Vintage Rotary watches are of a higher quality than their modern counterparts and can be quite collectable. See the Aquaplunge service process here.
Longines Flagship Service: Calibre 343
Rolex Prince Service and Repair: Calibre 7040
Zenith Chronograph Service: Calibre 146D
Gallet Chronograph - Venus 150 Service
What does a battery change involve?
When is a battery change not just a change of battery? When it’s done by a horologist who cares about your watch. I’m often asked why a battery change can’t be done in five minutes ‘like the guy at the shoe repair shop’ and the short answer is that if a job is worth doing, it’s worth doing properly.
Whittnaur Electric Watch Battery Spacer (Landeron 4750)
Recently a good friend, Neil, was visiting the workshop and wearing a very cool watch. A vintage electric Whittnaur with a very early movement. So early this uses mechanical contacts to control an electromagnet rather than the more common transistor. A great piece of history but also an amazing looking watch, check out the dial and hands at the bottom of this post.
Timing Washers - Large Adjustments to Watch Timekeeping
Sometimes the timekeeping of a watch will be very wrong even after a service - several minutes a day. If a watch is gaining a large amount of time, there is a solution - ‘Timing Washers’. These are minuscule and precisely manufactured amounts of material, designed to be added in pairs to timing screws of particular sizes of balances to affect the rate a known amount (usually 1, 2 or 3 minutes per day).
Certina Biostar Electronic Service: Calibre ESA 9150
Stowa Necklace Watch
This lovely watch was inherited by the owner from a grandparent and stopped working after it was dropped - unusual for a watch with incabloc shock settings but not impossible. Upon further inspection, it was found that a previous ‘repairer’ (or watchbreaker) had solved a problem of broken dial feet by simply gluing on the dial. The glue got into the incabloc and the watch stopped being shock resistant, leading to a broken balance pivot. New dial feet need to be properly fitted, as well as the watch being serviced and the balance staff replaced.
Wristwatch Movement Ring
I recently had an enquiry from a customer who was worried a watch they had bought was waterlogged and rusty inside - not an uncommon problem, unfortunately! Fortunately this was not the case, and the movement and dial were both in good condition - the problem instead was the movement ring was incorrect and too small to support the movement, and so the last ‘repairer’ (or watchbreaker) had glued the movement into the case and this was visible through the glass. Digging this out to release the movement was a laborious task and new movement ring would need to be made to hold everything in place correctly. As you’ll see this is not just a simple ring shape!
