Newbie questio, w/out photos.

[watchthebear]

Hi, another basic questions, and i don’t know how to post photos. I don’t think this one will be that hard to describe though. I have been going through a shoe box full of watch movements; dissassembling them and trying to figure what is wrong w/ them. (none of these works, and it looks now like they will end up as “steam puink” for someone on Ebay). I got 6 in a row that had the same symptom. They were wristwatches. They would set, but would not wind. I made myself stick to the lessons and took them apart in the order designated. All had the same trouble, as i observed it. instead of the action for stem setting the watch that was shown in the videos, all of these watches had a thin piece of steel that was about the shape of the outline of a semi-circle. it was screwed down by the barrel gear, and went halfway around that gear ’til it came to the wind-gear. this piece ended w/ a tiny “forked tail” appearing configuration. It “locked up” the large gear and the winding gear. . Nothing would un-lock it in terms of moving the stem back and forth between “set” and “wind”. After 5 of these i got exasperated and unscrewed the piece of metal w/ the 2 pronged locking piece, and the watch would wind. I did have to keep my finger on the wind-gear as it wanted to bounce around. Please tell me what is going on here? My goal, until i achieve some dexterity w/ the tools, is to fix some of these watches that have a relatively simple fix; ie. no balance work. Thanks in advance for any help…………stay well……………b

[c.kelly]

Actually I think a picture would help me. If you look at area underneath where you type for your post you will see a tab called upload attachment. Hit that and you can attach picture. Now I might guess that what you are describing is a type click spring that prevents watch from rapidly unwinding. Sounds like when you removed it the mainspring unwound which would then allow you to wind watch. You would have to hold mainspring barrel otherwise it would again unwind. Sounds as if all watches are fully wound. Look for a small wheel with one tooth next to the ratchet wheel on the mainspring barrel. Try to wind watch and this wheel should loosen a bit. Hold it open (away from mainspring) and this will allow you to let down the mainspring. Now without a picture I’m just guessing. If you check this link http://www.ranfft.de/cgi-bin/bidfun-db.cgi?10&ranfft&136&2uswk&Baumgartner_34 you may see a similar type of spring that I think you described attached to a wheel near mainspring barrel. If this is what you have letting down power is similar to what I described earlier. Just have to disengage end of spring from wheel while holding crown back then unwind watch. Hope I was some help.
Charles

[watchthebear]

Thank you very much for your input. the link was exactly what i was talking about. I will check out your suggestions. I think you have me going in the right direction. thanks again……………b

[c.kelly]

You know I have only worked on a few models of wristwatches. Bulova, Hamilton, Puw movement, Gruen, AS movement and Omega and the only time I have seen that type of spring is in that link I posted. It took me a minute or two just to remember the movement that had something similar to what you were describing. I will also say that every mechanical non automatic wristwatch I have ever worked on has been fully wound up. Of course that means mainspring isn’t broken. If all those watches you have are similar and all have that sort of spring they may be in the same family which means parts could interchange. One thing you could do is determine type of movements you have then go back to home page of link I posted and type in movement in his search bar and he will list every movement in that particular family. If they are related then you could have a built in supply of spare parts.

[watchthebear]

Hi all………thanks Charles, you gave me some good advice. I’m putting it to work now. Will ask question in a new thread. take care…………….b

[watchthebear]

Hi all, a follow up on this subject: I got another watch w/ this type of click. It was much nicer in quality, and very clean. I took a dental pick and pulled the click away from the gear. It stayed open for a second before returning. I pulled it back and forth a few times. It worked fine like any other good click mechanism. My conclusion: a) i was working w/ inferior movements so the fabrication was not as precise, and b) the other movements were very dirty (they looked like they needed a bath), and the click spring was gummed up. I am afraid that as a newb I must re-invent the wheel at each stage. I need to learn to ask better questions in order to get past this. Thanks all for the help. stay well……………b

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