RWG Technical

Understood, satisfaction from doing it ones self... Stem was made after a lot of trial and error getting it the right length to work correctly.

@neuuubeh I tried to capture the look of the dial but it's next to impossible with the crystal in place. It does have texture and variations in colour etc to give it the aged look. If you need the longer cannon and hour wheel fabricated to make your project work, let me know if I can help...

The oils are sort of the last thing you need, not the first. You can't oil a movement without fully taking it apart, to the last spring and screw. Then you have to clean the parts in special watch cleaning chemicals in an ultrasonic cleaner, then you have to rinse them twice, and dry them. Once dry, each part is inspected in detail, and as you assemble the movement each part that you install is tested to make sure it fits correctly and has the proper clearances. If everything is ok, the pivots and friction points are lubricated, with the correct type and amount of oil. A typical movement requires exact measured amounts of oils or it won't work correctly (miniscule amounts, in some cases the size of this dot "." is the correct amount of oil). For an automatic movement there are 6 different types of oils and grease used, a handwind normally uses 5 different types. One drop of oil is enough to fully lubricate a complete movement. If your not set up to do the above, and you simply "oil" your movement without doing any of the disassembly and cleaning, the movement will come to a grinding halt because of the friction caused by too much oil.

I only use thick superglue in limited applications and not where there is any tension on the parts. I have not had good success with bezel inserts and superglue, they always fall off. I'll use it to tack the dial spacer ring to the movement, and I'll use it to attach a dial to the ring, in cases where there are no dial feet. It does what I want it to do, secure the parts in place until they are fully secured into the case and clamped down by the movement and spacer ring. I use epoxy for anything requiring strength.

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Thanks. This one was a size 12, size 10 typically fits with little modification, size 12 is much too big and the mainplate O/D has to be cut down by about 2mm to fit the case.

Glad you like it, I was waiting to see what you thought. On the modifications of the gears, I just finished a Moljina with similar modifications. On the Moljina I tried a new approach, on the hour wheel, I cut the existing tube completely off the existing gear, then I made a new tube out of brass on the lathe, I cut down the tip so that the hand would fit, and then the base was cut down to the size of the hole I broached in the gear. A small notch was cut to fit snugly in the gear, and then I riveted the new brass tube to the original gear. A much better solution and a permanent one as well. For the cannon pin, I did the same thing, only this time I made the hole in the new cannon pin about 0.01mm smaller and press fitted it onto the existing cannon pin. I'll do what I can for more pictures, as anyone who has done any work and tried to photograph it along the way, it's very time consuming... Piano wire was the only solution, case clamps can't be used because they interfer with the caseback, everything for a reason.

Thanks so much everyone, I really like making these up, each is individual and has it's own character. And I get to use some new skills along the way. After seeing the posts over the weekend by cortebert, I got the urge to spend some time showing some new stuff. I agree with you. The only reason you see the Hamilton's being used, is that the seconds subdial spacing is the same as the ETA 6497, so it's an easy swap. I have found in my searches that there are many many more beautiful and usable movements out there than Hamilton's. I wanted something that was not only different, but of high quality, this fits the bill nicely...

Very very nice, shows how great RWG is when we can come together and help each other. Congrats, me thinks the old Daytona's are going to feel left out over the next while...who wants and El Primero anyway...

I have been making these custom vintage pocket watch movement upgraded PAM's for quite some time. I thought I would share the latest one that I put together over the summer. If your looking for the ultimate customized one of a kind watch, this would be the one. Forget the 1 of 300 series, this is a 1 of 1 series. For this one, I started with an Illinois high grade 21 jewel movement from 1923. As you will see it has a lot of nice accents and finishes including a lot of gold plating. The movement was totally disassembled, the mainplate was machined to fit the fiddy case, then it was fully serviced, including installing a new balance staff due to it being broken. I like to use the fiddy style hands, but the sizes are wrong and they won't fit a pocket watch movement. So I fabricated new hour and cannon pins to accept the fiddy sized hands. Here are a few pictures of that process from an earlier post: This movement is a "Pendant set" type, meaning that there is no set lever or stem attached to the movement in the conventional sense. The stem is part of the pocket watch case, if you look closely at the pictures, you will note the missing set lever screw, the one that you would normally loosen to remove the stem. After a lot of thinking, and trial and error, and making of custom parts and pieces, I managed to make a new stem that does what it should do, that is wind the watch and allow the time to be set. I am very pleased with the results. The dial is a "Ross" dial, made of two pieces of brass, I painted and patina'd the dial as well as lumed it in my custom Tritium vintage lume mixture and aged the works to give it that true vintage feel. Since I have a number of these, this one won't be staying in the watch box but will be sold off. Making these custom watches is not for the faint of heart, it requires a lot of work starting with sourcing and restoring the movement as well as modifying it to fit the case, then you have to manufacture custom parts to accept the hands, then figure out and get the completed movement and dial to fit and line up and actually work in the case...many many hours are needed to get to the stage you see here. But I think it's well worth it, hope you like the results as well. I have a collection of these vintage pocket watch movements all modified and serviced and waiting for a new home...I just need to find the time... Pictures... Everyone is always talking about "Swan Neck regulators", how's this for a gold swan neck regulator, it doesn't get much nicer than this. Notice the steel piano wire bars fitted to the edge of the movement and the case to secure the movement in place. Thanks for looking.

As stated, this is a Left hand threaded screw, you screw it in by turning it in what would be the "Lefty loosy" direction. Stem position etc makes no difference, just screw it back in place. On the freezer question, it would not work because the whole watch would be cold, the idea is to have the case warm and the caseback cold which will case the caseback to shrink slightly relative to the case.

Fiddy's can be a problem, even with an opener. I find them snug or tighter than the hinges of hell...hopefully yours is the snug variety. If it proves troublesome, you can always freeze the caseback with an icecube to shrink it slightly...

Well I learned something new today. Thanks for the link, interesting stuff, especially with gold at $1K an oz...I can see some buying these up for the gold content alone. It reminds me of all the un-cased pocket watch movements for sale now on ebay, cases were robbed and sold for the gold content...what a shame... I have seen wheels like this and this colour many times but never thought much of them. I wonder how low the actual gold content is in them and what carat they are, the center wheel is the most stressed wheel in the watch so it has to be a very hard alloy, I would guess in the single digits, probably alloyed with copper and tin and hardened. I'll get some pics tomorrow and put it in a new post.

There is a small "U" shaped spring that moves the tilting pinion into the center seconds gear. I have seen this spring fall out or get out of place. If this is what has happened, best to not wind it or use it until you can take the caseback off and have a look inside. It could be something else but impossible to say without seeing the movement. Time for a visit with your favorite watchsmith.

You can't break the glass with a rubber ball...have at it...

@ Neuuubeh The train wheels should all be made of hard brass, I believe that the center wheel is coated in copper, but I am not certain of this. Omega did this to many of their movements from the 60's and 70's. It could also be made from Glucyder but I don't think it was around when these movements were fabricated. I also have a large parts bin full of these old movements, all modified to fit into the PAM cases, and all fully serviced and repaired. As your probably well aware, many of these old movements have broken balance staff's, that is the most common problem I have to fix. My approach so far has been to manufacture new cannon and hour wheels to accept the Fiddy type of hands. I'll get some pics taken tomorrow and post the end results. Nice to see your workmanship, well done.

Thanks, the 921 is a great looking and time keeping movement. I'll try and put some pics of the Illinois and Ross dial later this week, like you, I prefer the vintage movements over the newer stuff. Quality never goes out of style.

Great minds must think alike... I have been doing the same modifications for quite a while. Here's my version of a 921 into a Fiddy case. I wanted to keep the fiddy hands so I fabricated a new hour wheel and cannon pin. I just finished a circa 1923 Illinois pendant set pocket watch movement (size 12) into a fiddy style case with a vintage MM Ross dial, again using fiddy hands and my own manufactured hour and cannon wheels. Quite a bit of fabrication and thought had to go into getting the stem to work correctly because it was a pendant set, I got it figured out and it works and and runs great. These are great fun, especially the hunt for suitable movements, most can be had for less than $100 but with some work needed to get them running, I find a lot of broken staff's. My 921 is within 20 seconds - per week, not bad... Well done, enjoy the watch.

Very ingenious and well done, I can see this information being handy for many members.

I believe the kids are slave labour children who make and assemble the watches...at least that is what the Richemond group and other Genuine brands want us to believe if you read their propaganda. Sounds a bit more believable than the posts a few years ago on TZ which stated that all reps were actually being made by Osama Bin Lauden and his band of merry men in mountain caves of Afganastan and that anyone who bought a rep was supporting terrorism. Next week reps will be carriers of the H1N1 flu bug...

Excellent post, well documented and great pictures as well. I guess I need to find a local pantograph engraver so that I can make my Cortebert look like yours. Thanks so much for this, it is one of the best technical posts in a long time.

I use a 4X 99% of the time, in fact it's on my glasses now...

We didn't do any travelling at all. It was more of a "staycation" where we just took it easy and did some riding in our local area's. Saving up for another road trip next year...

The seconds at 3 and 12 are both well engineered and designed movements. The only problem they have, is the same one as all A7750's, lack of servicing. There is no reason to do the "graphite" treatment on these or any models. In my own experience the graphite treatment didn't do anything which is why I don't offer it. During servicing I do polish and burnish the center wheel (which is the only wheel that isn't jewelled), this is a far superior solution and a traditional watchmaking technique. A properly polished and burnished gear will have far less friction than one running on a bed of graphite dust... In fact all pivots on all wheels are polished and burnished to reduce friction. Your solution is simple, have the movement serviced, and get it serviced every 5 years after that.