I have also fallen foul of mistakenly thinking I had a bargain from looking at the prices on Chrono24. Interestingly, my mistake was also with an electronic watch which I bought rather on impulse without full consideration to the fact that these watches are hard to fix (if not impossible) and so it has a finite life. It is a nice watch, but in hindsight I paid over the odds...hey ho...life itself is finite! So I just enjoy wearing it.
They say a wise man learns from his mistakes, a fool doesn't. Subsequent watch purchases have been much more thoroughly researched and thought through and, no doubt, you will probably be the same.
The 'silver lining' to the cloud, however, is that if you are selling on Chrono24 and have your watch at a reasonable, fair price, it's great! By comparison to all the others, yours stands out. I've sold two watches on there for what I had considered to be reasonable in prices, pretty quickly... Good luck.
So now I have kind of brainwashed myself with a mental checklist of what I need to be checking for and try to stick to it rigorously to avoid heat of the moment mistakes. For instance I now never put a watch down if I'm undecided yes or no....I still dream of one or two where what I described above happened to me
The mistakes still happen of course, but mainly with watches where I know a bit about, but not quite enough to avoid the expensive traps of wrong hands or mis-matched case and dial frankens etc. Luckily after many years of buying the bad 'uns are few and far between now.
An Accutron that ran FAST with the pawl jewel missing? It probably came to life with a new cell, all right, but that it ran AT ALL without the pawl jewel? To my way of thinking, this is not possible! I suggest you get another opinion,
Just my 0.02 worth.
Contact Paul from electric-watch.co or Rob Berkavicius and get a quote.
These guys are two of the most knowledgeable and reputable people going around.
If they say your jewel/pawl replacement is a 350€ job then so be it, but I’d be surprised.
Hell, for a lot less you can buy an entire movement and have this fitted though I appreciate this might ‘devalue’ the watch as a collectable or possibly in your own eyes.
Sorry, but don’t know the answer to your last question. the pawl and tuning fork while made separately might be unserviceable individually but that would be a surprise.
Just my 0.02 worth.
Contact Paul from electric-watch.co or Rob Berkavicius and get a quote.
These guys are two of the most knowledgeable and reputable people going around.
If they say your jewel/pawl replacement is a 350€ job then so be it, but I’d be surprised.
Hell, for a lot less you can buy an entire movement and have this fitted though I appreciate this might ‘devalue’ the watch as a collectable or possibly in your own eyes.
Sorry, but don’t know the answer to your last question. the pawl and tuning fork while made separately might be unserviceable individually but that would be a surprise.
The pawl jewel and index jewels are 10 thou. of an inch long, and 4 thou. wide. They are glued to the ends of the two beryllium springs! Do you know of anyone who a/ has a supply of these jewels, and b/ would be able to fit one?
Just my 0.02 worth.
Contact Paul from electric-watch.co or Rob Berkavicius and get a quote.
These guys are two of the most knowledgeable and reputable people going around.
If they say your jewel/pawl replacement is a 350€ job then so be it, but I’d be surprised.
Hell, for a lot less you can buy an entire movement and have this fitted though I appreciate this might ‘devalue’ the watch as a collectable or possibly in your own eyes.
Sorry, but don’t know the answer to your last question. the pawl and tuning fork while made separately might be unserviceable individually but that would be a surprise.
This is indeed an optimistic point of view! “Buy an entire movement and have this fitted?” First of all, why would someone have a loose Accutron movement lying around, that is in any better condition than the movement in the subject watch? And how might one judge whether a purchased donor watch was in any better condition that the subject watch, unless it was bought as a complete, cased, running watch? And if a donor watch was bought as a complete, running watch, could it be acquired at a cost lower than the cost of servicing the subject watch? And what are the chances that the newly acquired donor watch might also require servicing? NO! Don’t even consider going that route! Have your watch serviced, at whatever cost!
However, in a previous post, it was disclosed that the watch is now on eBay, after the owner received a €350 quote. Watch gone, problem solved!
What can I say? I am an optimist.
Also a solver of problems.
And, as an owner of a very modest assortment of hummers of which some have been serviced by the very capable gentlemen I mentioned above, I know they have a significant stock of not readily available spare parts. Plus I still buy and sell items of interest and spot (claimed to be) working 214/8/9 movements in knocked around cases on a semi-regular basis. Point being I think it’s an alternative or I wouldn’t have suggested it, albeit not without its own risks of course, and with the watch listed but not yet sold the OP could cancel the sale.
The last time anyone on the MB posted a similar possible solution to an Accutron problem was about two years ago. This pertained to the newly acquired Accutron of a frequent poster to this message board. As it turned out, the faulty Accutron involved was a virtually unused model that was close to pristine! The solution was a matter of a fairly simple adjustment required, as recognized by someone who knows Accutrons (me). The owner is so thankful he didn’t follow the suggestion given to him by someone who has NO CLUE about Accutrons! That being to go the route of buying a donor movement.
From my limited experiences with a vintage Accutron, if the discontinued vintage mercury 1.3v battery isn't used, the watch will run faster on the current 1.55v replacement battery unless you use a modified battery, or you have the watch modified to run on the modern battery voltage.
That's not to say there may have been other issues with the watch as well.
I think this is right.
I think this is right.
The answer? The answer is, there is no simple way to solve this. The way I see it, the tuning fork WITH the index jewel will have to be replaced. Forget trying to replace the microscopic jewel, regardless of how you try to go about it! In order to replace the tuning fork, the movement must be entirely dismantled. That is not a problem, IF you are able to find someone knowledgeable to do it, and IF you can find a good tuning fork, and IF you can find NOS index wheel! €350 is $521 in my currency. If someone is prepared to do the job as I describe it, if they are good at what they do, if they will guarantee the job, and if the OP wants the job done, it should work.
No, the different voltage (1.55V instead of 1.3V) doesn't change the oscillation frequency. At least for the 218.
