Serviced Hulk gaining

[meloncap78]

I posted before but I figured I would give a follow up. I had my 116610LV serviced by a local recommended watch maker. I got the watch back within a week and it looked good. He did what I asked and didn’t over polish etc. first week was good but then the watch started gaining time....minutes a day. I figured it was magnetized so I ordered a demagnetizer and tried that. No change. Popped the back off and tried using the degauss function on and old CRT monitor. Checked with a compass as well as Lepsi. No magnetization. Upon inspection the hairspring isn’t sticking to itself etc. If I let the watch sit dial up or even put it in the winder it keeps excellent time for days. As soon as I wear it it instantly starts gaining time. I ordered a Timegrapher and checked 6 positions. Worst of them was +4 seconds a day. Amplitude was a solid 300 - 315 through all positions. Beat error ranged from .2 - .4. BPH was 28800. What gives. I don’t want to send it back. Since yesterday it has gained 5 minutes.

[noellly]

well 4 second a day in a position is ok! the problem is the amplitude. when you move the rotor moves a lot and the movement is probably overbanking at times. Try moving the rotor at the same time as you have the watch in a timegrapher and see if the amplitude and rate increases.
I use a pegwood or new clean rodico to move the rotor around and around when the watch sits in the microphone! It will be disturbances on the screen when moving the rotor but you should be able to see the rate spinning away

[meloncap78]

Originally Posted by noellly

well 4 second a day in a position is ok! the problem is the amplitude. when you move the rotor moves a lot and the movement is probably overbanking at times. Try moving the rotor at the same time as you have the watch in a timegrapher and see if the amplitude and rate increases.
I use a pegwood or new clean rodico to move the rotor around and around when the watch sits in the microphone! It will be disturbances on the screen when moving the rotor but you should be able to see the rate spinning away

Thank you. Will give this a try and report back. Welcome to TRF by the way!

[joli160]

Not any watch tech knowledge here but from what I understood reading many posts there are more and less powerful mainsprings depending on the amplitude.

Send it back to the watchmaker. Self doctoring with watches isn’t a good idea.
Problem with local watchmakers is that they may have difficulties to acces the correct parts and forced to use generic ones.

If he can’t fix it than go to the RSC, that will probably be another full service

[mmmmp]

Sigh, send it to RSC.

Sent from my SM-A520W using Tapatalk

[meloncap78]

Just wanted to update this thread. I decided to check things out on my own. I removed the automatic works and let down the mainspring. I removed the balance bridge/balance wheel to inspect the hairspring. Everything looked ok so I used an air bulb to blow out the movement and replaced the balance bridge and wheel. I reassembled the automatic works and wound the watch. Using my Timegrapher I played with the movement in 3 different positions and got an average of 0.0 to 0.1 on the beat error. Amplitude was 280-300. It has kept time to the second since doing this yesterday. A side note: before performing this maintenance checkup the watch was gaining a minute or more per day and the amplitude would hit 330 in the dial down position and 320’s in PD position. It now seems to float between 280-300 in all positions. Not exactly sure what my checkup accomplished but it obviously did something.

[Andad]

Originally Posted by meloncap78

Just wanted to update this thread. I decided to check things out on my own. I removed the automatic works and let down the mainspring. I removed the balance bridge/balance wheel to inspect the hairspring. Everything looked ok so I used an air bulb to blow out the movement and replaced the balance bridge and wheel. I reassembled the automatic works and wound the watch. Using my Timegrapher I played with the movement in 3 different positions and got an average of 0.0 to 0.1 on the beat error. Amplitude was 280-300. It has kept time to the second since doing this yesterday. A side note: before performing this maintenance checkup the watch was gaining a minute or more per day and the amplitude would hit 330 in the dial down position and 320’s in PD position. It now seems to float between 280-300 in all positions. Not exactly sure what my checkup accomplished but it obviously did something.

Based on this post I am surprised that you need to use a watchmaker.

Good work J I hope you have solved the problem.

[meloncap78]

Originally Posted by Andad

Based on this post I am surprised that you need to use a watchmaker.

Good work J I hope you have solved the problem.

Thank you. I have just never been afraid of taking anything apart. My father used to bawl me out for taking my toys apart as a kid to see how they worked. Little did he know my mother encouraged it. All I needed was a 10x loupe, quality screwdriver set, good tweezers and a Timegrapher. I plan on taking some online horology/watchmaking courses as I blew my Lititz chances years ago. If I can spend some of the backend of my working career doing something I love and have a passion for then that is what I will do. Unfortunately that WOSTEP cert speaks for itself so building a clientele will be a lot tougher without it. Not to mention the lack of a parts account.