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Articles -
Watchmasters Corner
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Written by Ziggy Zumba
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Page 2 of 3
Another good sign is the escape wheel pivots. On most watches the only wheel that has cap jewels is the balance wheel, on very good quality watches the escape wheel is pivoted on a cap jewel as well. Why is this better, simply due to a smaller surface area that is pivoting, with a cap jewel the pivot is the tip of the shaft, not the shoulders.
This watch has cap jewels on the escape wheel, here is the size of the tip of the escape wheel.
here are the two pieces that make up the escape cap jewel
Here is the bottom escape cap and jewel
Here it is cleaned and oiled
Nice blued screw, better than “Barney” purple (I hate that bear…)
Assembly
Here is the pallet arm and the spot of oil on the entry pallet. This is a special oil that is a grease until friction hits it, then it turns into a oil. This keeps it from spreading as the escape wheel spins around. When I start the watch up, the entry pallet will deposit the oil on the escape wheel, and it will be carried around to the exit pallet stone.
Keyless works, very good quality pieces, as good as I have seen in a real Rolex movement, not cheap stampings
Here is the balance wheel ready to be installed. Note the shims on the side, these go under the arm and I would like to think they are there because whoever assembled the movement did a good job and made sure the endshake was correct (up and down movement in the balance wheel, you can hear it if you put the watch to your ear and move your head smartly from side to side, if you can’t hear it, there is not enough endshake). I rather believe this than think they made such a gross error in the parts that they did not fit properly and needed this to make the correction.
Balance cap jewel before, note that it’s dry, no oil….
After, see the oil
And once together, you can see the drop in the center
Now that movement is together, I set the beat, picture should tell it all
I move this arm to set the beat correctly.
Here is the view with beat correct
Although the swan neck regulator is nice to look at, it is not functional, I unglued the arm when I touched it….oops,,,,,,
This must be a Russian secret new type of screw that has a hidden slot for turning it…..
Arm reinstalled
This is a big problem, the hairspring is touching the balance wheel, and I have to fix it….not easy or for the faint of heart…..
See how it sits sideways… should be parallel…..ok another shot of beer and I am into it…..
Fixed
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 14 August 2007 )
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