WatchTech

Walking around the bench (not beach)

I got up this morning to find dense fog outside, the fog horn blowing on the bay, and no real plan til Mrs C wakes up. So I went down to do some chores at the watch bench, and I thought I could walk y’all through a typical hour or two at the bench.

FIRST JOB - ALIGN CREDOR'S HOUR HAND

I noticed a few days ago in the Japanese Friendship Garden that the Credor 7-hand watch's hour hand was not lining up correctly at the top of the hour. Why? It was a mystery.

I decided to investigate. I’d never been into this watch, or any of my Credors, so I proceeded with caution. Even the stickers were still on the back, but my tool could unscrew it anyway. Nice looking 4S76A with complications of power reserve, GMT, day of the week and date.

All I had to do was touch the hour hand with my nylon tool and it skipped back into place. It wasn’t misaligned on its shaft but something in the mechanism got slightly out of line… must investigate the innards of this watch someday (on the diagram).

I returned the movement to the case and fitted the very nicely machined spacer ring into the case. Arrow shows the location of the first of two retaining tabs.

First I have to put the crowns back in (the winding rotor is now covering that tab’s location). When I put the main crown in the watch starts running. The second crown adjusts the day of week and date.

The parts are tiny.

Oops my selected tweezers are magnetized somehow, and pull the screw and tab out rather than set them in.

I select a different set as I have plenty, and I have forgotten in which drawer I have put the demagnetizer.

That’s better.

I spin the watch around and put in the other retainer.

I clean off the mating surfaces and put the caseback in place.

Because they got distorted I pull off the two stickers from the back and clean off the goo.

Now to get the bracelet back on, which is always a chore. On this watch, you take off tiny cover screws to press the spring back to release the bracelet. "Reverse removal procedure to install" does NOT work here.

I find my trick $200 bracelet spring bar retaining clamp tool and wrestle the spring bar in with its ends retracted and retained.

Amazingly it goes in correctly the first time, and I only have to return the cover screws to finish this end.

but my tool was too long to use without separating the halves of the bracelet, so now I have to get the deployant buckle reassembled.

That’s easy enough and the watch is back together.

Now I just have to clean it up and go to project two. My wife stops by with some tea and tells me she’s ready to go out when the fog lifts.

SECOND JOB — CHANGE BATTERIES

My Jorge Hysek 2-timezone, 2-movement watch has two dead batteries. It’s a fiddle to get to the back(s) of this watch. Screws are even smaller than the Credor, and as I start to remove them the hardened (crap) rubber strap breaks into three parts!

I get all the screws out, replace the batteries, and moan about buying #17 of only 99. It took me months to get this strap after the original one broke and it wasn’t cheap.

My photo database says that was in 2014 my how time flies!! No wait, that was the single movement Hysek automatic watch. Same crap strap though.