I found a reasonable deal on this watch as it wasn’t running the best, and the chrono wasn’t resetting correctly. The Breguet Calibre 582 shares a lot in common with the Omega 1140 and Lemania 1350, which both have stuff in common with the venerable 861. Oscillating weight off. A lot here looks familiar, with a little Seiko magic lever in the auto wind system. movement de-cased and in the movement holder. hands off and safely stored as per usual. dial off. A common theme of this movement is a pearlage finish. calendar works cover plate removed.
we will get into some more details and compare what is different from the base Calibre as well as the 861. With the date disc removed, more of the calendar works and chronograph can be seen. In the center you can see the heart reset cam for the minute counter system. The base Calibre for this movement had a central minute counter for the chrono. The Breguet 582 variant moves this counter to the more traditional location at the 3 o’clock subdial. There is a small train of wheels geared off the central minute counter wheel that is below that heart cam. The red arrow points to the calendar driving wheel. The little spring finger is what pushes the date disc to the next day when it comes around in a clockwise direction while the watch is running, or when the hands are manually advanced when setting the time. The spring provides a safety if the date quick set is used while the calendar driving wheel is also trying to flip the calendar. It will safely flex out of the way without damage. The date quick set wheel is noted with the yellow arrow. The green arrow points to the hour counter lock. The lower half of it is pretty similar to what is found in the 861. The upper portion interfaces with the minute counter lock/brake and has an eccentric screw for adjustment. The blue arrow points to the reset hammer for both the hour and minute counters. The entire minute counter system is quite different from the 861. The Bregeut has a non jumping minute counter with all of its components located in the dial side. The 861 is a jumping minute counter with all of its components on the movement/train side.
The yellow arrow points to hour reset hammer. The hammer is in the same spot as the 861. The red arrow denotes the minute hammer, which is affixed with a screw to the hour hammer. Both are loaded with the same hammer spring. Minute hammer and associated hammer spring. The hour hammer with the minute hammer mounting location visible. The next item removed is defined as the “mechanism bridge” in the tech guide. With that bridge off, the minute recording wheel, red arrow, and minute recorder driving wheel, green arrow, can be seen. The minute recorder driving wheel is two small wheels attached and spring loaded to each other. This helps prevent any jitter from being seen in the minute recorder hand. The yellow arrow points to the minute recorder clamp valet. The valet is pulled to the left when the chrono is started to spread and release the clamps that hold the central minute recorder.
Beautiful B-29. But who did the grammar check on the text on the FWD STBD bomb bay door? "Honor Thy Service"? Surely it should be "Honor Their Service"?
Nice work. My dad was a crew chief on a B-29 after WW2 the Navy was given a few they used them as weather aircraft. He told me that story on a trip to Mount Rushmore we stopped at a air force base to spend the night cheap place to sleep there was a aircraft museum and there was a B-29 there and that’s when he told me that. I bet I missed a lot of his Navy stories so pick your dads brain before there gone.