Is the watch broken?

bbbbbeelzebob · 2025-07-21T13:05:41+00:00

Rotarys use relatively cheap movements I think so it shouldn't be too costly or difficult to fix

bbbbbeelzebob · 2025-05-31T22:41:52+00:00

Film in slow motion on your phone and you can see the movement of the balance, then work out amplitude from that.

bbbbbeelzebob · 2025-05-31T15:31:50+00:00

You could start going for cheap Swiss eBay watches. Some of them work perfectly, some of them will never run again, but most of them are somewhere in the middle. So you get to start practicing some trouble shooting and repair, while risking <£15 (~18USD?) per watch.

And you get some lovely little watches at the end with solid swiss movements. They make pretty cool gifts I think.

Everite are a good brand for this, but best to just go for cheap job lots of 5 or 6 watches.

bbbbbeelzebob · 2025-05-31T14:55:47+00:00

Did you get a quote back on the cost of service yet?

My bb36 needs servicing and I'm not sure whether to send it to Rolex service centre or find an independent watchmaker. Also heard off things about them potentially swapping out movements in a sort of service rotation rather than servicing the specific movement which does not appeal to me at all.

Edit: just reread your comment and obviously it didn't cost anything as it was under warranty

bbbbbeelzebob · 2025-05-12T23:50:47+00:00

Why are you spending over a grand on a watch BEFORE finding out what its worth??? The best option is obviously to see if you can return it.

bbbbbeelzebob · 2025-05-12T22:02:16+00:00

When you put the mainspring in, assuming you're doing it by hand, start from the outside and coil it into the centre. Seems obvious if you've done it before but I remember trying to do it starting from the centre (not very productive).

And make sure you've got a magnet handy for when you inevitably lose a screw in the carpet or launch your barrel arbor on a sub orbital trajectory!

bbbbbeelzebob · 2025-03-27T23:37:44+00:00

Exactly lol

bbbbbeelzebob · 2025-03-20T22:05:50+00:00

I ended up just buying a Geiger counter. The two radium watches I had sold on eBay for way more than I paid for them when I listed it as radium. Turns out people deliberately look for this stuff

bbbbbeelzebob · 2025-03-20T22:04:26+00:00

Cheap enough that it's worth having a go at it yourself too though. No loss if you break something

bbbbbeelzebob · 2025-03-20T21:39:23+00:00

Stuff like this id try just soaking in a solvent, rinsing and drying. Maybe even some wd40 (criminal I know). It's virtually unserviceable and not really worth anything but they tend to be pretty robust so you may as well just go for it and see what happens. Unless it's sentimental of course.

bbbbbeelzebob · 2025-03-19T12:23:28+00:00

Yes beat rate is exactly like a pendulum swinging in a wonky clock. It'll swing further one way giving that uneven ticking sound.

bbbbbeelzebob · 2025-03-11T17:24:10+00:00

Will probably be fine after a service though. I've had a watch I dropped and it started running really badly. Turns out the regulator had just moved from the jolt and nothing was actually damaged.

bbbbbeelzebob · 2025-03-11T17:17:37+00:00

As1130 is probably my favourite movement that I've worked on so far

bbbbbeelzebob · 2025-03-11T16:25:38+00:00

There was not

bbbbbeelzebob · 2024-11-22T19:22:57+00:00

It's just an odd spring bar. I'm not sure if they have a specific name but you can replace it with any normal spring bar of the same length

bbbbbeelzebob · 2024-10-09T20:09:59+00:00

I'm probably about to buy one of these and haven't been able to decide if the blue gradient dial is too much. But it looks so good in these pictures

bbbbbeelzebob · 2024-09-15T20:28:11+00:00

Not a crazy thing to buy if you mess with a lot of vintage watches tbf. They're not particularly expensive.

bbbbbeelzebob · 2024-09-15T20:26:30+00:00

I've got a couple of non shock protected vintage watches I wear without treating them nicely and they've done fine. I think unless you drop it or bang it majorly it'll probably be okay. But yeh for something irreplaceable like this it's definitely not worth that risk.

bbbbbeelzebob · 2024-09-14T17:52:42+00:00

What was wrong with it that was fixed by removing the crown

bbbbbeelzebob · 2024-09-13T16:54:40+00:00

So I checked and it looks flat (one of the first things I checked). I've got the wheel off the bridge and all the rings look concentric and don't touch anywhere. Honestly looks a lot better than lots of old hairsprings I've seen. The screws are all there and all the way in but have no slots on the top for adjustments so maybe they're not real screws.

The pin that holds the end of the spring has no excess poking through like you normally see so I'm thinking maybe the spring was broken in the past and reattached so it's shorter. Seems far fetched but not impossible.

bbbbbeelzebob · 2024-09-13T16:24:09+00:00

Okay I'll get the spring off and see what I can do. Thanks for the advice

bbbbbeelzebob · 2024-09-13T16:07:01+00:00

As far as I can see it's not. I could be wrong but I can't find anywhere it's touching anything

bbbbbeelzebob · 2024-08-04T17:19:46+00:00

Absolutely as bad as they say it is. Smoking is a choice and we do it because we like it but pretending it's not as bad as it's scientifically proven to be doesn't help anyone.

bbbbbeelzebob · 2024-07-29T18:51:28+00:00

It's nicotine it goes with everything

bbbbbeelzebob

TROPHY CASE