Great read. I always look forward to reading how you are getting on. I am fascinated by the workings of these engineering marvels.How many checks do you have to do to get the watch working accurately and if you adjust one thing do you have to adjust other parts as well? What is the most difficult task you have had to do on your course?
Thanks!
There are a lot of checks to be honest, a brief summary just for the working train of many watches:
1. Cleanliness and I check this under the microscope (this is a big one).
2. Review the barrel arbor and all pivots, like the one above, for wear under the microscope. Then review all the gear teeth and barrel in the same way as well as pallet jewels.
3. Before building the movement (following advice from Al), I mount the balance wheel/cock with its jewels to look at the shape of the hairspring and the way it fits in the regulator pins. Adjusting the shape of the spring can take some time but it's easier to see and work on when it's the only thing on the plate.
4. Check/adjust the end shake of the arbor in the barrel, barrel in bridge, 2nd/3rd/4th/escape wheels in their jewels, fork in its jewels and balance in its. The check is done by eye (with an eyeglass) and feel. The adjustment with one or two special tools.
5. Check the side shake of arbor in barrel, barrel in bridge, 2nd/3rd/4th/escape wheels in their jewels, fork in its jewels and balance in its. Also by eye and feel. Really, to correct the side shake you're replacing items.
6. There are a lot of checks as you oil so, no oil outside the sink or on top of the pivot for example. For the shock protection, you oil in a different way but, you're looking for a particular amount of oil on the cap jewel. I do a lot of oiling under the microscope again.
7. Check the escapement and this is not trivial as, for example, you're looking for the lock or run to banking (all a bit technical, sorry). This is with everything except balance fitted and is partly judgement. Correcting faults here can be difficult so parts replacement is easier and I do this check partly under the microscope.
8. When you fit the balance now, it starts and is running.
9. After 30 minutes, I remove balance and oil the pallet stones which you re-check after a day running.
10. Then, it's fine tuning and usually just the regulator pin separation for me.
I always miss something obvious when I try to summarize like that and it's something that you just do without thinking about it...
For a simple movement, apart from the hairspring work, there are not a lot of secondary impacts. So, adjusting a jewel to reduce the end shake by 0.02 mm doesn't really lead to another adjustment. The escape adjustments are a lot more complicated/interlinked though and changing the terminal curve of a hairspring may mean that you now have to re-adjust the regulator pins.
On the course so far, the hardest thing for me is adjustment of hairsprings out of plane (90 degrees to the spiral). This is very difficult and certainly harder for me than anything above. I seem to have a bit of a block about this but will persevere and I'm sure it will come.
In terms of what you have to do for the course, just for the D14 servicing unit, you must include the repair of some faults. These are as below and I mentioned some of them above:
1. Adjust cannon pinion tightness.
2. Water resistance testing by two methods and a condensation test.
3. Clean and oil shock resistant settings, type 1.
4. Clean and oil shock resistant settings, type 2.
5. Replace shock resistant springs.
6. Replace jewels which are friction set.
7. Adjust end shake, friction jewels.
8. Use test equipment to diagnose faults in quartz watches.
9. Use test equipment to diagnose faults in mechanical watches.
10. Check for faults in lever escapement:
a. Horn shake: i. Equal both sides; ii. Less than total lock; iii. Greater than run to the banking.
b. Guard pin shake: i. Equal both sides; ii. Less than or equal to horn shake.
c. Locking - virtual or drop lock = 1½° or ¼ to 1⁄ 5 of pallet impulse face;
d. Run to banking and draw: i. ½°; ii. Less than horn shake; iii. Draw causes lever to return to banking pin.
11. Correct balance spring faults:
a. Flatness at collet;
b. Flatness at cock;
c. Centring at collet;
d. Curb pins;
e. Beat; and
f. Rate
I'll put some of my service records on my Onedrive (?) when I'm happy with the format. People such as Al give a nice service record for every watch they do but he doesn't have to try and prove what he's checking so my BHI ones may give a little more detail in that respect. I have a folder for each watch with many pictures like this showing what I check and how I'm adjusting things... This one seems to cover items 3, 5 and 7 of unit D14.
Cheers, Chris