The wonderful guy who sold me the Movado I posted here the other day called me today and said he had found the original instruction booklet for the watch. Obviously I rushed over and picked it up. Here is a copy for anyone who wants it. It is a Zenith publication and should work for any 3019 PHF El Premiero Movement based watch.

 

You should put the blank page under a black light to see if some hidden information is on it. If that doesn't work, try a watered down solution of lemon juice. I know there's gotta be some secret squirrel stuff written there.

 

Dennis...I tried the lemon juice thing and Ash is correct about the hidden message.

 

Lou, I can see what was redacted. Originally it said that the phases of the moon can be safely changed at any time. Note what it says below that now..."Attention! Do not correct (moon phase) between 12pm and 3am not to ruin the mechanism." Also note that in the instructions for my early Zenith Luna the warning is different...""(do not correct the moon-phases between 14 and 18 hours.

If I had to guess...and it is just a guess based on the language used in the Luna Instructions, I would guess that the owner of my Luna was not the only person to receive this strange/different instruction sheet. There is no way they only made one movement which functioned like that.

 

It's information about Area 51. Zenith thought it would slip by because what government agency would look in a watch instruction manual for leaked classified info on a cover-up? Well, they learned that the US Government would!

 

The day setting part is interesting... don't set it between 0900 and 1200 OR between midnight and 0200. I have an English-only version of this booklet with the same wording, and I half suspected it was some strange way of writing "9pm to midnight and midnight to 2am" until I read your multilingual booklet. The problem with setting it betwen 0900 to 1200 confuses me... but these are complicated mechanisms, mostly beyond the capacity of my magpie-like shiny-thing-hoarding brain to comprehend.
Is there a chance that the English part was badly written first, and then incorrectly translated? As I mentioned, an English-only booklet exists. Do any of you gearheads understand why there should be a problem setting the day between 9a and noon? Sounds wacky to a magpie.

 

I love watches with date complications and as a general rule I don't set the with the side plungers between 6:00 pm (20:00 hours) and 6:00 am or set the time counter clockwise at all between 9:00 pm (21:00 hours) and 3:00 am.

The big exception to this rule are the MicroRotor Heuer movements Cal 11-15 for which the factory instructions specifically state that the date can quickly be set by repeatedly running the hands back and forth from about 22:00 hours to 2:00 hours.

I have had watchmakers explain exactly what is happening to me and while I am looking at the mechanism with them I get it but I can not re-explain it in a technically correct fashion. Simply put though, you don't want to mess with setting a date watch while it is engaged in changing its date. Different watches start and end this changing process at different times in the 24 hour cycle. I just don't mess with changes at night at all.

JohnnyC

 

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Yep, agree with this. Hard to believe anything is happening to the day between 9am and noon, though. I think it's nonsense - mistranslation of a poorly written English sentence, should have been written as 9pm-2am. But, again, magpie. Maybe someone more mechanically-minded will weigh in.

 

I've not had anything more complicated than a date mechanism apart (yet) but let me try to explain how that works, using my Rolex 3035 I was repairing at the weekend. I can see how further complications will need additional time to complete their actions.

The red circle shows the hammer at the end of the date jumper and the blue circle shows the pin on the date corrector that is driven by contact with the date corrector wheel.



As the hour wheel (the one in the centre turns (with the hour hand attached) it rotates the date corrector wheel once every 24 hours. The slot in the date corrector wheel can move until it contacts the pin on the date corrector (this slot allows for assembly so that there is lattitude in where things are positioned)

Note how the hammer sits between the teeth of the date wheel.



The yellow circle shows where the cam contacts the date jumper - see next picture.

This picture just shows the cam underneath the date corrector wheel, The date corrector has a pin underneath it that exerts a sideways movement on the cam, thus releasing the date jumper from the date ring.



This shows the cam and its spring and the jewel that, in the picture, has been removed from the pin on the cam. The jewel is just Rolex's attention to detail - I wonder how many other manufactures would go to that length? It's a shame they couldn't have paid that sort of attention to the oscillating weight axle.

I will add that I am an entirely, self-taught amateur so if there are any professionals reading this, please feel free to jump in and shoot me down.

My end result is that the date on my Rolex snaps instantly at 24:00 - you just turn it until the date just changes and put the hands on at whatever time you want the date indication to change.

 

Ooooh, shiny. *peck* *peck*

I mean, thanks for that, Stewart. But I remain suspicious of the two widely separated danger zones for day setting of the 3019 PHF.

 

Great pix and story Stewart.

 

You really don't want to see the date mechanism of the 3019 PHF. It makes the chronograph mechanism look like a primary school design exercise.

 

Here it is, from the Zenith technical manual:



I'm not going near one of those.

 

Oy!

 

I meant, I'm not going near one of those with my screwdrivers.

I'd love to add one to my collection though.

 

The technical manual does give an explanation of the reasons for the time periods when adjustment should not take place.

Under the section on Final Checking.

2. The jump of the month, it is not quite instantaneous.

3. The jump of the moonphase around 1 AM

5. The correction of the day. It cannot take place between 9 ans 12 AM [9 UHr and 12 Uhr in the German version] and between 12 PM and 2 PM [24 UHR and 2 Uhr] since at this very moment the pin driven in the hour wheel double toothing is in the path of the day driving finger which is lifted when operating the correction.

6. The correction of the moonphases. It can not be operated between midnight and 2 AM when the moonphases finger is in contact with a tooth of the moon phases star.

 

Thanks Stewart. The technical explanation is great to have. Again, I find it best simply not to try to set the date functions...when it's dark outside.

John