RWG Technical

I guess on the upside, those who don't reply...are probably members you don't want to deal with anyway. So it's a good screening tool.

I know, it's been said here many, many times by various members. Like being in a bad relationship, where you just had enough, the rude members really take all the joy out of the forum. By rude, I am referring to those who send you a PM, you reply in kind, with a polite "...I would appreciate a reponse either way..." only to see your PM being read, and then deleted with no reply. Why? Because they didn't get the answer they WANTED. A one-off is no big deal, but after god knows how many of these, it's hard to not let it get to you, and simply paint everyone you don't know with the same brush. In other words, "Why do I want to even waste 30 seconds of my time answering this person I don't know, first off they can't even sign their name, and secondly, the odds of them even responding are basically zero." I can't speak for other long time members, but certainly this is one of the biggest reasons my participation has virtually stopped. Just when I think things have changed, I reply to a few PM's, only to have the sender's prove once again that nothing's changed...so why even bother... I guess everyone wants what they want when they want it, and they won't accept anything else.

Interesting that they copied the autowinder design from the Zenith El Primero...

@automatico Thanks for the clarification, it helps put things in perspective. @offshore I too have noted the price increases, seems strange when you see the price increase yet the exchange rate has not chanded... I have noticed more and more shops refusing to work on rolex's, and your example, along with a few of my own, make me want to follow them and Automatico and refuse Rolex models all together. The fellows on VRF are probably going to feel this more than anyone else, where are they going to get service? Certainly not from the AD... And from what I see first hand on may vintage rollie's, the servicing they have been getting, is well below acceptable standards. There goes the investment value.

I am not clear on how a USA judge can force a company in another country (Switzerland no less) to sell parts to certain people if they don't want to. It is interesting that the AWCI, the voice of the american watchmakers, has decided to not get involved in this issue, there is a letter on their site stating this. Wonder what that means... If the USA wins some decision, where does that leave all the other countries in the world when it comes to parts? I think the real power is in the hands of the consumer, many watchmakers flatly refuse to service rolex watches, simply due to the lack of parts. If the consumers realized that they have no choice but to send their watch to the AD and pay a monopoly rate, then maybe there would be a change...but really the change would have to take place before the watch was bought, not after. Isn't it ironic that car's have lots of "replica" parts available for them, in fact it's a huge business and perfectly legal, hell you can even pick up a copy of "Replica Car Monthly" magazine at the local newstand...replica watches or parts - or God forbib a "Replica Watch Magazine" is looked down upon...go figure...

It's simply a quirk of the design. Many vintage rolex movements are of this same design, 1530 series are all like this, they don't tend to have the jumpiness of the asian ones, but if you are in the time setting position of the crown, you can make the seconds hand "jump" about 6 seconds by moving the time forward and backwards. Sometimes adding a bit of lube to the tension spring that holds the seconds gear in place helps to dampen the jumpiness, but there is really nothing you can do about it. It is designed to work like any other movement, it's simply a visual thing, not a mechanical problem or concern. The ETA's not only beat faster 28.8K vs 21.6K, they have direct seconds drive, and no jerkiness...

The skipping your describing is perfectly normal for this type of movement. The seconds is indirectly driven, the fact that you say that it "skips" from 12-5 proves this, turn the watch upside down and the "skipping" will now occur between 6-12. The reason? Gravity. When the hand has to fight gravity, it smooth out, when the hand is going with gravity, it jumps. There is nothing wrong with the movement, all indirectly driven center seconds movements have this characteristic. Most vintage center seconds movements are of this design.

I'll post a side pic so you can verify the height.

In my case it is simply a matter of life away from the forum being busy over the past 6 months. And with summer here, my time is mostly spent outdoors trying to enjoy what little outside weather I can, before the crapy winter and rain sets in all too soon... I simply don't have the leisure time I once had for doing up detailed posts like I once did. I do try and read and comment when I can, but my available time is very limited and will continue to be so until late August. No doubt that RWG is my only home and I still think it has stayed the course, that is to take care of the members and their interests and provide unbiased information on the watches themselves. I don't think any other forum can make the same claim. I also think we have a much more mature membership who take more value in the quality and stick with their watches and the upgrades to them instead of jumping from one watch to the next willy nilly...

If the crystal height is not correct, meaning that it's sticking out too far, it is a simple matter to put the case in the lathe once more and turn down the crystal seat slightly. I checked a number of gen pics and machined the crystal seat to the height that matched the pics I had sent to me, it appeared to be correct.

Normal, they come in a variety of configurations, older ones have a full set, newer ones only 3, a bit of lube in the bearings will quiet it down...

We'll find out soon enough, just don't ask about the clear coating service...

Ubi...don't forget practice, lots and lots of practice, skill comes later on. Like anything done by hand, it's nice to have the individuality of each piece, just like your projects, they are all slightly different. Here's the twins, side by side... I still think this is much more of a challenge, due to the shapes and thiness of the lines...

As much fun as dropping the hairdryer in the tub while taking a bath...not sure which is less painful...

Stable hand and able to work under a loupe. If you haven't any experience working with a loupe, you will find applying lume to be a real challenge. If you are doing a sandwich dial, none of that really applies, simply split the dial and pile it on. This is why you see many who offer sandwich dial lume, but few who will offer any other type of lume. Unless you have worked under a loupe regularly, with no depth perception and only one eye, and no room for error, you will need a lot of practice to be able to get good results on saussage dials. I have always used Genuine Super Luminova, if it's good enough for Rolex, Panerai, Omega, and all the others, it's good enough for me ... This is what you are trying to achieve, I should add that these results are after 5 years of experience and many hours of practice and a few ruined dials along the way (my own dials)...

K22222 is in Poland and is Jakub. Rocketeer is in the UK. Different people, but both scammers.

What I would add is to simply restate some of the others comments. If the watches are keepers, then having them serviced is your assurance that they will last. Most ETA 28XX series movements are used surplus ones, they may be New Old Stock, or completely worn out dirty gummed up movements. The A7750 on the other hand will be a new movement, while it may not be serviced, it is certainly a better choice than a worn out ETA. Accuracy is a design issue, not a servicing one. The average ETA 28XX is not designed to provide much more than + - 30 seconds a day, same for the A7750. Yes, individuals have and can regulate the movement to much closer specs than this, but that is a result of them accounting for the rate averages of the watch, while they are wearing it. In other words, most any movement can be regulated quite accurately, if you remove the errors that are introduced by the wearer of the watch. The reality is that a mechanical watch has a personality, and timing can and does vary, even from day to day, or hour to hour...it's what gives a mechanical watch it's soul, kind of like the soul of a vaccum radio, vs internet radio, no comparison. If timing is your only criteria, quartz is the answer. COSC specs, the highest in the world for mechanical watches, are 10 seconds a DAY... don't expect a movement not designed to these standards to be anywhere near that accurate... Even at that, your Genuine Rolex can be out by 1 minute a week and be perfectly serviceable.

Wow, that is an old one...the "Patented" stamped on the dial side I normally see on movements from the 70's/early 80's. I'll never figure out ETA caliber numbers, this is clearly stamped 2836-2, but shares almost no parts with the modern version of the 2836-2. Certainly if you ordered what's stocked today, you would not get parts to fit this version. An option on the GMT gear, is to turn down the hand seating area to accept a hand size you may have in stock, should be simple to do in the lathe with a wheel chuck, let me know if I can help...

With Ryanair throught the EU it isn't very expensive to pay someone a visit and collect your property...I know that's what I would be doing. Knock knock...

I would like to see pictures of the complete movement, especially a close up of the ETA and caliber markings. As far as I know, all 2836-2's are the same, and this isn't one of them. I have only ever seen that style of stem in a 2671, never in a 28XX series, and the keyless works is not a 28XX design, at least not one you will find spare parts for...a yoke from a normal 2836 is not going to work in place of that one. It appears to be a very old something, exactly what I am not sure.

Good stuff. Dial washers are normally not included, you can pick up a gross of them for a few dollars, worth having in your spares bins...

If you go on the ETA website, you can download the tech data sheets for the movement. On the last few pages, is a listing of the various height combinations of hour and seconds posts and cannon pins. You have to remove your cannon pin, measure it, and find the cooresponding hour wheel that matches it. Lost hour wheels on loose movements is a common problem, nothing to hold them in place.

We have both been around these forums for long enough to know that not everything is as advertized, I see so many variations in everything that it's not worth trying to keep up with the changes. On the coloured "glass" I believe that all of our A7750's have sapphire jewels, my teardown of the 4 year old A7750 proved this, I haven't seen anything to tell me otherwise. My point was that there are some movements with "coloured" glass for jewels, these will wear out the pivots very fast. So just because you see a "red" jewel, it may be worse than having a metal jewel.

Thanks Admin for bringing this out and posting it. And I am like most of the comments, I see people as either being honest, or not, if you are a liar, then normally you will lie about everything and can't be trusted. @Chieftang Thanks for the kind words, that is not something I have heard before, or something I ever considered, thank you.

I think it's important to consider the original Valjoux 7750 as well as the new ETA versions of this movement. Valjoux 7750's (and many other vintage movements) originally had only 17 jewels, which is the minimum for a plain handwind movement, add a chronograph, and an autowinder and you have many pivots with no ruby jewels for them to turn in. There are many metal jewels in the original Valjoux (and ETA 17J) 7750's, these movements have been running just fine for over 30 years and if serviced regularly have no wear problems. The latest version of the ETA 7750 with 25 jewels still has some metal jewels, and the ETA 7753 (which is only a few years old) has many metal jewels, and works just fine. So metal jewels in themselves are not a problem, in fact a metal jewel is much better than a "red" coloured one that may not be anything more than coloured glass or a soft material. The key to long life hasn't changed, have it serviced regularly, before it wears out...