my tri compax which I purchased recently needed some work from my watchmaker, he said i have to source for a new cannon pinion and centre wheel. my tricompax is a cal 281, based on my research there are various heights for the cannon pinion, so i'm not sure which height to order, any watchmakers could give their advice?

Attached is a photo of my piece and the movement

View attachment 471966

 

Take a deep breath and pick up the watch as is from that watchmaker. A good vintage shop will sort that for you. The very fact that you are forced to ask for tech specs here is galling. You should not have to source parts. Where are you located?

 

There are two.

The shorter is for the non moon. The longer is for the moon. Part numbers are:

281 205 HAUT


281 205 (non moon)


281 245 HAUT

They are the correct parts for a 281 moon. makes sense if you think about it as the moon needs the extra height due to date and moon phase plates and mechanism ...

 

i'm located in Singapore. in the defence of my watchmaker, he is quite well spoken of and highly recommended by some of my friends for vintage pieces, he did offer to take it apart so that he could measure the height that i should order, however i just couldn't bear to leave it with him any longer and snuck it out for more wrist time and i figured i could have tapped on the knowledge and resources on this forum

 

thank you, so should i be looking at the 281 205 HAUT or the 281 245 HAUT?

 

Yea ...Singapore= tough market for UG it seems. Unfortunately my advice is either to find a watchmaker in the States or source your own parts.

 

i guess if i'm really unable to get the exact specifications, i'd probably get him to just take it apart so he make the measurements, i'm not a big fan of shipping it overseas

 

my first ed white that i had shipped over from the states was supposed to be fully serviced and running, but ended up having to go through a full overhaul, this tricompax too was shipped as fully serviced, but now this

 

I think unless you know the seller and have an honest condition conversation, one can assume that any vintage watch will need a service. Also the rigors of shipping can turn a watch that is apparently operational into a paperweight. I also question whether or not a seller who is selling a watch is going to pay for a full service. I doubt it.

 

haut (french) = high, elevated

therefore,

if you have a moon phase then it is HAUT

I always assume that watch will need a service regardless of what the auction, advert or seller says.

 

Unless the service has a warranty that rolls over to the new owner and you have the paid invoice, then it don't mean much. Plus, as Larry says, my watches go on the fritz getting shipped from my watchmaker to me, let alone a third party seller.

 

I think op is confused because your first reply has two photos but three sets of numbers

 

I thought it was pretty clear. The second image is so that on can see the differences be ween the regular and haute version ...

 

i don't want to point fingers or names but i bought the piece of a reputable dealer online who sold the watch as fully serviced and running, i guess i'm still really new to all these, i've always wondered if the "rigors of shipping" would affect the watch even if it were well packed and padded

 

bought this piece from an online dealer who sold the piece as serviced but unfortunately no warranty on the servicing

 

thank you! i was a little thrown off at first

 

appreciate all the help and knowledge thus far, the amount of combined experience and sharing of knowledge and information on this forum is amazing

 

Just for interest, why does it need a cannon pinion and a center wheel? seems a little bit of a strange combination to go wrong.

 

I'm not sure. But when I got the piece the timing was running erratically but generally really fast i.e. 5min/hr. All the other functions were working well

 

that makes it even weirder as that sort of issue would cause the mechanism to stop or slow down and not speed up.

The mainspring drives the center wheel which in turn drives the rest of the movement. What regulates how fast the mainspring unwinds (or how fast/slow the watch runs) is the length of the hairspring (a long hairspring leads to bigger swings of the balance wheel and slower running and vice versa) and balance wheel weight (which is not a factor as it rarely changes).

The only common issue that seems to occur at the centre wheel and cannon pinion is that the cannon pinion is not tight enough which would cause it to slip and look like the watch is running slow (can be erratic) or broken teeth on center wheel or cannon pinion which may lead to movement stopping ...

difficult to say for sure, but fast running could be due to a magnetised or sticking hairspring (where two adjacent spirals are sticking together so effectively shortening it) ...

my cent's worth