Cal 561: A simple summary

Fig 37: Back to the dial side. Comparing to Fig 26, two wheels have been added. The small one directly meshed with the centre gear that takes the hour hand has a hidden gear meshing with the date indicator wheel (the large one at about 10 O'clock). That will turn once a day and the small peg sticking up will drive the date ring. That wheel looks overly complicated but the peg is sprung so that if the hands are turned back from midnight to 9pm it will move past the date ring. It can only move the ring when it turns clockwise.


Fig 38: The date ring added and shown touching that peg. This would be about 10pm on the 3rd.


Fig 39: The date ring and all these dial face gears need something to hold them in place and this plate performs this. Viewed from the rear with 3 O'clock on the left, it also takes the date jumper and spring shown.


Fig 40: The date jumper and spring assembled. The spring pushes the date jumper outwards radially.


Fig 41: This plate flipped over and mounted by it's two screws close to the 16 and 30 on the date ring. The ring is shown about to change from 5th to 6th as the peg on the date indicator wheel and the date jumper are at the top of the corresponding parts of the date wheel.


Fig 42: And now shown late afternoon on the 6th where the peg is coming around again and the date jumper is fully engaged in the date wheel, which it has been since midnight on the 5th. The dial mounts with two feet that pass through the holes in the mainplate at 4 and 15.5 on the date ring. Two small screws can be seen accessed from the outside of the plate and when they are tightened, they will clamp onto the dial feet.


Fig 43: Dial and hands mounted and the watch is running. I've cased the movement at this point working on the logic that the safest place for a movement is not under a glass but, in it's case. With a ten second plus exposure, you can't see the second hand. You can see, however, some light scratches on the dial around the centre spindle. When I bought this watch, it would not charge so, I had it looked at. When it came back, it still didn't charge correctly and there were marks here where the hands had been removed. At that point, I decided if my watches were to get scratched, I would do it myself...


Fig 44: The cased movement held in place by the two case clamps and screws at upper right and lower left. Looks much nicer with these crown and ratchet wheels.

Chris, thank you for this thread! I was fascinated at each step, and thrilled that it resulted in a pie pan DeLuxe with onyx dial furniture and dog leg lugs. Makes it almost tempting to open mine .... but I'll leave it to the pros for now.

Thanks. I will add the auto winder part when it's finished. It is a lovely watch and it's on the wrist at the moment.

Out of interest, below are some pics of a Smiths-Ingersoll cal 200 I just rebuilt. John will have heard of them but, this was my wife's first watch in the 60s. It's a child's watch but no point in her keeping it if it doesn't run. It is very dirty as it has no crown seal. You can see few jewels but many similar things here and it has a sub seconds dial as you can see the 4th wheel shaft coming through to the dial side. You might also spot the click in the first photo upper left. It is only 19 mm diameter so about 2/3 of a 5xx calibre. It's running again with a power reserve of more than 40 hours, astonishingly. Rate of +4 per day. OK, minutes not seconds....

I need to build a 684 before Christmas and that is slightly smaller again and must be one of the smallest auto and date movements. I expect it to be a challenge!

Cheers, Chris

I would have loved a MM watch! This one is not so interesting but still runs after 50 years (I guess) now it has a new balance assembly (the staff was broken, no surprise there).

Fig 45: This is the auto winder bridge from the rear of the watch in the orientation it will be mounted in Fig 44.


Fig 46: Turned over and with three wheels mounted. The drive from the rotor comes through the big hole in the middle and meshes with the lower of the two small gears. This pair of gears are permanently meshed so as the rotor turns clockwise in this view, the lower small gear turns anticlockwise and the upper turns clockwise. If the rotor turns anticlockwise they will move opposite to those directions. They are different heights, which is important later.
The big gear is the output wheel and the centre steel gear on it will mesh with the ARW in Figure 11. The clever part is the reversing wheel assembly that joins the small gears to the big one here. Only one way to explain that and that is to build it up. These are a particular pain to take apart and reassemble as I have never seen the special tool for sale. Must ask Al and Maurice how they do these.


Fig 47: This is the centre shaft and it has a gear on the other end. I strip and build these by punching a hole in this wooden block and press the teeth into the wood to stop it rotating. Not ideal but, it works.


Fig 48: This brass single wheel goes on first with internal and external teeth. It is free to rotate on the shaft.


Fig 49: This tiny star wheel goes in next. As seen with the ARW, it is free to to rotate one way and locks when turned in the other. It pivots in the next piece.


Fig 50: That star wheel pivots in this central plate (the star has moved around to about 12:30). This plate is locked to the central shaft. If it turns, then the central shaft turns.

There is another star wheel on this side of the plate and this will mesh with the inner teeth of the wheel on the right (like the first wheel here) when it us flipped over and fitted.


Fig 51: This little but goes on the centre shaft, which was threaded and holds the whole assembly together. What this means is that if either if the brass wheels is rotated clockwise, they rotate freely on the centre shaft and it stays still. If either rotate anticlockwise then the centre shaft turns. I am doing this by memory now so. I may be saying the wrong directions for this view.


Fig 52: Turned over and the centre shaft gear is visible. It meshes with the output wheel large gear in Fig 46.


Fig 53: Fitted in place. The upper of the two small gears meshes with the closer of the brass wheels on the reversing wheel assembly and the lower with the other. This is the clever part as one of the brass wheels in the reversing assembly is always freewheeling and the other is always locked and turning clockwise regardless of the direction of rotor rotation. So, the centre shaft if the assembly always turns clockwise and the output wheel always turns anticlockwise. Still think I have these directions reversed in this write up....
On the right is the plate that closes this assembly and provides the bearing for the various wheels.


Fig 54: The plate flipped over and mounted by three screws. The other piece contains the pivot shaft for the rotor and will be flipped and mounted by three screws.


Fig 55: That plate mounted and viewing the whole bridge assembly from the rear of the watch with the rotor next to it. The pivot shaft for the rotor and the lower of the little gears can be seen in the large central hole. The rotor has it's own teeth to mesh with that gear.

The small stainless plate slides in and is held by a screw. It sits in a groove in the rotor just behind the gear and stops the rotor coming off it's mounting shaft.


Fig 56: Rotor mounted and the whole bridge assembly fitted in the watch with the output wheel meshed with the ARW. Gasket greased and ready for the case back.

That's all folks!

Might do a 684 next month if there's interest, just in equivalent pictures and much less text as that is quite impressive for it's size having everything the 561 has. Haven't touched it yet though....

OK, Fig 53 appeared at the end for some reason best known to my tablet....

Your cannon pinion is too loose - tighten it and this should solve the problem.

Cheers, Al