RWG Technical

So I wonder what the case is? It has a rounded edge on the caseback, appears to be worn out, and you can see the wear marks from the bracelet end links, which only show up after years of wear...how can the case be franken, when it has the markings and appearance of a 6541 and wear on it from years of use? Very confusing... At least I know the movement is genuine. RG

That's the dial. Amazing quality, funny how they make it with a few "flaws"... RG

No, I'm ok, you better hang on to it. I didn't know they were getting to be so rare these days... RG

Interesting... I'll have to shoot some pics of the dial close up, if it's a redial, I am amazed at the quality of the small "squares" in the dial texture, and the Tritium looks aged and has a nice patina. It's an odd one for sure, but without any information to go on, I don't know what to make of it. In any event, it's working and funtional, which is an improvement over when it arrived in the shop. RG

The hour and minute hands are the same size and fit as is. On this one, the subdial hands only needed slight broaching to fit snug on the ETA posts, but the Chrono Seconds hand needed to be broached from 0.20 mm to 0.25 mm to fit the ETA. RG

Damn, I knew I forgot something... I am sending him a set of Rollie ETA hands with SL on them, for free...crap, now he's endorsing me...oh the horror, it's like the fish or cut bait trap... where will it end. RG

24 views and no comments...I guess I'm not the only one that doesn't know a lot about these vintage models. RG

The GMT modified 7750 has not only more gears, but a different shaped top plate than a normal 7750. The only way your going to get the recessed datewheel fixed, is to install a non-GMT top plate on the movement. Once you do this, there will be a thickness difference between the GMT and non GMT movement (the new movement will be thinner) and your stem is not going to line up with the case hole...how much of a difference and is it going to be a problem, don't know. As well, everything else goes out of alignment, case spacer ring, etc...you can't change one item, without affecting many more...there are always gives and takes when you start modifying parts. RG

I have only had a few FM's in for lume, they are a real challenge due to the shape of the numerals. As you know, the daylight shots are what I like to show, since you can't hide any flaws or defects. After luming that Slevin last week, this was a nice change, but actually proved to be quite a challenge in it's own right. Lume is quite thick, and when you pick it up on the applicator, it is shaped like a sphere or a drop. Trying to get a round drop applied to square edged lume area's is not simple. I think it turned out quite fine in the end. And of course the lume shot, but it's meaningless where quality of the lume application is concerned. It's really Green not Blue in colour, the WB on the camera messes it up... Thanks for looking. RG

My friend and RWG member Ubi sent me this nice Genuine Breitling Navitimer dial. I only mentioned to him that I had picked up a used Navitimer, and he asked if I could use a Genuine dial.... "Of coures I can..." So once the dial arrived, I looked in my spares bins, and noted that I still had an unused ETA 7750 sitting around. Since I was going to upgrade the dial, I figured I may as well upgrade the movement as well. Here is the ETA 7750 installed in the case A couple of views of the dial, it was about 0.50 mm too large, so I had to file it down a bit to get it to fit the case. I lumed the hands in my vintage tritium colour to match the dial. The biggest difference I noted between the rep and gen dial, was that on the rep dial, the subdial recess is a 90 degree sharp angle between the dial and the subdial, but on this dial it's a shallow taper between the two. I didn't know about this feature until I compared the two side by side. Thanks Ubi, much appreciated. RG

Although I think I can hold my own when it comes to movements and techincal stuff, knowing about certain models, especially Rollie's is not my area of expertise. I just got this in, did a full servicing (movement was seized solid, you couldn't even turn the crown), and after the teardown, cleaning, and oiling, it works beautifully now. The wonders of an Ultrasonic machine and L&R cleaners... Just to show how quality never looses it's value, after I serviced the watch and had the balance re-installed, I turned the mainspring barrel gear about 1/10 th of a turn, and the balance started to swing...wow... For comparison, on a ETA movement after servicing, I need at least one full turn or more of the mainspring gear before the balance will start to move. Quality and amazing finish of the parts does make a difference. So have a look eagle eyed experts, tell me what you think, and what you see... Magnetic Flux cover installed over the movement and spacer ring. Caseback Cased up And finally the dial side view, I don't have the bezel or the bracelet. New T-16 installed (my last one ) Dial was stamped "Singer" and the letters SL intertwinded on the back. Opinions wanted, tell me what you think... And thanks for looking. RG

I don't think there is any excuse for impolite messages. What is the second thing anyone learns in any foreign language (the first being all the swear words), but how to say hello and good bye. Even if english is not your first language, most likely you can introduce yourself, say hello, and sign your name... There is no excuse as far as I am concerned...and I do get a lot of impolite messages or curt ones and just ignore them. RG

WOW! I am so excited, it looks amazing...can't wait for it to arrive. RG

I find the safest position is the winding one. The biggest problems are pressing too far on the release pin, and popping the clutch gear out of position when you go to re-install the stem. You have to be careful when you insert it and on these models typically you don't press the release on insertion of the stem. RG

It's been a long week...tomato...tomoto...you know what I mean RG

Thanks, I like this painting as well. Hands are not done like a dial is done. You first scrape the bottom of the hands off and remove the lume, they you push and scrape the lume out from inside the hollow part of the hand, and then you apply the new lume from the bottom pulling it accross and down the hand until it's completely covered in lume. Put it aside and let it dry. Have fun, if you have some old dials, nothing to loose and all to gain in experience... RG

There are a few reasons why automatics are more fragile than manual wind models. Let me try and elaborate: 1. An automatic can be bi or uni directional winding, 7750's only wind in one direction, 2836's wind in both. In each case, there is a click gear (wheel) that is simply a one way clutch self contained gear. In a 7750 which only winds one way (due to lack of space for a second click wheel) the rotor will freewheel in one direction, and wind the watch in the other direction. When the rotor is freewheeling, the click wheel is spinning free, nothing else is turning or moving except for the click gear and the rotor. When the rotor is winding the mainspring, the click clutch levers engage into the bottom half of the click gear, and this will cause the click gear to lock and to engage into two more reduction gears, and finally into the mainspring gear and cause it to be wound. It takes many multiple turns of the rotor to turn the mainspring barrel one turn. Think of the rotor as your car engine, and the transmission is the click gear and reduction gears, in first gear, rev it to 6000 RPM, and your going about 20 miles per hour. A bi-directional arrangement work the same, only that it engages into 2 click wheels, and winds both directions so to be more efficient. So if you reverse the power flow, and turn the crown here's what happens: The mainspring gear turns almost 1:1 with the crown, and since the gears are now going in the reverse direction, they are spinning very fast, especially the last gear of all...you guessed it, the click gear. The design of the watch is such that handwinding will not lock the clutch levers in the click gear, they will freewheel...otherwise the rotor will spin around as you handwind. These small highly polished meatal levers (or sapphire depending on the model) are forced to slip and spin free at very high speeds, which damages them and the gear...once the damage starts, it works it's way down and eventually given enough winding, you see what I posted in the first post...missing teeth and ground down gears. Back to the car example. Handwinding is the same as towing your car at 60 miles per hour, and dropping the clutch and engaing the engine in first gear...how fast do you think the engine will spin under those conditions, and what will happen to it? A clean freshly oiled movement is less prone to damage, winding slowly doesn't cause as much damage, and winding only as needed reduces the chances of damage. If you start to feel resistance, STOP winding, if your rotor is spinning along as you handwind...well you know why... Hope this is understandable. RG

I stock a lot of movement parts, so that is not a problem. As for the ETA install...well the price of the ETA's is always going up, and the availablity is going down. Even a new ? ETA 7750 can need service, I just had one that was bought recently, ran really jerky, owner decided to get it serviced, it was dry, and quite gummed up. So add the cost of a possible service to the $300 or more for an ETA7750, and you can get 2.5 Asian 7750's serviced. A serviced A7750 - in my opinion - is as good as an ETA, if your measuring the fact that the movement works and keeps good time. RG

The movement doesn't have to have a day or datewheel fitted...it may or it may not be there... Depending on the age of the 2824 movement, it may have the same notches for quick removal, or you may have to remove the spring cover to get it off. RG

I guess difficulty depends on a lot of things...how much time have you spent working under a loupe is the biggest problem. One eye loupe, one eye, no depth perception... as well as working 2-3 inches from your nose... Consider the cost of Super Luminova, a kit will run about $50 plus $40 or so in shipping. You can get a cheaper kit made by AF Switzerland, but the lume is not the same quality or has the ease of SL for application. Then add practice, and more practice, I damaged a number of dials when I started, luckly they were all my own watches. The lume is the consistancy of snot, so you can't brush it on, you use a metal dip oiler to pick up a drop at a time, and apply it to the dial. In my case, I have the advantage of having been an artist for almost 30 years...painting with a brush is not that hard, but even with the brushes and paints, not everyone can produce something like this. Sandwich dials are split for lume, you lume the bottom plate and then re-install the top one. Saussage dials are a bit harder due to the fact if you slip and get lume on the dial, it will dissolve the dial paint...no room for error... Good luck if you give it a go. RG

Fairly common problem on the A7750, most times the gear doesn't switch over to engage the datewheel, or today the one I fixed for this problem blew it's datechange gear to pieces for some reason... Installed a new gear assembly, and it works fine. Sometimes, if you turn the crown quickly in the dateset position, it will cause the gear to switch over and work...otherwise it needs a trip to the shop. RG

You didn't mention aged vintage Tritium as a base, I assumed you were asking about luming reps with their existing lume/paint already on them. So my answer is based on that approach. If your working on a watch with aged tritium, my first question would be, why remove it, it's like stripping the shellac off an antique and apply polyurathane...not a good idea. But, if you do decide to relume a Tritium dial, yes, you should scrape the old tritium off and apply the lume on a clean surface, but this will totally destroy the value of the dial...unless it's got no value. My way is not necessarily the "Right" way, but it's what works for me, if someone wants to try and scrape rep lume off a sandwich dial, good luck, you better have a spare dial and a way to paint the missing lume, because the results are not going to be pretty... Hope this clarifies my earlier response. RG

The preferred method (at least for me) is to simply lume over the existing lume (or paint). I don't scrape anything off of anything. RG

With good customers like you, I'll never want for new ones... @ repaustria Reports of bad and poor microphones is what has prevented me from moving beyond the Vibrograph. I guess someone has finally done both, good microphone, and using a PC based program that shows everything... RG