Hi,

I have just received a watch I have purchased not too long ago, and discovered that the seconds hand is disconnected. Couldn’t take the movement out for some reason in order to put it back in place, and have no proper tool for lifting the crystal (which I believe is too small). Additionally, found a lot of oil on one of the winding wheels (as seen in the photo), and the stem. Is it too much? Seller is very co-operative, however, I would rather find a way to fix it here rather than sending it back and forth to Italy. Your thoughts?

 

Take it to a watchmaker.

 

No need for a crystal lift. The bezel will pop off with the crystal in tact. You need a very thin blade. BUT, if you have never done this before, please take it to someone who has. Pretty common issue with the second hand coming off. Hopefully, it will stay in place. That could be another issue.

Regarding the oil. Yes, that is excessive. Feel free to wipe the excess with a small clean cloth. I would take it to a watchmaker either way.....

 

Wtf. Have the seller reimburse you please.

 

I didn’t realize that, thanks! This is something I could do myself (I did pop open the case back twice with my cheap watchmakers blade), however, I am a bit afraid I won’t be able to put the bezel back in. I will go to the watchmaker, hopefully tomorrow. He won’t charge me much for the service, if at all. Thanks!

 

As we say in Joizey: Shit happens. This time shit happened to you. This is not an uncommon problem, but one that you might want to discuss with the seller.

A side question: what is growing out of your ear in your avatar picture? Or is your wife / girlfriend getting cute with you?

 

Just my wife

 

What, is she whispering "no more watches. no more watches..." At least that's what I hear.

 

that is not the sellers fault. happens often during postage, when hand was not secured properly at the last service. you can fix that yourself. kind regards. achim

 

Perfectly reasonable for seller to chip in nonetheless.

 

If unsure , take it to a watchmaker. It really should be a quick job. I think I paid 30 Euros. That is however, a worryingly large amount of oil . Did the seller say he'd just serviced it? It may cause problems further down the line.

 

Yes that's far too much oil, and likely indicates that if a service was done, it was done poorly. It's rare that only one spot on the watch is horribly over oiled - it's usually many spots.

I would ask your watchmaker to check it over, and would likely expect that it needs a full service.

Cheers, Al

 

LOL

Thanks everybody for the input! I guess I should be more worried now about the excess oil than the loose seconds hand... Will probably visit my watchmaker soon. If he suggests that it is required to clean the movement entirely, I might just send the watch back to the seller for service, as he offered.

 

The definition of insanity is often cited as doing the same thing over and over, and expecting a different result. I would not expect a second service done by the seller to be any better than the first.

In fact although I'm sure there are exceptions, watches sold as serviced by the seller are often not serviced well, and worn parts are often not replaced. These sellers know what the watch is likely to sell for, and know that every cent they spend on servicing or replacing worn parts cuts into their margin.

If you have a watchmaker you trust and you know he does good work, have them service it and ask the seller for some compensation.

Cheers, Al

 

Ok, all is well, at least for now... I had a few spare hours today for traveling in Jerusalem, and found a watchmaker who seemed trustworthy enough to reconnect the seconds and to the pinion without me having to hospitalize the watch for two weeks or so. As far as I’ve noticed, he did a decent job. Also asked the seller about the excess oil, and was told that he only oiled the stem, after having some kind of trouble with putting it back inside the movement (wait, what?), so hopefully no excess oil all around the movement. I don’t have a timegrapher, only a timegrapher app on my phone, so I checked how the watch was running, and the results are not that great, even though the amplitude is very high considering the watch’s age (see below). The app did show correct results on some of my other watches, so it might be pretty accurate.
In sum - the watch might need servicing then after all, although I want to see how inaccurate it really is first, and how reliable are the measurements.

 

And here’s a very interesting old building with two dead clocks and a huge sundial I stumbled upon in Jerusalem today. Probably has some interesting story behind it.

 

You have the wrong lift angle setting, and that is artificially bumping up the balance amplitude readings. It should be set to 49 degrees, not 52. And those are not "very high" readings for amplitude by any means.

I have no idea what positions you have the watch in for these tests, but clearly the timekeeping is not good. In any case, timekeeping is not a reliable indicator of the need for service.

I would still seriously consider it getting it serviced properly.

Cheers, Al

 

I am checking the timekeeping mostly to understand how reliable the timegrapher app is... I will probably send the watch for service once the excitement wears off.