RWG Technical

I understand how it can be disappointing, especially for your first rep. If it worked fine the first few times, my guess would be a weak spring in the crown, you could always try and turn it backwards and press on it to see if it will engage to the winding position. You will know when it's in the winding position when you can hear and feel the ratcheting of the crown gear. Genuine's have these and more issues as well, so it's not limited to reps, but as with anything you buy, sometimes you get a few problems along the way... RG

My first guess is that the stem is too short, so instead of the keyless works switching from the date setting second position to the winding one (first position) when you press the crown in, it stays in the dateset position, and when you screw it down, it switches the date over. My second guess is that the spring in the crown is too weak and not allowing the keyless works to switch over to the winding position. The simple solution is to set the date to one day early, then screw the crown down and it will switch over to today's date, and then wear the watch, since it's an automatic, you would only have to reset the date once every couple of months... RG

Sleep pattern back to normal, always easier going west than east... RG

It all depends on your interest. Of course Paris has many must see sites, but I am not much of a city person and prefer the country. We saw some beautiful sites in and around the Burgundy and Dordogne river area's. I will do a pictorial later this week, and that should shed some light on the various regions, what is really amazing, is the variety of landscape in a few hours of driving. RG

I just can't understand how something like this could happen. I feel for you... RG

I'll be able to come up with some more details once I get my head on Atlantic time Not sure what is going on with watchmakers in the EU, but the pay does not seem to be there. I think some of the watchmakers I spoke with could make a really good living in north america, imagine what you learn in 4 years of watchmaking school... Admissions to the school are steady, 12 students each year, and full courses. Each student does 2, one month internships, and each student gets a job offer from someone before they finish school. That's all fine and well, but at 12K to start, I don't know how you survive in Switzerland on that salary. Time for bed, I am surprised I managed stayed up this late tonight. RG

We got in last night, and made it home safe and sound. Some delays and hickups along the way, but that's expected. Still feeling jet lagged today, and of course with the 5 hour time difference, I was wide awake at 3 am this morning. The trip was great, we had a really good time, drove a total of 3800 km over the 21 odd days we were on the road. Visited and drove around a fair amount of France, and really enjoyed our time in the southern area's, around the Dordogne river region, Bergerac, Montbazillac, Poitiers etc...very warm in the high 20's during our week there. It rained a total of 3 days during our 22 days of vacation, and those days we were moving from one area to the next, so the weather cooperated very well. It's mostly a blur for me, driving takes so much concentration with the camper, width and height restrictions are always a concern. Jennifer remembers each place we visited, I took notes at the end of each day so I can remember. Living in the camper is not for the faint of heart, or nose...especially when you have to empty the honey wagon every day or two. Lets just say travel always tends to mess up the internal plumbing, so bring along a radio you can turn up to allow for "privacy" when needed. Having about 5 square feet of floor space over the three weeks brought us closer together, and we didn't kill each other, so I guess that's a good sign. Don't turn around too fast in the shower or you'll meet yourself, it was so tiny that I couldn't bend over to wash my feet, you don't appreciate the simplicity of a nice long hot shower until you have to wash up in an area smaller than most closets. Of course no trip for me would be complete if I didn't stop and have some interesting discussions and visits with various watchmakers. I also visited a WOSTEP certified school that I had contacted concerning admission as a student. I only found one watchmaker who seemed to be quite successful at his trade, but he spent 80% of his time fixing and restoring clocks, not watches. Professionally trained in Switzerland, he seemed to be very knowledgeable, even recognized my Pam 196. He was quick to show me a recent purchase, of two fairly large boxes of Breitling stock, everything from cases and bezels and rings, to movements, dials etc. He wasn't a dealer for anyone, and Breitling doesn't sell outside of the AD's, so this find was really exceptional. I spent the better part of an hour visiting and talking shop, my goals of course on each of these visits was to try and judge the demand, compensation, and work scope that exists in France for watchmakers. And since French is my mother tongue, and I went to school only in French, communicating was easy. The other watchmakers I spoke with did few if any watches, one fellow had a window full of beautiful pocket watches he had restored, been there for years in the window, gathering nothing but dust, I was the first person in 4 years that asked to see one of the watches. Yes I kept my eyes peeled for any nice vintage movements, at each watchmaker shop, as well as in the various antique shops...I found nothing, seems as if Tourby has bought them all up. One watchmaker spent 4 years in formal training, 40 hours a week, trained to do most anything, could make just about any part you can imagine, and worked at various high end manufacturer's. But working for the big boys is not an easy way to make a living as a watchmaker. Having enough of that, he relocated to a small town, and his work today consisted of only restoring clocks for antique collectors. He has a number of friends working for AD's, one who works for Rolex in Switzerland as a servicing tech. Although this fellow has the same 4 year training under his belt, his skills are all gone...he's nothing more than a parts changer at Rolex, meaning that if during servicing he discovers a problem, he simply replaces parts until it's fixed. No troubleshooting, no thinking, no using his skills beyond being able to disassemble and put back together the movement. It's robot assembly line work, same thing, over and over, repeated many times a day, a week, a year...if you work for an AD as an assembler, you are in the same monotonous job day after day as the servicing fellow. I made it to the WOSTEP school I was thinking of attending, thinking that someone with a WOSTEP certificate, could make a reasonable living as a watchmaker...and since I seem to have a knack for watchmaking, I figured why not take it to the next level. Well thankfully I did some research and asked lots of questions first (thanks Kruz for the pointers). The cost to attend the 40 hour a week course, for 2 years, tuition alone, is 30,000 Euro's (aprox $45,000 CDN). Add to that, lost salary for those two years, then the cost of living and eating etc, and it's not cheap. So after graduation what would you expect to earn? I would expect 50-100K after a few years, especially if you consider the skill a watchmaker needs to practice his trade, and the value of the watches he's working on is so high, you would expect to be compensated accordingly. Well much to my dismay, the expected salary after completion of the course, starts at a measly 12,000 Euro's a year up to a whopping 24,000 Euro's after 5 or so years...that is what you get working for one of the genuine manufacturer's (Rolex, etc), either doing assembly work, or servicing. After 5 years, it can go up to the mid 40's or higher, depending on what you do, and who you do it for. After 5 years of working for a genuine manufacturer, you could venture out on your own and set up your own shop and hopefully earn somewhat more money. I met with the dean of the WOSTEP school and the teacher I had spoken to earlier this year. I easily met their entry skill requirements (assembly of a 6497 and some basic filling work) and could sign up for next year's course intake in August if I wanted to, but after finding out the salary, it's not going to happen - at least not for me. The WOSTEP program has very stringent entry requirements, based on skill and an interview. Most (80%) of applicants fail to gain entry, simply because they don't have the necessary hand/eye and fine motor skills needed to carry out watch work. And since watchwork and the WOSTEP program is all skill based, age is irrelevant. But at any age, the pay is just not there to justify the cost. So I'll be staying where I am and continue to work on watches in my spare time, until I retire from my day job. In case your wondering about my availiability this fall, I am booked up until into January 2009. That's because I will be doing quite a bit of traveling for work, and have cut back on my schedule for watches to a couple of nights a week. The eye injury in August pushed everything ahead a month, and I don't like to book to far in advance. Hope everyone is doing well, nice to be home, real nice...especially to see my sons after 3 weeks. RG and J

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Just getting the last minute stuff out of the way before we head off to France. Hope everyone stays well and we'll talk to you when we get back at the end of the month. All the best RG and J

I don't believe I am off at all, Rex is not a professional certified watchmaker, he has said so himself on RG. I am not questioning his ability, or his being anything but professional, what I said is that I don't believe he's a professional watchmaker, which is what you have stated twice now. That term carries with it a lot of weight, it's not to be used without the person having formal training and being recognized by a watchmaker society. Member kbh confirmed that Rex isn't a certified watchmaker. That's all I wanted to know. I am not bad mouthing him, my example can easily be found on RG, please read it for yourself like I did, it just struck me as odd that a watchmaker would diagnose that problem as being a mainspring issue. Believe me I have been hunting for 4 years now to find a real watchmaker that I can use to help me with my problems, but my hunt will continue. I call myself a "watchsmith" and have no training nor am I certified, there is a huge difference between the two. I try and make sure everyone is aware of my qualifications and skill level. Otherwise it's being misleading. I would love to see many watchmakers here, but so far they are far and few...and I am not a RG person, don't want to step over there for many reasons , so I guess there won't be any teaming up anytime soon... RG

Are you sure about this? My understanding is that rex was/is in the jewellery (?) sales end of the business and switched over to the watch repair section recently (within the past couple of years). I don't believe he has any formal or distance training (such as Time Zone) but relies on the expertise of watchmakers in house? Some of his technical responses have been off the mark, for example when someone asked why their automatic watch stopped running when worn, but worked fine if handwound, his reply was that the mainspring needed to be replaced. Based on this and other comments, and his own posts, I think he's still learning... but he certainly has access to a first rate shop and tooling. Please correct me if I am wrong. RG

Look below the balance wheel you should see the caliber number, and maker's mark. Looks like a V23 but to be sure look for "V23" and "R". RG

Well it's the only thing I have found that works, a brush is much too big. I am laughing that your shocked that I use this tool... This is why it takes me a few tries to get the lines straight and the same thickness as the original lettering. @ Tanya Thanks for the insight on Kent's work and the comment, much appreciated. RG

Thank you all for the feedback, I am truely humbled by the comments and really appreciate it. I never think of taking the before pics, actually it's not often that I take any after ones lately, just concentrating on the work on the bench. I do think of these as works of art, I think mainly due to the fact everything is done by hand, the lume starts out as C1 and I mix various colours in it to get the correct shade for vintage tritium, the application is all freehand and has variations in it, the dial painting requires removal, covering up, and painting of the "T", again done by hand. For the "T" work, I actually use a black oiler, it takes a few tries to get it just right, but it's the only way I can apply the paint in such a thin line, and get it the same thickness and straight...so what you see took a few tries to get right RG

The cat is already out of the bag, these are the new vintage dials that I think member V had shown last week?? I'm going to play around with luming them etc... Thread crapping over RG

Thanks for the feedback and kind words. I was very lucky to have a number of genuine Tritium PAM dials show up at my shop, which allowed me to be able to see first hand the true colour. It took some trial and error, but I was able to come up with a colour mix combination that matches the genuine Tritium, and I have been using this mixture on all dials since then. Thanks for the insight Simon, and kind words. On an off topic note, the package with the dials arrived yesterday, WOW holy crap do they look good...I will try and do a review before I leave next week, if not, it will have to wait till I get back at the end of the month. Thanks so much, really appreciated. RG

I have my PM shut down since I am going away next week. I would love to see the close ups, like any artist (and I do think it takes an artistic talent to do lume) I like to see what others do and how it looks. I respect the fact if Kent doesn't want any pics posted, although it's always good adverstising to show your talents off... I'll turn my PM back on and send you a message. RG

Well done and needed to understand the amount of watches and customers we are talking about. Although well done, seeing it all in one list, it's very disturbing, I wonder if the dates can be added to each person, then we have a time line and it all comes together. RG

Very informative, thank you. I haven't had any luck with ETA gears into asian 7750's. The ratchet gears always have too large a pivot for the A7750, so I will have to turn them down on the lathe. I have also tried replacing the reversing click gear with an ETA, it doesn't fit either... I have never noted any real problems with the reversing click spring that I couldn't fix, normally they are loose so I glue them in place, and if the tip of the spring doesnt' engage into the gear, I bend it to make it engage, besides this, they have been fine. Thanks for sharing your expertise. RG

Not much for show and tell on this one, the movement was fully serviced, but that's hard to appreciate via a post... The dial and hands and pearl were relumed in C1 Super Luminova. On the dial I was able to remove the original lume from the markers, and re-fill the markers with C1. So I managed to get a good quantity of lume installed. Overall pics after the servicing, yes, this is a running seconds at 3 model, but they are very well made as was stated in my review of this movement. Ran into the normal issues with any A7750, but had an extra twist on this one in that the hacking lever ended up jamming up the keyless works, of course only after the watch was completely assembled and being tested. It wasn't practical to completely disassemble the movement and start all over again since I couldn't determin if the lever was defective, if the slot for the lever was machined wrong, or if there was something not quite right with the keyless works, so I removed the hacking lever completely to fix the jamming. Not that that is simple or easy either, but spending another 4-6 hours re servicing a movement just serviced, with no idea if I could fix the defect didn't appeal to me at all. Here it is all done: A closer view of the markers and how much lume I was able to fill in after I removed the crappy rep lume/plastic pieces... The mandatory glow shot: Thanks for looking. RG

Thought I would share a couple of PAM's I did some work to lately. First a side by side over all shot. This one had some lettering removed, the "L Swiss L" was changed to "T Swiss T", and new lettering applied, all done freehand. New cannon pin installed as well to cure the recessed and bent hands. CG pin looked terrible, so I smoothed it to the CG and re-brushed it. On this one I removed some dial markings, the "-" was removed from between the "T-Swiss-T". This was a very difficult dial to install, it was 1.00 mm larger than the original dial, and would not fit the case. So I had to grind (yes as in "grinder") and file down the sides of the dial to get it to fit. This is always very risky, and the outcome is never guaranteed, the margin for error is nil. CG fixed up as best I could, the pin was sticking up and there was some damage to it and the CG, looks much better now. Close up of my custom mixed Tritium colour on the dial, the hands were done in a lighter shade of Tritium. The dial lume colour is matched to the genuine PAM Tritium dials I have had in house, so it looks the same. I would love to see some pictures of Kent Parks of Everest Watchworks dial lume work, to compare it to my work. I am told that he's the best of the best, but have only heard third hand on the quality of the actual workmanship, his website only shows distance no detail pictures which are useless...everyone needs to compare themselves to others in the trade...so if anyone has a Kent dial, and can take some close up shots, please share them for my benifit. Thanks for looking. RG

Or maybe I misunderstood... I read it as if he was reaching full wind, I never considered the crown or keyless works, my fist thought was click from mainspring bridle. RG

The A7750 is far to complex a movement to be able to diagnose this type of problem. It could be one of dozens and dozens of problems, even as simple as the watch not being wound up. If the movement wasn't serviced, that would be the starting point, all A7750 suffer from lack of correct oiling and adjusting as delivered, some keep running, some like yours don't...it's just the luck of the draw. You can do your own mini test, handwind the watch, 40 or so full turns on the crown, nice and slow, if you feel any resistance -STOP or you risk serious damage to the movement. If you can handwind it as above, then set the time, let the watch sit somewhere and see what happens...if it stops running before 30+ hours, you need to have it looked at by a watchsmith. RG

You have been here long enough to know you will eventually damage the click wheels by handwinding the watch. So that would be my first suggestion, don't hand wind except to get it started after it's fully unwound and then very slow and only a couple of turns. On an automatic watch, the mainspring is not attached to the sides of the mainspring barrel - it is free to spin around. There are 2 types of mainspring barrels, those with smooth sides, and those with notches in the side. When you reach full wind, the tip of the mainspring that is sitting on the sides of the barrel will start to slip, if you have a smooth sided barrel, you will feel more resistance in the crown, if you have a notched barrel (like you do) you feel and hear "click, click, click" as the tip of the mainspring snaps into each notch. Perfectly normal and no damage can be done. This is how you tell if you have a full wind, and how you can test the power reserve of the watch, if you let it sit and see how long it runs from a full wind. Now stop handwinding your auto before you break it RG

The fact that this information is visible to everyone is what is important at this time. Your situation, and others like you, it totally unaceptable. All we can hope is that no one else sends him any watches, and that people think twice about doing any work with him in the future. I am not big on excuses, it may sound harsh and uncaring, but the reality is that this same excuse has been used by every modder in the past, it's getting old. Especially when we are talking about many watches that have been missing for months since before the death in the family. The starting point may be for the EU members to get on a Ryanair flight and retrieve their belongings... RG