Just in the nick of “time”.

Not that complicated once you know right?

@@watchrepairtutorials Every little bit of extra knowledge makes me better.

@@bolgerguide that’s right sir. Never stop learning.

You are welcome Phillip. I think to a certain respect, that to really learn any of this stuff you have to be hands on and practice it.

I find most of the old books really hard to read and even harder to understand. I agree, seeing it done makes it way easier to understand.

Long after I'm gone there should be a pretty good library of video's out there. 👌

Thank you and where do you live?

@@watchrepairtutorials Melbourne, Australia. Certainly some great and knowledgeable watchmakers here, but knowledge regarding positional adjustment and things like hairspring curves and their effects upon timekeeping are lacking from all but the best few who are still working.

@@mercuriall2810 the vast majors majority of new watchmakers touch on these things in school and sometimes will even make a balance like this but unless they at at a specialty company, don’t spend much time on this stuff. It’s not where the industry is headed.

@@watchrepairtutorials I totally agree with you that this isn’t where the industry has headed. Replaceable/throwaway modules and part swapping seems to be the direction for the bulk of the industry. There seem to be very few people left here who understand enough to troubleshoot a watch based upon an understanding of how it works, let alone a thorough understanding of how and why a watch works as it does. Even in higher end brands like Cartier, the in house watchmakers are clueless here. They can’t even recognise a very obvious and poor quality fake of their own product, riddled with huge tells that it’s a fake. (I do realise some quartz crisis era Cartier watches were verging on crude for Cartier’s standards and hard to authenticate, the watch in question left no room for doubt at a quick glance!) Cartier Melbourne HQ staff had to show it to their watchmaker. He advised that it would be sent to Sydney because he wasn’t sure, Sydney advised it may have to go to Switzerland but after 2 weeks Cartier Sydney recognised it as a fake. Perhaps they sent pictures to Switzerland. It was a cheap blinged up quartz Cartier Francaise copy. This watch had glued in fake diamonds on either side of the rectangular crystal. One had fallen out, revealing stones were glued in, not in prophet settings. The Cartier secret signature on the dial was totally wrong. The case back was poorly fitting and held by cheap Phillips head screws. It had the reference numbers for two totally different Cartier watches stamped into the outer side of the caseback. One of the two slotted screws holding the bracelet on had its slot so far off centre it wouldn’t pass QC at most low end Chinese copy watch factories. I never had a chance to see the movement but Cartier had permission to open the watch and undoubtedly did see the movement too. There’s no way it had any calibre Cartier use inside. That’s quite disappointing.

One day when you run into this issue, you will say to yourself, I know how to figure that out. 🤘

You know, one of the things about horology that keeps it interesting is that no matter how long you have been doing things, there is always more to learn. Thank you so kindly.

Awesome! Thank you Bob. There is a lot of interesting topic coming up. Right now I am working on how to use a timegrapher. I mean really use it. I think it's going to blow a lot of minds.

Glad you liked it. By your user name it sounds like you are living the dream.

@@watchrepairtutorials actually I appointed myself videographer for our recovery from hurricane Michael in 2018. I do dash cam videos periodically to document progress hence the name.

No Jibber Jabber. Man these videos can be long enough as it is. 😂

Alex, I’ve come back to this video as I do all your vids when I get stuck. I understand that you were able to identify that the balance spring was incorrect, but how to determine the correct one? Working on a model 1857 keywind from 1872.

The formula for figuring out the correct size in in the video

That’s a nice compliment but be careful my friend if you find yourself browsing through thrift stores and flea markets looking for broken watches. Next thing you know, you’ll be ordering tiny screwdrivers. 😀

@@watchrepairtutorials I've already got them. 😁 Sooner or later it will happen and i'll buy a watch to "repair" it. Until now i change only batteries on all the watches from family and friends. But doing this very carefull without the slightest scratch is already very satisfying.

@@MichaelHeinrich1 perfect. 👍

I appreciate that brother man

My pleasure sir.

Oh my pleasure friend

Hey Amanda, one day when you need it it’ll be there. Thanks my friend

Glad you enjoyed it!

Glad it was helpful John. Hope it helps one day.

I am glad you did my friend. What I do is not for everybody so I appreciate the people that get what I’m trying to do.

Glad it was helpful Bruno.

You're so welcome Karl.

Much appreciated!

My pleasure Tom, Good to hear from you as always.

Great to hear! Let me know what you find out is the issue.

@@watchrepairtutorials will do Alex. Before I proceed in trying to reshape the hairspring, can you tell me what the "degrees" in the diagram represents? For instance, under the 95% ratio, it says 187°?

My pleasure James.

My pleasure. Keep at it my friend

No, normally anything related to the pallet stone is either going to stop the watch altogether or disrupt the impulse to the balance, i.e. lower the amplitude and increase the rate.

No worries! Thanks for letting me know.

Thanks for the visit my friend.

Bergeon 7990. Can also be found on Aliexpress as well for a lot less.

Yeah, I mentioned in the video of the hardest parts reducing them down to the correct size. Everyone I’ve seen has been a full size like this.

If you search for helwig hairspring chart, you’ll find it.

In the description now

I just listened to it on my phone and it sounded fine.

These old girls will keep you one your toes. I hope this video will give you some insight.

If you google it will come up. There are several different ones but they are all based on the same principle.

If you google it should come up. There are a couple different ones but they are all based on the same formula.

The PDF for the diagrams are in the description. There is no regulator boot on this one. In the case of a ETAchron regulator I normally would yes. With an etachron or any regulator with a boot, the only purpose of installing it on the on the mainsplate is to be able to install the HS stud. Then take it off and close the boot.

Thank you. Your videos are an excellent resource.

@@da___man appreciate ya man

Thanks Rick, Here is a link to the PDF I made, watchrepairtutorials.com/mp-files/hairspring-curve-tables.pdf/

Teaser in a good way?

I’ll see what I can do.

@@watchrepairtutorials That would be great! Hopefully it will bring in some views. There's no videos about it on KZfaq.

@@k-ozdragon Probably not many views but that's not really why I make these types of videos.

@@watchrepairtutorials There's terrible videos that get tons of views because they're simply taking apart a Westclox, which most watchmakers won't even mess with. The dude in the video keeps picking it up by the balance wheel lol. If it's info people want, & it's not readily available, you'll definitely draw some interest. I'm sure a lot of people go to attach that part & find it's not so easy. I appreciate all the content you've done. I'm just finishing up all your videos. They're extremely helpful. Not many solid tutorials out there that are to the point & filmed well. It's a solid resource, & you have been great at answering questions too. It's much appreciated.

Hey brother, It’s in the description.

Good suggestion

If you’re already somewhat familiar with working on watches, here are some step by step instructions that should suffice. First, let down any power on the watch. Not strictly necessary here, but it can’t hurt. Now, loosen the screw holding the hairspring stud, and remove the balance cock, leaving the balance wheel in the movement. Place the balance cock on a slice of pith wood or a bench block for support, taking care not to squash the regulator pins. Remove the small screws that hold the upper balance jewel setting in the balance cock. Now take a jewel pusher, and you can push out the upper balance jewel setting from the balance cock. Set the balance wheel aside, and on the dial side you can remove the two screws that secure the lower balance jewels. They can then be pushed out using the jewel pusher. Reassembly is just a matter of pushing the jewels back into place, taking note of any witness marks or screw indentations to help orient the jewels correctly in the settings, and replace the screws. Keep track of which screw came from which hole and replace each screw into the hole from which it came. If cleaning the movement, it’s easiest to put the screws that hold the chatons back into their respective holes to keep track of where they go. Hope that helps.

@mercuriall2810 I've read somewhere that these are a different type of jewelset called "rub in". I'm not 100% sure if that's in fact what these are, but I've used my Horia tool and tried to gently push them out. It got to a point where it felt like I needed to use way too much pressure to remove the jewel so I stopped. I was afraid of damaging something, but if it's normal to need an obscene amount of torque to pop these little guys out... I'll attempt it again. The jewels were already cracked before I attempted to remove them, but I really don't want to damage my rather expensive Horia jeweling tool lol.

@@mltrymn1213 The jewel settings come out as I described. Sometimes it does indeed need some force to move them. They come out of the top of the balance cock, so push from underneath. If you can source the right replacement jewels for this movement, already in their settings, then they will push into place as described and there is no need to learn about rub in jewels and the process of replacing them. I’ve not used a Horia tool to push these out, I use a Seitz jewelling press. Most settings come out quite easily, some are stubborn. If you are worried about damaging your Horia tool, you can get vintage jewel pushers quite cheaply, that are handheld and have prongs of different diameters for pushing out settings of different sizes. In case you are curious about rubbed in jewels, aka burnished in jewels, they are common in older watches and are pushed out when broken. Then a special tool is used to open a metal lip that holds the jewel in, the correct size replacement jewel is placed and another tool, is used to rub or burnish the metal lip over the edge of the jewel, holding it in place. The tools rub in jewels come up for sale fairly often, and the process of using them is quite straightforward, but unfortunately rub in jewels are shaped differently to Seitz type friction set jewels. This can make sourcing the rub in jewel you need very difficult. When a suitable rub in jewel cannot be found, it is sometimes replaced by reaming out the hole to fit a modern Seitz friction jewel of the correct type and hole size. It is great if this can be avoided to preserve the watch as it was originally made, but sometimes it is the only way to fix the watch. There are KZfaq videos demonstrating the process of replacing rubbed in jewels, but you don’t need them for replacing the balance jewelling on this watch.

@mercuriall2810 awesome! Thank you so much for the advice and I'll give it another shot with the Horia tool. I'm sure it's not as bad as it seems, but I've never done this before. I'm pretty new at this stuff, but really eager to learn and become proficient in all types of movements. Again, thank you for the assistance 😊!

Thanks you my friend

Material, thickness and width all make a big difference. Different spring materials have different degrees of strength or springiness. In terms of thickness and width, spring strength varies in proportion to the cube of the thickness. This is why just a tiny defect caused by a spot of rust can cause a comparatively large change in the rate of the watches oscillator.

Yes there are many variables in hairspring. These are non compensated springs while today’s are compensated. Weight of the spring is another major factor but you can figure that out.

You mean the 2824 clone? Whats the problem?

@@watchrepairtutorials zodiac screwed me. i sent them my 3 year old super sea wolf with date and they sent it back to me saying that they dont have the parts to fix it!!!

Ouch. So what did you do?

Watch it again. 😜

Does this summary help? The watch is running very slow, and this points to a problem somewhere with the balance complete. Inspection of the balance complete reveals the timing screws are screwed all the way out. Timing screws being moved outwards slows down the watch by moving some mass of the balance away from the centre. To increase the rate of the watch, these timing screws are moved back in to the rim of the balance wheel. As Alex foreshadowed, this did increase the rate of the watch, but not nearly enough. So he decided to check if the hairspring was correct for the movement. Measuring the distance between balance pivot Centre and the regulator pins and measuring the hairspring gives rise to a ratio which can be expressed as a percentage. These percentages can be looked up on the Helwig chart, to see what shape an overcoiled hairspring for that balance cock should have. The hairspring in the watch did not match the relevant hairspring shape in the Helwig chart, but did match the shape of a hairspring that would suit a different balance cock. This means the watch has the incorrect hairspring fitted. Alex ordered the correct hairspring and fitted it to the watch after cleaning it. This brought the rate of the watch back within a range in which the watch can be readjusted to keep time in accordance with its original factory specifications. Adjusting the watch to these specifications over 3 positions will be the subject of another video.

Wow. Thanks dude. That does make sense. I don't know how many years of experience Alex got for him to have known this, but that's awesome. I wish I got into this hobby a long time ago. This is more and more awesome the more I keep getting into this.

@@NombreFrancisco I’ve got a reasonable degree of experience and knowledge when it comes to watchmaking. That said, with watchmaking, you should never stop learning. It keeps getting more fascinating as you progress, even once you are proficient. I find still it very rewarding. No matter how early you start this hobby or profession, you can keep on learning indefinitely.

Whatever you say bish

LMFAO

You don’t achieve any where near the proficiency Alex has as a watchmaker, let alone be able to explain and teach it so well, if you are at all lazy.