SkinnyPupp's Adventures in Watchmaking

[SkinnyPupp]

It'll be working fine don't worry!

[RabidRat]

These inspection reports that come with photos and video seems like a huge added value that I bet enthusiasts would happily pay a premium for.

[Gumby]

All these replacement parts - do you keep a wide variety on hand? I can only imagine that there is a huge assortment of springs, gears, cogs etc.

[bcrdukes]

Originally Posted by RabidRat

These inspection reports that come with photos and video seems like a huge added value that I bet enthusiasts would happily pay a premium for.

Are you referring to a post purchase inspection?

[SkinnyPupp]

Originally Posted by Gumby

All these replacement parts - do you keep a wide variety on hand? I can only imagine that there is a huge assortment of springs, gears, cogs etc.

I don't have anything other than the movements I've worked on since starting this thread. But it's easy to get parts for common movements like Seiko and the more common Swiss movements, even older parts like this. With the newer ones you often have the choice of getting original parts or replicas

That new wheel will cost about $1 plus another $1 for shipping

[SkinnyPupp]

I can't remember if I shared this, but one of the first things that happened to the first Seagull ST3600 I bought, is that the balance wheel simply fell off during reassembly! I assumed I must have been too rough with it, but as it turned out, there was insufficient adhesive on the stud to keep the hairspring in place.

So into a box it went, as I continued to work on its replacement. In the back of my mind, I wanted to come back to it once my skills (and magnification) were up to the task. So I took a stab at it today, with some UV glue, and a working balance for reference.

Here's the balance cock with balance removed (well it fell out). No trace of glue on the stud:



Regulator pin is closed on the end, so the hairspring will need to be slotted in from the side:



Hairspring is threaded through the regulator. I used a working balance to aim the roller jewel in the right direction, with the intention of fine tuning later:



I used UV glue, applied by a red oiler:



My improvised UV curing setup



Initial timings look promising! I got it to 1.1 just by eyeballing it



My only goal was to get it within spec roughly in one position. I'll look at the rest later



I guess the main thing I learned during this time is that using a microscope has completely changed what I can do, in every task related to watch repair it can be applied to. I feel like I have really good control over the smallest parts, as long as I can see it clearly. I was struggling quite a bit using loupes.