I had a client drop off a watch yesterday, a PAM 111. I know not likely the kind of watch that is really popular here, but I service quite a few of these. The owner complained that the watch was running slow, so when it arrived I fully wound it and put it on the timing machine. It was running slow, and in addition the balance amplitude was lower than I would have expected. Now I see bad work all the time inside watches that come to me, but I don't expect to see bad work from brand service centers. At least not bad work that is so easy to avoid.... So my client had the watch serviced by Richemont here in Canada about 2 years ago, so really the balance amplitudes should still be good. I actually worked on this watch right after Richemont did, and it was because they refused to fix the problems they created. The owner was very upset with them after a few attempts at sending it back and them not fixing the issues. They finally told him that they would charge him for a full service again in order to fix what they had created, so he had them ship it directly to me back then. The problems included them smearing grease from the case back gasket on the movement, as seen here: And then someone could not be bothered to put down one screwdriver, and pick up another that was the correct size (3 mm) for the ratchet and crown wheels, so they damaged those screw heads as seen here: All they had to do was pick up this driver instead... Since this model has a display back, the evidence was pretty easy to see even without opening the watch. In addition they scratched up the case back, nearly wiping out the serial number. Now I have dies that specifically fit Panerai case backs, and I would think that the actual service center for the brand would have them as well, so I have no idea how they could have hacked up the case back... But anyway, I had fixed those issues, but I didn't do a service on the watch, and now it's running pretty crappy. So I took a look at the escape wheel teeth under the microscope. I shot this video to show you all what I see there. If you just focus on the teeth as they go by, you will see some have almost no oil on them, and others are flooded way up the tooth... So if you have any clue at all how an escapement should be oiled, this is way too much oil. In this screen capture of the preview for the video, there is almost enough oil on this one single tooth to do the whole escape wheel! Now here is an example of how a drop of oil is placed on the pallet fork's exit jewel when oiling the escapement: You maybe repeat that drop 3 times, and that is enough oil to do the entire wheel. So the amount of oil that should be there when the oiling is done is very small - it should just form a small wedge between the face of the stone and the tooth, like this: I will expect to see oil flung around the inside of the movement when I take this watch apart, so a full service and cleaning will be done. As someone who owns a modern JLC, and a Panerai, it concerns me when I see work like this. The good thing is that the Panerai I have I can service myself, as it has an ETA 7750 base movement. The JLC Master Compressor Memovox you can be sure I will be asking to go to Switzerland for service! It's frustrating to see the simple things done so poorly... Cheers, Al
