And the chronograph said to the watch "STOP!"

momentomori · Jun 7, 2021

Hello, all:

So, I have a rather bizarre issue with my '69 Speedy: When the chrono is engaged, it will run for a while, but never a full hour's worth of time, and then it will just stop, and when it stops, it makes the entire watch stop, too. Time stands still when the chrono decides it doesn't want to move anymore, in other words!

The odd thing is this: when I tap the watch, or when I shake it, or even if I wind the crown a few times, the chrono will then come back to life and the rest of the watch springs back to life, too!

So odd, no?

I have had it serviced already in January, so to have this acting up now, when not even a full year has elapsed since the service, is a bit bizarre, to me at least.

Dan S · Jun 7, 2021

The watchmakers will know better, but to me this sounds like the normal symptom of resistance associated with running the chronograph. You should probably have a watchmaker take a look. When was it last serviced?

Edit: Sorry, I missed the part of the OP about the recent service.

S.H. · Jun 7, 2021

Not really odd, the chrono function stopping the watch is not an uncommon issue, quite a few technical reasons are possible. If it was serviced there is a warranty, so get it back to have this sorted out.

momentomori · Jun 7, 2021

S.H.
Not really odd, the chrono function stopping the watch is not an uncommon issue, quite a few technical reasons are possible. If it was serviced there is a warranty, so get it back to have this sorted out.

Yes, I still have it under warranty, so I will do that. It just seems odd that it should have an issue so soon after being serviced. Then again, these are the quirks of mechanical things, yes?

S.H. · Jun 7, 2021

Not having the watch in hand I can't tell really you, but it may just be a dumb thing like a minuscule hair/debris finding its way between two teeth in the chrono train... Things can happen in a mechanical watch indeed.

Archer · Jun 7, 2021

It could be a number of things, so taking it back to whoever serviced it would be the thing to do. I recently finished servicing a Speedmaster that had damaged teeth on the chronograph wheel:

The burrs you see there would jam on the wheel for the coupling yoke. I was able to remove the burrs and it works fine now, but if you service enough of these you will see all kinds of odd things happen. On this one the chronograph driving wheel, the coupling yoke wheel, and the chronograph wheel all had damaged teeth to one extent of another. This is what the coupling wheel teeth looked like:

Cheers, Al

momentomori · Jun 7, 2021

Archer
It could be a number of things, so taking it back to whoever serviced it would be the thing to do. I recently finished servicing a Speedmaster that had damaged teeth on the chronograph wheel:

The burrs you see there would jam on the wheel for the coupling yoke. I was able to remove the burrs and it works fine now, but if you service enough of these you will see all kinds of odd things happen. On this one the chronograph driving wheel, the coupling yoke wheel, and the chronograph wheel all had damaged teeth to one extent of another. This is what the coupling wheel teeth looked like:

Cheers, Al

Ah, thank you for the photos, Al! This might be the devil on my piece. Will update once I know.

Jkbenn02 · Jun 7, 2021

Take it back where you serviced watch

befobe · Jun 8, 2021

@Archer answers and photos are always a pleasure to read. Incredible the amount of infos he can deliver per week... thanks again for that.👍

snowflake · Jun 8, 2021

As many people already suggested, the watchmaker who serviced your watch can try adjusting it.

Although I am not a qualified watchmaker, I have "serviced" a couple of chronograph movements (Valjoux 23 and 7750) myself. The symptom is quite common and in fact, that's why I had to touch those movements. Chronograph movements are fitted with several eccentric screws for fine-adjusting the clearance between wheels. If the movement has recently been serviced, and the watch runs strongly with good timing when the chrono function is disengaged, I suspect that the clearance is too tight (so the friction is large).

I am talking about the adjustment such as this: https://omegaforums.net/threads/adjustment-of-screw-s-on-cal-285.113496/

Archer · Jun 8, 2021

snowflake
As many people already suggested, the watchmaker who serviced your watch can try adjusting it.

Although I am not a qualified watchmaker, I have "serviced" a couple of chronograph movements (Valjoux 23 and 7750) myself. The symptom is quite common and in fact, that's why I had to touch those movements. Chronograph movements are fitted with several eccentric screws for fine-adjusting the clearance between wheels. If the movement has recently been serviced, and the watch runs strongly with good timing when the chrono function is disengaged, I suspect that the clearance is too tight (so the friction is large).

I am talking about the adjustment such as this: https://omegaforums.net/threads/adjustment-of-screw-s-on-cal-285.113496/

Problems like this will typically be present right from the start, and not show up months after a service, so it's unlikely to be adjustments of the eccentrics in this case. Most likely as noted already it is some debris in the chronograph somewhere.

When I get a movement in that has been serviced by someone else recently that has problems, it's not usually the complex stuff that is done wrong - it's the very basics. Most issues are related to hygiene (contaminants in the movement) and poor lubrication practices. If it were only the difficult stuff, I would be less worried about the state of watchmaking generally...

And the chronograph said to the watch "STOP!"

momentomori

Dan S

S.H.

momentomori

S.H.

Archer

momentomori

Jkbenn02

befobe

snowflake

Archer

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