Bike Mike

How accurate should these A7750 movements be? What are the options and cost to get more accurate time? What swiss movements are available?

Do some reading around here. You will find that the A7750's when serviced correctly, run just as good as the Swiss movements. Overall finish is not as good, but the Asian 7750's run just fine.

go big or go home

If the bracelet hangs straight down from the lugs as is wraps your wrist it is too big for you...see guys with SA's on all the time on their toothpick wrists. Looks so goofy!

I have heard that Breitling tubes are soldered in

No, they are screwed in like most crown tubes.

Is this a Steelfish replacement? If it is, it's a terrible downgrade from the Fish (which still remains my all time favorite diver watch).

Absolutely horrendous Invicta-like dial & bezel. All originality and "Breitlingsque" design is gone.

+1,000,000. This better not be the replacement for our beloved Fish, but some thing tells me it is as this seems to be the general direction of Breitling lately. This watch looks very cheap.

The underside of the hand is where you start from. The taper you get in the tube will allow to to get a nice tight friction fit as you press it in place.

A hand broach vise is nice to have but not needed. You will need a broach, not a needle file. You can buy typical broach set that has many sizes. Unlike a file, a broach cuts on the intersecting faces. Typically they are hexagon in shape and taper. As you roll the broach between your fingers, it cuts. Getting the hand sized right is more feel and not so much mechanical.

Go slow and take your time. You can very easily remove too much material..

When properly serviced, what increases this friction? Oil? -or some mechanical tweak on assembly?

The proper type of lubrication...Jisma is what I use. Pretty green in color. Allows for the right amount of friction to run the hands but not so much that it prevents the required amount of slipping to set the time via crown. Unserviced are way over oiled.

Your second hand is probably also floating on the dial somewhere...Everybody is a watchmaker nowadays

It is easy when you can follow a online guide.

Easy fix for any watch maker. Don't risk doing it yourself as the escape wheel pivots are very easy to break if you don't know what you are doing.

100% agree. The only flaw I have noticed is the dial lume quality. It is actually better on the Rep then the Gens.

Not sure about this movement in specific but is there a dial spacer in place and the correct size? Have a members watch I am currently working on that was serviced not 100% correctly... it has the same issue as yours, movement would run fine outside the case. Turns out the dial washer was installed wrong and is the wrong size. When the dial was under load from being installed in the case there was enough pressure placed on the hour wheel to stop the movement.

99% sure it's the pallet fork. Look if the 2 screws that are holding the bridge of the pallet fork are tightened like they should. If they are loose and the fork get's a little play it will result in the issue you're describing. That or a loose pallet stone in which case it's hard to fix yourself.

Good luck!

+1...Or the pallet fork has moved down the arbor. Have dealt with this on Asian movements especially if they have been dropped or knocked around. Easy fix regardless.

Could be several issues, the first that comes to mind would be checking the pallet fork engagement to the balance impulse stone then remove the balance to check the pivots are okay.

If you own a few Grahams or even one, some of them tend to have a issue with the big lever, used to start/stop the chronos…you know, the bottle opener looking thing. The lever can have a lot of up and down play in it causing it to wobble around and becoming annoying at times. Out of the 4 Grahams that I have owned, 2 of them have exhibited the same problem with excessive play in the chrono lever. I have found this issue is not so much to do with the lever, but more to do with the thickness of the case piece the lever actually attaches to. Across the 4 Grahams I own, the this thickness varies by as much as 0.5mm. The 2 watches I had issues with were both 0.45 and 0.5mm thinner in the area the lever mounts, then my two Grahams I consider not to have this issue. Also, some of these are not the flattest of interfacing areas.

So I sat down tonight to execute a solution that I have been thinking about over the past couple of days. First step is to remove the lever. What seems to be a screw that is removed with a allen wrench is not, but instead it is half of a pin that presses into the lower half. I fine blade screw driver between the lever and case makes a nice pry-bar. With some care and pressure the pin will separate into 2 pieces allowing you to remove the lever.

Next using a file, I rough up the underside of the housing where the inner lower piece of the lever would interface and apply a small amount of JB Weld to build up a “pad” if you will. JB Weld is some great material if you have ever used it. I have used this stuff to repair 2 stroke engine cases that run at 30,000rpm and am yet to have a failure. Take your time here and don’t get too crazy with the JB Weld. You have plenty of time to work with the material before it begins to cure.

After a good 12 hours of cure time, I filed down the JB Weld pad I built up to the proper thickness. The more time you take here the better your lever will fit. You want the lever to fit tight so you don’t have up/down slop, but you don’t want such a tight fit that the lever can not be returned by the start/stop button spring. After a couple measurements and test fittings of the lever, I felt that I had reached the proper thickness of material I wanted left behind. You can also square up the pad if you want to go that route, but you will never see this once the lever is installed.

I reinstalled the lever and pin halves and gave it a go….Perfect! No more wobble or jingle sound coming from my watch when wearing it around. You can see how the pad causing the underside of the top portion of the lever to hold nicely against the case stopping that up/down slop from being a annoying.

Thanks Mike! Seems there's something wrong with the movement. i had a spare ploprof stem of the same movement (nice and long so was able to try it no problems). Same problem.

Thanks again for the advice

Well you took the easy causes out of the equation. So now you are down to the keyless works. Some thing let go in there.

Breitling Chronomat. Wear one in the office about twice a week with a suit.

+17sec/day.... They can do better even on a improperly serviced movement that come from the rep factories.

Nice write up. Running second hand seems real close to the dial due to the short post on the second wheel. Have run into this before on 2 transplants. 1st transplant I just swapped second wheels. 2nd transplant I swapped second wheels and found this changed the ratio causing the watch to run about 4sec/minute faster....ended swapping posts/pivots. A lot of work, but always fun making things work.

Worth a try. Just make sure you release the stem in the correct position.

Guys,

Thanks for the responses. I am not real clear, could you be more specific . . . who should I ask about tools?

From what I have read, isn't Offshore in Australia? I'm in the US, and my assumption is that I would be paying alot for shipping and it may take 30+ days.

I'll follow up with him.

It seems to me that there are a few tools that you should by the best you can afford . . . screwdrivers and tweezers. I have found a set of 6 Horotec screwdrivers, and have been looking at tweezers. I am leaning towards some Dumont, unless someone has a better suggestion. Thanks Bike, for the suggestion. It looks like there is SS and anti-magnetic. Does it matter, one better than the other?

I understand that I will need to open the second hand tube with broaches. How do you hold the tube? Bergeon has a tool for this, but my guess is that most people aren't using this.

And what power loupe(s) do you recommend?

It looks like some of the tools does not have to be 'Swiss Made', but where else do I need to step up. I don't want to pay more than I have to for an opener, but I don't want to buy something that has cheap jaws and scratches my back.

Thanks again,

Mike

You can not go wrong with the Horotec screwdrivers. They are the best IMO and all I use.

For tweezers, Dumont are great, anti-magnetic are the ones you are going to want. They are a little softer then straight SS, but you never have to worry about screws sticking to them.

Only way to hold a hand well for broaching out the tube is with a hand vise.

Take a lot of care when opening up hand tubes. It is very very easy to open them up too much with a broach if you have never done this before.

Given the first part of your post, sounds like the crown is stripping out internally. Spring loaded crown I assume…There is knurling or spines if you will, that engage when the spring inside the crown pushes the head outwards once you unscrew the crown from the tube. These spines can become stripped and when they do that crown head will not engage the piece that the stem is screwed into, cause the crown head to wobble and create issues like you describe.

The Rep makers need to shave a little of the length of the minute hand. They are just a bit to long. Other then that, Beautiful!

I would really like to know where you would put an additonal 2 main spring barrels into a existing A6497 to make this happen...

Citzens capacitors are made in India so issue with supply their.

I need to get down here more often...

Agree! I used to hate having to do this hand, but now don't have any issue. Found out a little red Loc-Tite on the inside of the hand tube works PERFECT! Stops the hand from slipping, but because the 60 sec Chrono Wheel post is polished, it does not create a perminate bond like red Loc-Tite typically does.