You’re continuing to improve with each video, which is great to see, well done! Here’s some feedback and advice after watching this disassembly. I know that being unable to remove the crown threw off your normal order of disassembly, but I’d suggest that the following order of steps is good practice. The below applies to watches with a removable case back. Remove the strap/bracelet. Examine the holes that the spring bars fit into for wear and damage. Before you open the watch, check whether it runs and check the keyless works by winding the watch and pulling the crown out to the hands setting position and check that you can set the time. Pull out and push back the crown a few times to check the parts of the keyless works are moving between winding and setting modes correctly and decisively. This also checks that the stem and crown are retained by the movement and won’t come out completely. If the watch has a date function, check that the date can be set via the crown. When checking that you can set the time, turn the hands through a full 12 hours to ensure that they never touch eachother or the dial and that the setting works are free of defects. Check the above with the watch running if it works and observe whether the watch stops when setting the time. Check both setting the time forwards and backwards. A watch with a hacking function should stop running when you pull the crown out to setting mode, watches like this without hacking should keep running, including when you’re setting the time in either direction. Next, remove only the back of the watch. This keeps the dial and hands protected. Let down the power in the mainspring and set the hands to a position where they overlap for easy removal when it comes time to remove them. Now remove the crown. *see at the bottom of this comment for what to do if the crown won’t come out as you experienced here. Now it is time to remove the movement from the case. An examination of any case screws or clamps will tell you whether it comes out of the front or the back. If it comes out through the front, remove the bezel, then remove the hands, then any case screws or clamps and you can turn the movement out dial down onto a casing cushion. If it comes out through the back, release the movement and turn it out dial up onto a casing cushion and then remove the hands. When removing the sub seconds hand, it is good to have some very thin hand levers. You can modify a set yourself by thinning them with files or a stone, but be sure to polish the ends well afterwards to a smooth shiny finish. Now reinsert the crown and stem. It provides a useful handle for lifting and holding the movement, it retains the winding pinion and sliding pinion in place when removing the dial. It allows you to wind the watch if necessary for troubleshooting and to release any residual power in the mainspring in a controlled manner afterwards. Now remove the dial. If sugarloaf screws are used to hold the dial, like this movement, turn each screw so as to tighten it (clockwise) until the dial foot is freed. This is because the screws are turned as if to loosen them when securing the dial to the movement, because this pulls the dial in towards the dial plate as the edge of the sugarloaf screws grip the dial foot. (Jumping ahead for a moment to reinstalling the dial later on, to try to make sure I’ve explained this clearly, start with the dial foot screws screwed down all the way whilst leaving room for the dial feet to enter. Fit the dial, and turn the screws anticlockwise as if to loosen them. That way the dial is pulled towards the movement when the screws start to bite into and grip the dial feet. If you tighten the dial foot screws to secure the dial, you’re actually pushing the dial away from the movement slightly.) Once the dial is removed, you can then remove the dial washer, hour wheel, minute wheel and cannon pinion. A thorough inspection and testing process as you disassemble the movement will save a lot of work. Any fault you find now is a fault you can fix that won’t prevent the watch from running or make it run badly when reassembled. If faults remain undetected until after you’ve reassembled and oiled the movement, you have to disassemble, clean the parts again, reassemble and relubricate. Good inspection during disassembly and again after cleaning is very important. Pay attention to any areas where you see rust, corrosion or other signs of water ingress. For example this watch had discolouration and rust around the keyless works. The location of the rust is often informative. In this instance, the location of the rust suggests that water got in to the case via the crown tube. The fit of the crown to the case tube must be checked and a fresh o ring put into the crown. The first step (assuming mainspring power has already been let down) when you turn the movement back over is removing the balance cock and balance wheel, after checking for free movement, endshake, inspecting the hairspring - is it centered, true in the flat, true in the round, evenly spaced coils? Once removed, examine the pivots, roller table and regulator pins. Before you remove the barrel bridge, always check the sideshake and endshake of the mainspring barrel arbour. Once the ratchet wheel has been removed, test side shake by pushing side to side on the barrel arbour with some peg wood, to test end shake you can screw a piece of sharpened peg wood into the threaded hole in the barrel arbour to get a firm grip on the arbour. You can then pull up and press down using the peg wood as a handle to see and feel the end shake. Unless a movement is so dirty the wheels won’t move, it is good practice to inspect the end shake on the wheels of the going train before dismantling it. To do this, you can use an old oiler to gently lift up each wheel to ensure there is some endshake, and check clearances with respect to the other wheels, cocks and bridges to ensure there isn’t too much endshake. With experience you will be able to feel what is insufficient or excessive endshake. The side shake should be ok for pivots running in jewels unless there is extreme wear to the pivots, but those wheels that run in unjewelled bearings like the centre wheel in this watch must be checked for excessive side shake. Carefully inspect each wheel, pivot and pinion as you remove each wheel, this can help identify parts that will need replacing, bent arbours, bent pivots or scored/rough pivots that need burnishing in the Jacot tool. Reinspect them after cleaning, as dried lubrication can imitate or conceal damage. Continue the disassembly and inspection process until the watch is fully dismantled. You’ve now disassembled the watch ready for precleaning and cleaning. Your video ends here, so I’ll stop here too. Keep up the great work, I look forward to your next video when it’s ready. No hurry, worry about careful, methodical work, not how often you post a video to RUclips. *what to do if you can’t release the crown and stem - If the screw for releasing the crown won’t turn, first let down any power in the mainspring. Then you can remove the barrel bridge, it will lift up off this screw. You can then remove the crown. The way I would’ve dealt with that damaged screw to release the crown for this watch is by modifying a screwdriver to fit it. To avoid shaping and reshaping the screwdrivers in your main screwdriver set too much, it’s handy to have some extras that you modify on a very fine Arkansas stone whenever you need to shape one for a specific screw or watch. To avoid spending the full cost of a second set of quality Bergeon or Horotec screwdrivers, buy a cheaper set from China that has nice handles and replaceable tips. Then order a set of replacement screwdriver blades from Horotec or Bergeon and put them into the Chinese handles. Screws vary a lot from watch to watch, some have very thin slots for their size, others thicker slots etc. No one screwdriver tip shape can suit all screws that size. It’s important to match your screwdrivers well to the screws, even when they’re not damaged, so a second set as described above is indispensable. You can keep one set ground quite fine, the other set ground for wider slotted screws. Minor modifications to a wide or fine tip screwdriver should have it fitting any given screw easily. You can get by with just one set of screwdrivers, but you’ll be reshaping the tips a lot from watch to watch.
You need to exercise caution when working on watches with lume that are this old. Up until the 1970s (depending upon where the watch was made) the lume contained radium, which is highly radioactive and has a long half life. It remains highly radioactive long after the line stops growing, and it takes around 1,600 years for the radioactivity to decrease by half. You can use a Geiger counter to test watches for radioactivity so you know when you need to take the appropriate precautions. Assume any watch this old with lume contains radium unless you’ve tested it yourself and know it doesn’t. Whilst the watch is closed inside it’s case, the lume on hands is safely contained. You can own and wear watches with radium lume without endangering yourself. The risk comes when you open the watch, but you can work on watches with radium lume safely if you take the proper precautions. The radium is very dangerous IF it gets into your body. If you inhale any dust or flakes from the lume, swallow any or get any in a cut in your skin it poses significant health risks. If you’re going to relume these hands I suggest you read about safely dealing with the radium that may be present. You must take precautions against creating dust, inhaling dust and to contain all of the old line you remove. Brand new lume often looks out of place on a vintage watch. You can mix a little instant coffee into the new lume before applying it to get the colour of vintage lume, which will look more appropriate on the watch. There are videos about this online. There is a lot of information regarding safe handling of radium contaminated watches online, please familiarise yourself with it if you haven’t already. You’re doing a great job and I can see the improvement with each new video. I’ve got more to share regarding this video, but wanted to get the radium warning posted immediately in case you were unaware of the danger it poses.
hi thank you for the input it really does matter to me what you say i love doing these watches and videos i can only do may be 2 videos a month i have a bad spine so i take me time i really do appreciate your wisdom and comments and i take them to heart as im learning
@@watchwhisper You’re most welcome. I’m happy to help where I can and I’d hate for someone to work with watches containing radium who is unaware of the risks and how to handle them. I see the improvement in your watchmaking skills with each video you make, you’re progressing well. Never lose heart if you run into difficulties. Watchmaking isn’t easy and there are no shortcuts when it comes to building knowledge and experience. Don’t forget even the best watchmakers we’re beginners once. I’ve got very bad hips and ankles, to the extent that I can’t walk, so I have some firsthand experience of disability. Fortunately my spine is ok for now.
You’re continuing to improve with each video, which is great to see, well done!
Here’s some feedback and advice after watching this disassembly.
I know that being unable to remove the crown threw off your normal order of disassembly, but I’d suggest that the following order of steps is good practice. The below applies to watches with a removable case back.
Remove the strap/bracelet. Examine the holes that the spring bars fit into for wear and damage.
Before you open the watch, check whether it runs and check the keyless works by winding the watch and pulling the crown out to the hands setting position and check that you can set the time. Pull out and push back the crown a few times to check the parts of the keyless works are moving between winding and setting modes correctly and decisively. This also checks that the stem and crown are retained by the movement and won’t come out completely.
If the watch has a date function, check that the date can be set via the crown.
When checking that you can set the time, turn the hands through a full 12 hours to ensure that they never touch eachother or the dial and that the setting works are free of defects.
Check the above with the watch running if it works and observe whether the watch stops when setting the time. Check both setting the time forwards and backwards.
A watch with a hacking function should stop running when you pull the crown out to setting mode, watches like this without hacking should keep running, including when you’re setting the time in either direction.
Next, remove only the back of the watch. This keeps the dial and hands protected. Let down the power in the mainspring and set the hands to a position where they overlap for easy removal when it comes time to remove them.
Now remove the crown. *see at the bottom of this comment for what to do if the crown won’t come out as you experienced here.
Now it is time to remove the movement from the case. An examination of any case screws or clamps will tell you whether it comes out of the front or the back.
If it comes out through the front, remove the bezel, then remove the hands, then any case screws or clamps and you can turn the movement out dial down onto a casing cushion.
If it comes out through the back, release the movement and turn it out dial up onto a casing cushion and then remove the hands.
When removing the sub seconds hand, it is good to have some very thin hand levers. You can modify a set yourself by thinning them with files or a stone, but be sure to polish the ends well afterwards to a smooth shiny finish.
Now reinsert the crown and stem. It provides a useful handle for lifting and holding the movement, it retains the winding pinion and sliding pinion in place when removing the dial. It allows you to wind the watch if necessary for troubleshooting and to release any residual power in the mainspring in a controlled manner afterwards.
Now remove the dial. If sugarloaf screws are used to hold the dial, like this movement, turn each screw so as to tighten it (clockwise) until the dial foot is freed.
This is because the screws are turned as if to loosen them when securing the dial to the movement, because this pulls the dial in towards the dial plate as the edge of the sugarloaf screws grip the dial foot.
(Jumping ahead for a moment to reinstalling the dial later on, to try to make sure I’ve explained this clearly, start with the dial foot screws screwed down all the way whilst leaving room for the dial feet to enter. Fit the dial, and turn the screws anticlockwise as if to loosen them. That way the dial is pulled towards the movement when the screws start to bite into and grip the dial feet. If you tighten the dial foot screws to secure the dial, you’re actually pushing the dial away from the movement slightly.)
Once the dial is removed, you can then remove the dial washer, hour wheel, minute wheel and cannon pinion.
A thorough inspection and testing process as you disassemble the movement will save a lot of work. Any fault you find now is a fault you can fix that won’t prevent the watch from running or make it run badly when reassembled.
If faults remain undetected until after you’ve reassembled and oiled the movement, you have to disassemble, clean the parts again, reassemble and relubricate. Good inspection during disassembly and again after cleaning is very important.
Pay attention to any areas where you see rust, corrosion or other signs of water ingress. For example this watch had discolouration and rust around the keyless works.
The location of the rust is often informative. In this instance, the location of the rust suggests that water got in to the case via the crown tube. The fit of the crown to the case tube must be checked and a fresh o ring put into the crown.
The first step (assuming mainspring power has already been let down) when you turn the movement back over is removing the balance cock and balance wheel, after checking for free movement, endshake, inspecting the hairspring - is it centered, true in the flat, true in the round, evenly spaced coils? Once removed, examine the pivots, roller table and regulator pins.
Before you remove the barrel bridge, always check the sideshake and endshake of the mainspring barrel arbour. Once the ratchet wheel has been removed, test side shake by pushing side to side on the barrel arbour with some peg wood, to test end shake you can screw a piece of sharpened peg wood into the threaded hole in the barrel arbour to get a firm grip on the arbour. You can then pull up and press down using the peg wood as a handle to see and feel the end shake.
Unless a movement is so dirty the wheels won’t move, it is good practice to inspect the end shake on the wheels of the going train before dismantling it.
To do this, you can use an old oiler to gently lift up each wheel to ensure there is some endshake, and check clearances with respect to the other wheels, cocks and bridges to ensure there isn’t too much endshake. With experience you will be able to feel what is insufficient or excessive endshake.
The side shake should be ok for pivots running in jewels unless there is extreme wear to the pivots, but those wheels that run in unjewelled bearings like the centre wheel in this watch must be checked for excessive side shake.
Carefully inspect each wheel, pivot and pinion as you remove each wheel, this can help identify parts that will need replacing, bent arbours, bent pivots or scored/rough pivots that need burnishing in the Jacot tool. Reinspect them after cleaning, as dried lubrication can imitate or conceal damage.
Continue the disassembly and inspection process until the watch is fully dismantled.
You’ve now disassembled the watch ready for precleaning and cleaning. Your video ends here, so I’ll stop here too.
Keep up the great work, I look forward to your next video when it’s ready. No hurry, worry about careful, methodical work, not how often you post a video to RUclips.
*what to do if you can’t release the crown and stem - If the screw for releasing the crown won’t turn, first let down any power in the mainspring. Then you can remove the barrel bridge, it will lift up off this screw. You can then remove the crown.
The way I would’ve dealt with that damaged screw to release the crown for this watch is by modifying a screwdriver to fit it. To avoid shaping and reshaping the screwdrivers in your main screwdriver set too much, it’s handy to have some extras that you modify on a very fine Arkansas stone whenever you need to shape one for a specific screw or watch.
To avoid spending the full cost of a second set of quality Bergeon or Horotec screwdrivers, buy a cheaper set from China that has nice handles and replaceable tips. Then order a set of replacement screwdriver blades from Horotec or Bergeon and put them into the Chinese handles.
Screws vary a lot from watch to watch, some have very thin slots for their size, others thicker slots etc. No one screwdriver tip shape can suit all screws that size. It’s important to match your screwdrivers well to the screws, even when they’re not damaged, so a second set as described above is indispensable. You can keep one set ground quite fine, the other set ground for wider slotted screws. Minor modifications to a wide or fine tip screwdriver should have it fitting any given screw easily.
You can get by with just one set of screwdrivers, but you’ll be reshaping the tips a lot from watch to watch.
Good honest work. Please keep going, watching is a pleasure.
Thank you I will do
You need to exercise caution when working on watches with lume that are this old.
Up until the 1970s (depending upon where the watch was made) the lume contained radium, which is highly radioactive and has a long half life. It remains highly radioactive long after the line stops growing, and it takes around 1,600 years for the radioactivity to decrease by half.
You can use a Geiger counter to test watches for radioactivity so you know when you need to take the appropriate precautions. Assume any watch this old with lume contains radium unless you’ve tested it yourself and know it doesn’t.
Whilst the watch is closed inside it’s case, the lume on hands is safely contained. You can own and wear watches with radium lume without endangering yourself.
The risk comes when you open the watch, but you can work on watches with radium lume safely if you take the proper precautions.
The radium is very dangerous IF it gets into your body. If you inhale any dust or flakes from the lume, swallow any or get any in a cut in your skin it poses significant health risks.
If you’re going to relume these hands I suggest you read about safely dealing with the radium that may be present. You must take precautions against creating dust, inhaling dust and to contain all of the old line you remove.
Brand new lume often looks out of place on a vintage watch. You can mix a little instant coffee into the new lume before applying it to get the colour of vintage lume, which will look more appropriate on the watch. There are videos about this online.
There is a lot of information regarding safe handling of radium contaminated watches online, please familiarise yourself with it if you haven’t already.
You’re doing a great job and I can see the improvement with each new video.
I’ve got more to share regarding this video, but wanted to get the radium warning posted immediately in case you were unaware of the danger it poses.
hi thank you for the input it really does matter to me what you say i love doing these watches and videos i can only do may be 2 videos a month i have a bad spine so i take me time i really do appreciate your wisdom and comments and i take them to heart as im learning
@@watchwhisper You’re most welcome. I’m happy to help where I can and I’d hate for someone to work with watches containing radium who is unaware of the risks and how to handle them.
I see the improvement in your watchmaking skills with each video you make, you’re progressing well.
Never lose heart if you run into difficulties. Watchmaking isn’t easy and there are no shortcuts when it comes to building knowledge and experience. Don’t forget even the best watchmakers we’re beginners once.
I’ve got very bad hips and ankles, to the extent that I can’t walk, so I have some firsthand experience of disability. Fortunately my spine is ok for now.
@@mercuriall2810 oh mate you are a truly a fantastic person thank you so much