It's like deja-vu all over again.

To quote the great Yogi Berra above, that was my day today. Working on the vintage watch again, and I have definitely made some progress over this last week, and it was all coming together quite well, until this morning. But first, the good things!

The crystal on this watch was in bad shape - here are some "before" pics:




So I dug out my Polywatch, and spent about 20 minutes on it, and this is the result:




There are still some scratches, but it's a big improvement!


The hands and dial are in good shape generally, so I won't actually do much to them other than maybe a light cleaning:




So last night I started the final phase of getting the movement back together. After the panic of earlier this week losing a cap jewel, I decided to get smart in handling these parts and used Rodico (a sticky substance used for cleaning when working on watches) as a base to work on when doing anything with these very small parts. The jewels needed to be cleaned, oiled, and installed. I first put the balance assembly in, and without the jewels, the balance did not start. But, I oiled and installed the lower jewel, and it fired right up! A great sign!



So the last bit was the top jewel. Jacqui decided to take some pictures of me working on this. This first one the cap jewel is on the Rodico (green stuff) on the piece of wood in my left hand. I am dipping the finest oiler I have in an oil cup to pick up the correct amount of oil (I actually think I have too much now, but more on that later):





I have to use the loupe for this to see how much oil I'm picking up.

Theh the next thing is to transfer the oil to the cap jewel on the end of the Rodico - the oil is supposed to cover around 1/2 of the jewel diameter, and must be centered on the jewel, which is not easy to accomplish:




Then I placed the jewel on the upper balance jewel, and closed the keeper spring of the anti-shock assembly:





It was satisfying to have this done, so a celebratory photo!





But not so fast! The watch would not continue to run with the jewels in place.

So I thought I would tackle it again this morning. I may simply have too much oil on the jewels, so if other things don't work, I will clean them again and put less oil on to see if that helps. Another idea is that I might have too much oil on the pallet stones, so that could be cleaned and re-oiled as well. Anything that creates drag on the system with too much oil is suspect. The first thing I thought I would try today is simply swapping the upper and lower jewel assemblies - I thought if there are slight differences I may have them mixed up, so it was something quick to try. I removed the cap jewel, and set it aside on a piece of watchmakers paper. I then removed the rest of the jewel, closed up the keeper spring, and looked up to see the cap jewel missing from the paper!

WTF? Where did it go? Not sure, but I think I must have exhaled too hard while working on the other parts, and the jewel went flying. An hour of searching resulted in nothing found. I was not going to get lucky twice.....

So, now I have a contact for a spare movement (wasn't easy to find for a ladies watch) and hopefully I will have the parts to try again soon. In the mean time, I'll continue to look at what might be causing the watch to stop.

It's a great hobby, but when things go bad it can be very frustrating.

[djemmtee]

nice post, thanks for sharing.

[Rockrolex]

This is like our very own soap opera, Al. I can't wait for the next installment.

[AJC]

Hi Al,

That is a great hobby,it helps to settle the nerves.

Seriously though,why dont you invest in a bagless vacuum cleaner to help in looking for the little parts.

Aaron

Originally Posted by AJC

Hi Al,

That is a great hobby,it helps to settle the nerves.

Seriously though,why dont you invest in a bagless vacuum cleaner to help in looking for the little parts.

Aaron

We are going to use the vacuum cleaner tonight to try to find the part again - not bagless, but will be putting a new bag in it so we can cut it open later to find the part......I hope!

Originally Posted by Rockrolex

This is like our very own soap opera, Al. I can't wait for the next installment.

I wish this soap opera had a lot less drama, Ed.

You have the patience of Job, assuming he ever existed.

[Rockrolex]

Originally Posted by Avalon

I wish this soap opera had a lot less drama, Ed.

It would be terribly boring for us viewers, Al. You've got great script writers. I see a possible Emmy in your future.

Originally Posted by Rockrolex

It would be terribly boring for us viewers, Al. You've got great script writers. I see a possible Emmy in your future.

The only problem is if I win the Emmy I'm not sure if they would let me out of the straight jacket to collect it.