Meanwhile, on another bench....
Discussion
Well it's turned into a bit of a perpetual back-burner so not finished yet, but here's some work I've done to a damaged Speedy I bought a while back. Moral of the story is delete your ebay app before you go for a night out! I put my bid in whilst coming home drunk on the train from a great night and awoke panicked and hungover at the terrible dream I'd just had about buying a dog of a watch on ebay. 
My heart sank a bit when it arrived. The case can be polished, the pushers and bezel can be replaced (eventually! More on that later), but the dial feet are broken and the wearer has kept on using it, meaning the dial is ruined:
Not only that, but the lower pivot of the hour counter has snapped, and the hour hand has gouged at the dial. The hands and movement are covered in finely ground vintage dial.
Stripping the movement, we come to the hour counter. It is a wheel with a cam attached allowing it to be reset and with the hour counting hand pressed onto an arbor that extends through the dial. It is this which has the broken pivot at the bottom. Already needing a new dial, pushers and bezel, I don't fancy buying a whole new part so will need to replace the Arbor.
The arbor is pressed out and it's dimensions noted.
A new arbor is turned from pre-hardened and tempered carbon steel. Despite having a part to measure, it's always best to keep the actual watch handy. Some parts must be friction tight, others free but with minimal sideshake and the only way to be sure on an old watch which may be worn is to try as you go. The cam and wheel must fit the arbor tightly, as the whole assembly must rapidly spin when struck by the hour hammer.
Rotating to turn the other end, it is important (and a little tricky) to keep concentricity or the wheel and hand will run eccentrically, potentially stop the watch and look terrible. The length between shoulders is important as there isn't a huge amount of adjustability between the watch plates. In addition to making the pivots the correct thickness to have acceptable sideshake, the arbor also needs to taper to the correct size to fit the hand on friction tight, and be the correct height to ensure it doesn't foul the hour hand. So quite a lot to get right!
The broken original next to the replacement on a one penny piece. Note that the arbor for the hour counter is a little longer on mine and will need a bit more reduction:
Assembled and ready for fitting:
Obligatory "look at all the speedmaster bits" shot ready for cleaning.
I'll post more later. Photographing this stuff takes as long as actually doing it in the first place, and posting about it is far too much like real work.
My heart sank a bit when it arrived. The case can be polished, the pushers and bezel can be replaced (eventually! More on that later), but the dial feet are broken and the wearer has kept on using it, meaning the dial is ruined:
Not only that, but the lower pivot of the hour counter has snapped, and the hour hand has gouged at the dial. The hands and movement are covered in finely ground vintage dial.
Stripping the movement, we come to the hour counter. It is a wheel with a cam attached allowing it to be reset and with the hour counting hand pressed onto an arbor that extends through the dial. It is this which has the broken pivot at the bottom. Already needing a new dial, pushers and bezel, I don't fancy buying a whole new part so will need to replace the Arbor.
The arbor is pressed out and it's dimensions noted.
A new arbor is turned from pre-hardened and tempered carbon steel. Despite having a part to measure, it's always best to keep the actual watch handy. Some parts must be friction tight, others free but with minimal sideshake and the only way to be sure on an old watch which may be worn is to try as you go. The cam and wheel must fit the arbor tightly, as the whole assembly must rapidly spin when struck by the hour hammer.
Rotating to turn the other end, it is important (and a little tricky) to keep concentricity or the wheel and hand will run eccentrically, potentially stop the watch and look terrible. The length between shoulders is important as there isn't a huge amount of adjustability between the watch plates. In addition to making the pivots the correct thickness to have acceptable sideshake, the arbor also needs to taper to the correct size to fit the hand on friction tight, and be the correct height to ensure it doesn't foul the hour hand. So quite a lot to get right!
The broken original next to the replacement on a one penny piece. Note that the arbor for the hour counter is a little longer on mine and will need a bit more reduction:
Assembled and ready for fitting:
Obligatory "look at all the speedmaster bits" shot ready for cleaning.
I'll post more later. Photographing this stuff takes as long as actually doing it in the first place, and posting about it is far too much like real work.
Edited by glazbagun on Wednesday 27th July 14:56
Very nice, thanks. I always keep my eye out for a cheap Speedy to play with, my skills are very much amateur and on pocket watches in any case, but I never see any cheap on the bay so I'm guessing you paid a little more for that one than you wanted. With your skills there I'm sure you'll have it sorted though. Thanks again.
It'll be OK. I probably (almost certainly!) won't make a profit if I ever sell it, but it's one of those things where when you really really want the part it costs the earth, and the week after you've just bought one people are giving them away.
This one is awkward because it's a transition model from the 90's. I couldn't source a good tritium dial so have replaced it with a good used superluminova one in the mean time and bought a brand new bezel to fit, but the later bezel doesn't fit the older case tightly enough, so it looks like I'll need to be patient and get the correct bits after all.
I'm a big fan of the Speedy Pro/Lemania though, and this one has had such a hard life between poor "watchmaking" and an owner who obviously mistreated it that it'll be worth it just to save it.
I feel the same about all the awesome English/repeater/chronometer movements you see on Ebay that have obviously had their 18CT cases scrapped when the price of gold has spiked. A crime!
This one is awkward because it's a transition model from the 90's. I couldn't source a good tritium dial so have replaced it with a good used superluminova one in the mean time and bought a brand new bezel to fit, but the later bezel doesn't fit the older case tightly enough, so it looks like I'll need to be patient and get the correct bits after all.
I'm a big fan of the Speedy Pro/Lemania though, and this one has had such a hard life between poor "watchmaking" and an owner who obviously mistreated it that it'll be worth it just to save it.
I feel the same about all the awesome English/repeater/chronometer movements you see on Ebay that have obviously had their 18CT cases scrapped when the price of gold has spiked. A crime!
Gassing Station | Watches | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff