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[barkhorn]

For your experience, what movement is better and more reliable , the St 19 or the Asian 7750 b?

I have one St 19 and one Asian 7750 b; The St 19 runs in perfect order, but the Asian 7750 is still in the watchsmith after only one week using it. I would like to buy a Daytona replica, and I don

[freddy333]

Every Venus/Lemania copy I have had worked extremely well & ran as smooth as butter. Excepting the secs at 6 versions (only used in the modern 1165xx Daytonas), which can be problematic (search out Ziggy's reviews of this movement for details), most 7750s -- Swiss or Asian -- are fairly reliable but no where near as smooth-running as the Venus/Lemania copy. Unfortunately, the dimensions of these 2 movements (Venus/Lemania vs 7750) differ somewhat, so I do not think you can swap them back & forth without case modifications (I have never done such a swap, so I cannot tell you what mods would be required - this is something you would likely need to experiment with on your own).

As for which is better in a vintage 62xx Daytona, my 1st preference would be an asymmetrical pusher 7750 with its rotor removed & auto-wind function disabled to emulate the manual-wind Valjoux originally fitted into gen Daytonas. For me, having the correct pusher layout trumps other design parameters when it comes to vintage 62xx Daytonas. If the asymmetrical 7750 is not an option, I would go with the Venus/Lemania copy with hour totalizer subdial frozen. Finally, the standard symmetrical pusher 7750.

The latter 2 options are available from various collectors listed in the Collectors Forum (use the Search). The former, asymmetrical 7750-powered models are more exclusive. Search for '6263' & my handle for a number of relevant postings.

[coolfire]

And i'd like to humbly add that freddy is DEFINITELY the MASTER at 6263s...

I have learnt so much from reading his topics & posts with regards to vintage rollie daytonas!

[barkhorn]

Thanks a lot. Very useful. Yes, the St 19 is as smooth as butter. I will purchase this one.

[AMK000]

Thanks a lot. Very useful. Yes, the St 19 is as smooth as butter. I will purchase this one.

The right choise.

[cableguy]

freddy, how far into the movement do you have to dig to remove the autowinding gears? does that increase the reliabilty of manually winding the 7750? I've read not to manually wind these as the gears are prone to stripping...are these the gears that are removed?

thanks!

[freddy333]

I posted a tutorial somewhere that you can search out. But, basically, you can either go the easy route & just remove the rotor (1 screw), or do it right by removing the auto-wind module from the main plate (2 screws)....disassemble the module (a few screws, I forget the exact number) & leave out the 2 double-toothed reversing gears). After reassembly (without the 2 reversing gears or rotor), you have a pseudo manual-wind movement. This means that you must manually wind the movement to charge the mainspring, but you cannot overwind it since the barrel (the metal container where the mainspring resides) still contains the clutch that allows the spring to slip on its arbor when the spring reaches full-wind. (The details are much too complicated to explain here, but there are a number of books on watchmaking if you wish to learn more about how movements work.)