Big Pilot movement oddness ---Any help?

[bob bean]

I am having a problem with a Big Pilot (with working PR) and was wondering if anyone could shed any light on this issue.

When the watch is not being worn the power reserve only keeps the watch running till the PR indicator reaches 6, which is about 10 hours, and hasn't dropped below 6 for a few weeks now.

4 weeks ago this watch was running faultlessly , the chap who now owns the watch has had it in the pool with no visible problems and has also worn it in the shower (against my better judgement).

Does anyone have any idea as to why this may be happening?

cheers in advance,

Bob

[RWG Technical]

Are you saying that before the PR would get to 0 before the watch stopped running, and now the watch stops running with the PR at 6?

[bob bean]

I am trying to puzzle it out.

Just picked it up to swirl it in my hand and it runs for a few minutes.

But watching it closely I see it stops dead when the second hand reaches the minute hand.

It has stopped on it 3 times since I have just been " swirling it, every time dead on the minute hand.

So I think that something is sticking.

To add to it, this is only happening during the " date change" time zone 11pm-ish.

I have just reset the time to the correct time and it is running fine, I had it run fine all day yesterday it was only last night at, as I said, about 11.30 that it got stuck.

Could this be because he has set the date between 10-2pm? Trying to reason why.

So to summarise.

Second hand stops on the minute hand during the date change "zone", irrespective of the PR "volume".

Swirling it kicks it back to life for a minute or two, then it stops on the minute hand again.

Seems to run fine otherwise. It has ran smoothly for the last 2 hours ( set to the correct AM time, but I am sure that at 11:30pm-ish tonight it will stop dead with the second hand right on top of the minute hand.

The date wheel is half way through it's switching over when this all occurs.

As for the power reserve, it may actually be decreasing even when the hands "stick". Not 100% sure will check tonight, as I'm just letting it run at the moment.

cheers Zig

Bob

[RWG Technical]

It sounds like a couple of things are going on.

Seconds hand seems to be touching the minute one, which is not an issue until the movement is trying to change the date and is loaded down from the datechange. Then the added friction is enough to bring everything to a halt...

Certainly the seconds hand has to be adjusted so it's not touching anything, and I would say that the beat of the balance wheel may not adjusted correctly which is only adding to the problem. It could be that the movement overall is not clean or well oiled, again, adding to the problem.

I don't think this movement is critical for the dateset time, so that's probably not a concern.

[bob bean]

Thanks Zig, I'll open her up later and have closer inspection of the hands