This is another installment in a series of watchmaking tips – previous threads can be found here:

https://omegaforums.net/threads/basic-watchmaking-tips-cleaning.56365/#post-696021

https://omegaforums.net/threads/basic-watchmaking-tips-oiling-part-1.62310/

https://omegaforums.net/threads/basic-watchmaking-tips-oiling-part-2-the-mainspring-barrel.71246/

https://omegaforums.net/threads/basic-watchmaking-tips-spotting-wear.81025/

As always, I do suggest referring to technical guides from the manufacturer when selecting the type or weight of oil to use in a given situation. Even if you can’t find a technical guide for the specific movement in question, using a guide for a similar movement can help you decide what oils or greases to use for a given application. For the most part though, slower and higher loads require a heavier oil, where lighter and faster loads will use a lighter weight oil.

In this installment I will talk about oiling train wheels, and other common items such as posts.

For all oiling situations, getting the right amount of oil applied in the right location is important. How much oil goes in a specific location varies with that location, so generally speaking with a train wheel that has a small diameter pivot, and a small jewel, it will require less oil than a larger pivot in a large jewel. When applying the oil, you want to place it at the intersection of the pivot and the jewel like this:



Note this is a staged photo so please excuse any dust you see.

So the oil should be directed towards the base of the pivot, just where it comes out of the jewel. You don’t want to apply it part way up the pivot, on top of the pivot, or on top of the flat portion of the jewel. The amount you apply can be a little tough to judge at first from the top side, because when you apply the oil, capillary action will draw it down into the space between the pivot and the inside diameter of the hole in the jewel. You can keep putting oil in that spot, and it will keep getting drawn away, so when do you stop? Once the oil stops being drawn away, it will start to build up a bit in the intersection of the pivot and jewel where you are applying it – when you can see it building up there, that’s the time to stop. You can add a bit more, but I personally would not let the oil get more than about 1/2 way up the pivot – this varies a bit by the pivot as with some 1/2 way would be far too much.

In my view one way to help judge the amount of oil you have applied is from the underside of the jewel, so if you take a clean movement, oil it as you think it should be oiled, then remove the wheel train bridge. Then look at the ring of oil on the underside of the bridge:





So first there should be a circle of oil there – if not you need to apply more. This circle of oil should not be larger than the shoulder of the pivot on the wheel that contacts the underside of the jewel. If you have enough to cover the end of that pinion shoulder, and then a little on the top side of the jewel at the base of the pivot, you are good. Checking from the underside of the jewel can be very valuable in circumstances where the pivot and jewel don’t have a nice wide gap like the one I’ve shown in my first photo above – in some cases the space between the pivot and the jewel is very narrow, so it’s difficult to see how much oil has really been applied.

Now applying too much can cause all kinds of problems, so here are some examples of that taken from watches I have received for servicing – often right after another watchmaker has done the service.

You can see this reversing wheel’s surface is just covered in shiny oil, so far too much has been applied – excess oil on reversing wheels can cause them to lock up, and the rotor may spin as you manually wind the watch (not a good thing):



The underside of this jewel is flooded and it has spread to the bridge:



The wheel from that jewel is flooded also, and you certainly do not want oil running off the shoulder of the pivot and onto the pinion:



Here’s a view from the top side showing that the oil reservoir on this one has been filled to overflowing – enough oil here for several jewels of this size:



In this example there was so much oil in the third wheel jewel, that the teeth of the seconds wheel was running through the oil on the underside of the third wheel jewel:





Here is a minute counting wheel from a chronograph, and you can see that so much oil has been placed that the square should between two diameters has been completely filled in:



The real kicker here is that this spot shouldn’t get any oil at all – this wheel turns a fraction of a turn once per minute, and only when the chronograph is running, so it doesn’t need any lubrication here.

So what about the balance jewels? The guidance here (from Omega) is that the drop of oil under the cap jewel should be at least 50% of the diameter of the jewel in the setting, and the ideal is to be about 2/3’s of the diameter. They list the max. diameter of the drop at 80% of the jewel, but I use the shock absorber spring as a guide personally – at least with Incabloc systems:



I don’t want the drop to be any larger than the inside edges of the shock spring – this is a quick visual reference that doesn’t require you to estimate the percentages, so if you get it close to this diameter without going larger, that’s a good amount. If you place too much oil in these shock settings, when the watch does receive a shock, it can cause oil to squirt out of the setting when the shock happens, and this can lead to contamination of the balance spring, etc.

Now there are plenty of other places that require oiling in a watch, that don’t fall under what I’ve covered already, so often you will need to oil contact surfaces that don’t really turn, but just have contact between them and some sliding friction. These two photos are from a chronograph where someone has been a little too generous (large understatement) with the oil:





In both cases there is only a small drop of oil or grease required just at the contact point between these parts. Trust me the screw slots do not need lubrication!

Here is another odd one that I can only assume comes from a watchmaker with rather poor eyesight, who was rushed, and maybe not familiar with the movement (despite it being a very common movement) and mistook this as a jewel or bushing that required oil:



In fact this is where a post is pressed into a bridge, so there’s no need at all to place oil here. This watchmaker even missed the hole with one part of the oil...amazing...but I’ve seen this a few times.

Another situation I wanted to cover was oiling posts. These are common things that need lubrication in setting mechanisms, calendar mechanisms, and automatic winding mechanisms. In addition posts that many chronograph parts are installed on require oiling. So when oiling a post, you apply oil around the top portion of the post, covering about 1/3 of the post height, like so:



Now sometimes posts are not very tall, so getting a small enough amount of oil can be challenging as you are starting out, but you want to avoid using too much oil, like this:



As you can see here someone really flooded the setting wheels here, leading to oil migrating all over the teeth and main plate. One reason you want to keep the oil up high on the post is that if you were to place it down too low, when you place the gear or other part on the post it may drag the oil down onto the horizontal surfaces, where the face of a small gear would ride. You don’t want lubrication there, because it will cause stiction and additional drag on the movement. In the case of say a minute wheel in the setting mechanism, this can cause problems with reduced balance amplitude. This is why sometimes you will see a raised ring surrounding a post, like this:



That raised ring is designed to keep the minute wheel away from oil that may have found it’s way down the post and on the flat surface of the main plate, and to lessen the surface area in contact between the minute wheel and the main plate. In other words unless a tech guide specifically tells you to do so, you should not oil this little raised ring.

Here is an example where the watchmaker oiled a bunch of things far too heavily, and you can see the dark areas where the oil has gotten onto the main plate:



Closer look at the post for the intermediate date driving wheel, and there’s far more oil than is needed, and this will only cause drag – in fact when I used my tweezers to lift this wheel off, the wheel stuck to the main plate and my tweezers slipped off a couple of times before I was able to remove it:



Here’s another example of someone not only oiling a post far too much, but they have oiled a post that doesn’t need oil:



The above photo is of the post that the ball bearing mounts to on an ETA 7750 based chronograph movement. The inner race of the ball bearing fits over this post, and a screw is installed that clamps on that inner race, so it doesn’t turn. This post has no wear on it and doesn’t need oil, so before you oil something make sure you understand how the functions of the specific parts work, and if the oil is really needed. Again following a tech guide (if available) is always a good thing until you are familiar with a specific movement.

Now having said all this about oiling, and keeping the volume of oil small, every rule has it’s exceptions. One of those is a Rolex rotor axle, where Rolex has changed it’s ideas around a few times on how to lubricate these. From moderate oil to very light oil, and then the “Christmas tree” style oiling, where you load the axle up so heavily the oil forms a sort of pyramid that resembles a pine tree shape:



And Omega also has one situation that comes to mind also, for the 3301 family of movements based on the F. Piguet vertical clutch chronograph movement. The underside of one bridge has some wheels that can’t be removed, and they are oiled very heavily. I recall servicing this watch at Swatch group training, and the instructor basically said “Oil it until you think you have added enough oil, then keep oiling it!” I did that and when he came by to check, he said I still had to add more...this kind of things goes against what is constantly drilled into your head as a watchmaker...not to apply too much oil, but in this case the spaces around those wheels need to be filled so you can clearly see the oil there:



Note that there are some lubricants that are sometimes used for very specific applications. One example of that is called LubeETA V105, and it is designed specifically for the lubrication of ETA style reversing wheels. These reversing wheels are complex assembles that have ratchet and pawl mechanisms inside, and lubricating them in the wrong way can cause problems as I noted above. So ETA have a specific lubricant that you dip the reversing wheel in after cleaning it, and then let is air dry (done under a cover but here not covered for the purpose of the photo):



This is a lubricant that is suspended in a solvent, and that solvent will attack plastics, so it is something you don’t want to spread around. If you can’t locate this specific lubricant, you can mix an equivalent by putting Moebius 9010 oil in a solution of solvent (benzine is what Omega recommends) in a 3/100 ratio. You can also oil the lobes of the wheel directly with very small amounts of 9010.

ETA make a similar solution called V106 for their rotor bearings, but I use 9010 and oil those directly with a VERY small drop of oil.

So that’s all I have for this installment on oiling, but there is more to cover in a future post.

As always if you have questions, please let me know and I’ll do my best to answer.

Cheers, Al

 

Great stuff - thanks Al

 

Each of your posts says to me "leave it to an expert". Which I do, but sadly for you in a different country on a different continent with [Video: counts on fingers] close to one handful of experts already.

Say, if you ever feel the need for someone to design the steelwork to hold the working parts of a power station in their places may I give you my card?

 

Can I come stay with you some Summer?

 

Thanks Al. Food for thought.

 

How come I missed that post???

Great stuff, as usuall! Thanks Al.

 

Thanks - working on the next installment!

 

I am looking forwarding reading the next installment!

 

@Archer

Hello!
If I may, when you take out reversing wheel from Lubeta V105 there is quite a large quantity of substance that is left on the wheel (a huge drop, if I may say so). Do you blow that excess and let the wheel dry or do you leave it like that and let it dry?
At the moment, because no one showed me how to do it I just let the wheel drop on a lint-free napkin and the excess just drops through. Then I let it be for a while. After a couple of minutes I dry it with the blower. I do this because I think it is too much substance left on the wheel when gotten out of the liquid.

Thank you,
Bogdan

 

Blow off the excess before letting it dry.

Cheers, Al