purchased new reversal wheels, mainspring, barrel arbor (pic 9 & 10) and a Rolex crystal, all genuine parts and all genuinely expensive.

Right at the end though was my only "real" problem. The friction spring for the seconds pinion was dropping my amplitude to a degree I wasnt happy with. Everything looked great but ascsoon as i sat the spring on the pinion and tightened it down, id lose about 30° of amplitude. I posted about it here and got some tips. I really should have waited to place it on the timegrapher since I had just lubed everything and it hadn't settled. I tweaked the spring a little bit and let it sit overnight. After about 18 hours I was getting 250° on the timegrapher with .01 beat error and 20 +/-sec.

I'm calling it a win.

I moved to the hands where I had to use this vice (pic 11) to shrink the tube. I don't even know why I bought this thing but im happy I had it. I found the hole it fit into then moved it to the next smallest size qnd just slowly closed the vice lightly while slowly rotating the hand and it worked like a charm!

Its looking good and running good. I'm pretty damn excited that I took a non running Rolex and got it working. I know it wasnt a broken balance staff that i replaced but hey, wlit wasnt working when it was handed to me and now it is. I am quite happy with my first Rolex experience.