Full Restoration of 1921 FHF Robert Ligne 10 5''' Wrist Watch (Edited Version)

Рет қаралды 689

7 ай бұрын

In this video I use a hammer, among other tools, to completely restore a one hundred year old FHF Robert ligne 10 5'" silver "trench watch" that I purchased at a garage sale in Le Brassus, the famous watchmaking town in Switzerland's Vallée de Joux. With a case made of 925 silver and a complete movement, it was a bargain at 15 Chf (~$16 US).
I put "trench watch" in quotes above because although this watch is in the style and from the period of WWI trench watches, it's clearly a much smaller caliber that would qualify it as a ladies watch.
If you're interested in a lengthy discussion about trench watches and what is and is not an actual trench watch David Boettcher has an excellent essay about this on his website "Vintage Watch Straps" (where he also sells his own hand-made straps for trench watches and other vintage solid loop fixed wire lug wrist watches and ladies wristlets):
www.vintagewatchstraps.com/bl...
This particular ladies wristlet needed some help, from replacing its hands to unspringing its case hinge, but I did get it cleaned up, oiled, and working in the end!
The narration of this video is not a voice-over. I cut the picture down from twelve hours total and retained contiguous bits of audio from the original audio video recordings.
The full twelve hour video is here: • FHF Robert Ligne 10 5'...
And a 12 minute time lapse of it (each our of it plays out in one minute!) is here: • FHF Robert Ligne 10 5'...
This one hour cut-down took me about twenty hours to edit, in part due to the complexity introduced by the retention of contiguous bits of audio. The twelve hour video only took two hours to edit but took over thirty hours to render. I haven't watched the twelve hour video myself and don't plan to so I can't tell you if you'll find it interesting or not.
Here's a link to the AliExpress Eakins microscope that I use product page (affiliate link):
s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_Dm3...
#watchmaking #restoration #swiss #vintage #FHF #movement #trenchwatch

Пікірлер: 20

@awdturbopowah773 7 ай бұрын

Your best work yet my friend! Excellent job. I am also happy to see you got that cleaning machine up and running! I thought you might have been stuck with a hunk of junk on that one, but happy to see I was wrong! Anyway, another terrific video, can't wait to see what you get into next. Cheers 🍻

@IShootWatches 7 ай бұрын

Thanks Turbo! Yeah, the Elma works! I showed a picture of it to the guys in the Elma booth at EPHJ in June and they couldn’t believe it! I also keep seeing my Italian-speaking friend who sold it to me at watch fairs ;) Everyone knows everyone in the vintage community which is great because it creates a reputation-based trust system that works very well without an intermediary like Ebay or even Ricardo’s feedback systems. My next videos are either going to be revolutionary or a complete failure, and possibly both 😂😂😂. I’m experimenting with a 12 hour unedited multicam format for myself - to help keep a record of what I’ve done that requires minimal editing. No one is going to watch 12 hour videos, but they are super interesting for dip-in dip-out viewing. Since I don’t care about KZfaq stats and low viewership I’m going to publish them even if they flop because they’re so cool conceptually and so useful to me and easy to produce. Currently I’m rendering the 12 hour version of this video and 12 hours of the Mercury F 760. How are you doing?

@awdturbopowah773 7 ай бұрын

@@IShootWatches That’s really awesome! I need to get out to more in-person watch events but they’re not always easy to find. Not surprising it’s a small world though, especially over in Switzerland. Can’t wait to check out these videos! 12 hours is definitely a lot for the average viewer to sit through but I think that’s still a great value to have for other hobbyists. I’m also excited to see that new workbench in action eventually. 😁 I’m doing well, thanks! Enjoying the much cooler weather we’ve been having recently, and fiddling with my own workbench setup as usual 😂.

@IShootWatches 7 ай бұрын

@@awdturbopowah773If you have 12 minutes for the 60 x speed version of the 12 hour version of this video that I posted today I recommend watching that to see how many things I had to do with this old trench watch to get it running and how much I left out of this one hour edit, and I still need to go back and rejewel and polish and straighten pivots and adjust the hairspring and probably replace the mainspring. I mention that because it’s so difficult to tell that 12 hourlong story in less than an hour, but I still want to share it somehow. I think the way to do it going forward will be to speed edit the routine stuff that goes smoothly and slow down when problems are addressed, and I think I’ll get there in another year. We’ll see! Are you recording any of you work with a view towards posting it?

@awdturbopowah773 6 ай бұрын

@@IShootWatches just watched it now. I enjoyed it, and I think that kind of thing can be really useful for reference as more people pick up watchmaking online. I agree it's hard to find that sweet spot so to speak, where the video isn't too long, but it covers the important bits in detail. I am recording a lot of my work, but my workbench keeps evolving in terms of filming setup. I'm a bit of a perfectionist 😅, so I don't want to upload content until I feel it reaches a certain benchmark. Lately, microscope issues and camera shake has hindered my quest for quality video, but I think I'm getting close to at least "good enough." 😂

@IShootWatches 6 ай бұрын

@@awdturbopowah773 Wow! That's really exciting! I can't wait to see something! I read and watched a lot about YouTubing before starting and one of the warnings was don't try to be too much of a perfectionist at first!

@WatchWithMike 7 ай бұрын

Way to go, Dayton! It's amazing how similar a contemporary mechanical watch is to this 100 year old timepiece. You showed a really great variety of traditional watchmaking techniques in this 'condensed' edit! 👏🏼😁

@IShootWatches 7 ай бұрын

Thanks Mike! Yeah, I did even more hammer-time “techniques” in the 12 hour version. Super psyched about that. It’s epic! I did the MultiCam rendering I told you about. Super easy to edit, impossible to watch, but also legit as f#@k in terms of no post-narrated fakery bulls#!t!!! I even hammered my thumb a few times!

@WatchWithMike 7 ай бұрын

@@IShootWatches The thumb-hammering would make an excellent Short for the epic-length version. 👍🏼🔨

@danieljimenez5887 7 ай бұрын

Great job! Throw it on the timegrapher! Just to get a sense of how this vintage watch is running after 100+ years...

@IShootWatches 7 ай бұрын

Thanks Daniel! The 12 hour version of this video has the timegrapher results. That should be ready in a few days. There was a lot of work done on this watch that didn't make it into this short video. I was correct about these old movements dial side cannon pinions being fixed. That's why it was "stuck" to the arbor so aggressively (it's supposed to be). The function of the cannon pinion in this movement is between the bottom half of the central arbor and the inside of the hollow pinion in the center wheel. That's why at the end of my service in this version of the video (before I put the movement back in the case) it was not running freely. Between those shots and the final shots in this video I did another six hours of work to get the correct relationships of friction on the center arbor. In any case, these older watches are a lot of fun to work on because they were designed back in the days of the hammer and the lathe!

@ElderPinto254 7 ай бұрын

nice one Dayton thnx on the the info on that William Tell thing ... i love those little knowledge things !!

@IShootWatches 7 ай бұрын

Thanks Elder Pinto! I have a whole FHF deep dive I’ll be going on but that’s for another video!

@ljubavnifeder 7 ай бұрын

You are a brutal animal ::D great job done. Seriously I love your amateurism. But be more soft careful and use a dust ball blower peg and rodiico.

@IShootWatches 7 ай бұрын

Thanks! That’s great advice! My objectives with each project are evolving. Improvements in technique with all tools, including screwdrivers, and more thorough cleaning are next on the agenda. I also obviously shouldn’t be spinning a balance with my thumb! I have a nice new dust blower now for that, and a new full set of Horotec screwdrivers.

@IShootWatches 7 ай бұрын

This video is full of mistakes, many of which have been hidden with editing, some of which have not. For example at 45:56 I talk about the “hour hand” not moving. The center wheel drives the minute hand, not the hour hand. The minute hand was in fact able to move freely at this point in the rebuild, but the pallet fork pivots were not, and their friction caused (or in any case contributed to) the amplitude issue. I solved that during a subsequent complete rebuild in an additional six hours of work on this watch that is not shown in this video. It will however be shown in the unedited 12 hour video to follow, entitled "The Truth."

@sonnymoorehouse1941 6 ай бұрын

Skip the best part ?

@IShootWatches 6 ай бұрын

I know, right? 😂😂😂

@sonnymoorehouse1941 6 ай бұрын

Great video, you ran the gambit on this little beauty. boy that mainspring is set, AKA down in power. but watch turned out great. Nice work @@IShootWatches