2824-2 Not staying wound

[HauteHippie]

Hello,

I have a recently serviced (with in the past year) 2824 that is not staying wound. I have verified that the rotor is properly engaged and that there is nothing obstructing it with the case back removed. However I have noted a couple peculiarities:

1. The rotor doesn't seem to spin as freely as on my other watches. Gravity doesn't always seem to pull it around when I move the watch and observe the rotor with the case back removed.

2. Manual winding has alot of resistance. It is very difficult to manually wind this watch.

Any thoughts from the experts?

Thanks in advance.

-Chief

[RWG Technical]

Click wheels are gummed up, a bath in the Ultrasonic machine with L&R cleaner, followed by a long soaking in One Dip will normally fix the stickyness and free them up.

I have been using this process for a while now, and it has been working great on the 2836 (24) and also the 7750 reversing wheels.

RG

[HauteHippie]

Thanks, Zig. *sigh* Just when I thought I was done with this watch.... Oh well, I guess this one will be heading up North soon, then.

[RWG Technical]

If you can remove the winding bridge with the click wheels, I can clean them up and send it back to you (rotor off, then take the two black screws out and the bridge comes right off).

Let me know on email if you want to do this...

RG

[HauteHippie]

Will do... That sounds straight forward enough. Thank you, sir!

[HauteHippie]

Zig, will there be any tricks to putting this winding bridge back in place and getting the gears aligned without damaging anything?

Thanks, again.

[RWG Technical]

Zig, will there be any tricks to putting this winding bridge back in place and getting the gears aligned without damaging anything?

Thanks, again.

Not at all, I will walk you through it so it will go together without any problem...

RG

[jeff g]

I have to add to this thread.

A few months back I purchased the Breitling Heritage. I really like this watch, wear it a lot.

It is advertised as an Asian 2824 - retails at around 250.00. I understand that there is an 'Asian 21J' version that sells for 125.00. So I bought the 250.00 model, and from the get go the winding of the watch was 'difficult'.

The watch would stop at varying intervals. I was forced to wind the watch because it had less than Zero power reserve. If I took it off late evening, in the morning it would be stopped. So I began to wind it once daily - in the evening. For awhile that worked. Still the winding was hard- ratchetie...it did not feel good.

It is dead now. Froze up in the middle of the day. Solid.

It now MUST go off to Z. I am not happy.

Were I to have ordered the same case and the cheaper movement, and sent it off directly to the man, I would have ultimately paid a bit more than 250.00 for a fully serviced Asian 21J movement.

I am beginning to see a pattern here.

I have quite a few older TW eta movements in older reps of mine, I also have quite a few Asian 21J movements as well...both types for the most part have run pretty damn well without servicing. It seems to me that many mechanical problems have increased fairly dramatically in just the last 6 months.

The quality of the standard CN eta movements is deteriorating FAST. Evidently consisting mainly of seconds (parts), and then poorly installed to boot. It would seem that for the serious collector it would be wise to add a couple of hundred bucks to your purchase, by having EVERY rep you buy, fully serviced after you receive the watch.

The hobby has its costs.