Bulova Precisionist Trouble...

[automatico]

I have a few Bulova Precisionist watches (6 or 7) and so far so good...up until now.  I got this one in a trade a while back and noticed the hands were out of whack (aka out of correspondence) after it being Ok for weeks.

I have seen on a forum or two that some owners are having this same trouble.  The hour hand and minute hand get out of whack or the hour hand just stops moving like mine did.

Here is what I found:

 

A few teeth on the PLASTIC hour wheel are broken or bent.  

According to posters on other forums, Bulova has stopped selling hour wheels for these things.  This means Fun, Fun, Fun for anyone who owns one and this happens.

Q...What to do?

A1...Send it to an 'Official Bulova Repair Center' along with a stack of $$$.

A2...Sell it for parts or flatten it with a hammer and send it to Bulova Hq with a 'Thank You' note.

 

It will make me MAD if they refuse to sell a few hour wheels.  I'll call and find out in a few days.  

Btw, none of the watches I bought new have had any trouble yet, but this makes me wonder if there might be trouble down the road.  Maybe the teeth break off when setting the hands while the date is trying to change or something like this.  I've not done this with any of mine, this one included.  Maybe this one was on the way out when I got it.

 

Note:  The picture has been enhanced to make the defect stand out, the wheel is just smooth black plastic.

 

[horologist]

Plastic  cogs, regardless of if in a watch or in any moving part,  is never a close substitute to similar metal components and most likely is designed to fail at some stage!  I recently needed to replace a plastic cog in my odometer of my 1986 Ford as it stopped recording the mileage from a broken tooth!  Good in some ways and not so good in another as I would have never known when is the right mileage for major services!

 

I have seen plastic components in the automatic seiko and the later 1979 omega which is a real turn off for me!  
 

Plastic is a carbon based polymer which will break down given the right conditions when exposed to other external factors including UV, oils and greases, temperature difference and of course age! Plus it is also soft with a low mohr number!  
 

The theoretical solution would be to modify a brass hour wheel of some other movement from a similar measure and hopefully  it will suffice!  It is annoying to find this especially in parts that are more load stressed!  

[automatico]

7-20-22

Have not tried to contact Bulova yet so I robbed an hour wheel from another Precisionist to fix this dive style watch.

Besides the hour wheel being plastic, it also drives the date change works and evidently this is just too much strain on the plastic wheel.  Afaik all the stripped H wheels have been on date models, have not seen any reports of stripped wheels on watches without dates...yet.

 

"The theoretical solution would be to modify a brass hour wheel of some other movement from a similar measure and hopefully it will suffice!"      

 

Good idea!

That would be a good fix if not for the notched hub made on the hour wheel.  

 

After this hour cog stripped, the only Accutron II that I am not afraid to wear is an Alpha Spaceview....no date but it is rose gold color.  Ugh.

Btw...the Alphas have Swiss Made cases.

 

Here is the model I have with the stripped hour wheel except mine has a Bulova signed rubber strap and steel buckle...

Bulova 98B167 'CATAMOUNT'