Tags: Rolex, Submariner, watches, watchmaking
Comments (0)I was looking for some pictures on the web recently and I stumbled across this article by Andrew Babanin describing what he found inside his Rolex Submariner. It has lots of good pictures and a pretty good description of the 3135 movement.
Tags: watchmaking
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This week I took in a vintage Rolex Submariner (5513) for repair. It had that sweet vintage look that collectors love with the yellowed luminous and original hands. I explained to the customer that despite the dial starting to crack slightly in some places I would recommend they keep the dial because (for collectors) it adds value to the watch which would be gone if I were to replace the dial. When I got done working with the customer one of my co-workers asked me if working on an irreplaceable dial like that makes me nervous. The short answer is “yes.”
As I thought about my answer, I came to the conclusion that yes, whenever I work on a vintage piece or a high-end piece where the dial or hands or other component is irreplaceable I do get nervous. This nervousness actually serves to make me a better watchmaker. Because I recognize the risk involved I work more carefully when faced with these situations. I am confident in my skills and when I am fully aware of the risks I use the necessary care to make sure that I don’t make any mistakes. It’s amazing how the “nervousness” actually heightens my skills and keeps me in check.
Most watches have their own special character. Vintage watches have the marks of ages, modern mother of pearl dials are all unique. And even the ones that are not unique can be very expensive should I damage them. A regular Rolex Dial for a gents Datejust retails for $225.00 and with one slip I could lose all the profit from the repair and then some. This profession requires the kind of careful attention and focus that a surgeon applies in his line of work. One moment of inattentiveness can lead to disaster.
As a watchmaker it is important to have the proper skills, training, tools & confidence so you don’t make those disastrous mistakes.
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Tags: baume and mercier, watches
Comments (1)I had to share this ad from Baume & Mercier, which I saw on Watchismo Times, with all of you. It’s the kind of ad you only get in Euroope. This wouldn’t fly in the U.S.
Tags: oilers, Tuesday Tools, watchmaking
Comments (0)This week for Tuesday Tools — Oilers. No, not the Houston Oilers or the Edmonton Oilers.
When I clean and service a watch one of the most important things is to place the correct amount of oil precisely on the points that need lubrication. I use oilers to place the oil. There are three main kinds of oilers: Dip Oilers, Glass Fountain Oilers, and Automatic Oilers.
Fountain oilers are mostly used by older watchmakers. They use the principles of capillary action to draw a small amount of oil out of the tube (like a fountain pen). I’ve never used one. The one in the picture was in my shop when I started working there.
Dip oilers are the most common oilers. From the picture you can see that the they come to a pretty narrow point. This gives you an idea of how little lubrication is applied inside the watch. The tip of the oiler is dipped into a reservoir of oil or grease and a single drop forms on the end. This drop is than placed precisely on the pivot or friction point. The red oiler has been modified with a 90 degree bend at the end. Some watchmakers prefer this method for lubricating the escapement, but I prefer the straight oiler myself.
Automatic oilers have a reservoir like the fountain oiler but they also feature a retractable point which is pulled back into the reservoir and then released with a single drop of oil on the tip. The automatic oiler can be adjusted to produce a specific sized drop of oil with pretty good consistency. The Bergeon 1A oiler pictured is used for oiling assembled cap jewels. This makes the process of oiling cap jewels much easier than using a simple dip oiler. There is also another version for oiling train jewels.
The oilers and oils need to be kept clean at all times.
Tags: Rolex, Submariner, watches, watchmaking, water test
Comments (1)Water resistant watches need to be tested or there can be no guarantee that they will perform as they are supposed to. When a watch maker performs a water test the price usually includes the necessary tasks to ensure the watch passes the test but not the parts needed to make it pass, should it fail. The watchmaker should clean the surfaces for the seals and lubricate the gaskets with a silicon grease. Simple o-ring gaskets will be replaced if necessary.
A water test (pressure test) should be performed every time a water resistant case is opened (like to change a power cell) or if there is any reason for concern. The silicon grease on the gaskets helps them to stay pliable longer, helps them to create a better seal, and keeps them from deforming when the case back is screwed on.
There are two main ways to test a watch’s water resistance: using a wet tester or a dry tester.
Wet Testers: Wet testers use water (obviously) and pressurized air to test a watches water resistance. They consist of a sealed container filled part way with water and a pump to change the air pressure within. They are used in a variety of ways. — One method increases the air pressure inside the container while the watch is still in the air and then lowers the watch down into the water. The excess air pressure is then released, if the watch’s seals leaked then the pressure inside the watch case increased with the air around it and when the pressure is released the pressurized air escapes from the watch case forming a stream of air bubbles coming out of the watch case into the water.
Another method submerges the watch in the water and then decreases the air pressure forming a vacuum. When the air pressure decreases the relative pressure in the watch is higher than the water around it and if the watch leaks air bubbles will escape. This is a stronger test than the first because the decrease in pressure pulls the case apart instead of compacting it.
A third method creates a real life situation. The watch is placed under the water and the pressure is increased to simulate the pressures experienced at the rated depth. If the watch fails water enters the watch. — Ouch!
With all three wet tests after the test is performed the watch is examined to see if any water entered the case. This is done by heating the watch (by placing it on a hot plate) and then placing an ice cold drop of water on the crystal. The heat vaporizes any moisture in the watch and this moisture condenses on the crystal when it is super-cooled. If the watch fogs up it failed.
Rolex uses the second and third methods to test their watches.
Dry Testers use a different method all together. They don’t use any water so there is no risk of damaging the watch but if a watch fails you need to use a wet tester to locate the point where the watch failed. (This can be done with the movement removed from the case.) Dry testers support the watch case between two sensors. The watch is placed inside of a dome and the air pressure is changed. First the pressure is reduced and the sensors measure the deformation of the case (in thousandths of a millimeter). When exposed to the vacuum the case should expand and when exposed to increased pressure it should compress. If the case leaks the pressure equalizes and the case doesn’t deform at all. Omega, Breitling, Cartier & Most other brands use dry testers.
The downside to the dry tester is that watches need to be water resistant (not air pressure resistant) and some watches just can’t be tested by the dry tester. For example, if you place a professional series Rolex, like a Submariner, in a dry tester it will almost always fail. What? I thought the Submariner was the ultimate dive watch, why does it fail? Well, it doesn’t really fail but the machine thinks it does. That’s because the machine looks to see if the watch case deforms. The Submariner case is so sturdy that despite being exposed to high air pressure the case doesn’t deform enough for the machine to correctly register it. The machine (not knowing what kind of watch is inside of it) thinks the pressure must be equalizing when in reality the materials are just so strong they don’t deform inside the machine. — But, if you think the watch might fail, it is safer to use the dry tester.
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Tags: how to clean, Rolex, watches, watchmaking
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As a watchmaker I see a lot of watches. Some people are kind to their watches, others really beat them up. Some watches still look brand new when they come in, others are totally covered in scratches. Some watches are nice and clean and others are covered in body cheese. One thing is certain, a clean watch lasts forever. This week I’ve seen a lot of broken bracelets, most of which could have been avoided with some proper maintenance.
I think that lots of times people overlook cleaning their wristwatch. Here are some reasons why, followed by a simple how to.
When your watch is dirty around the crown — it can actually enter inside the case as you pull out and push in the crown. If it is a manual wind watch the dirt and grime becomes embedded in the gasket on the crown and turns the soft gasket into a coarse grinding stone which as it turns cuts a groove into the case tube. This means you have to replace your case tube sooner and you risk water getting into your watch.
When your metal bracelet is dirty — the same kind of thing happens at each hinge point. Dirt and grime actually causes the bracelet to wear faster. This can be devastating when your watch has a $10 - 15,000 gold bracelet. These bracelets are designed to last generations and if you keep them clean and wear them tight they will. If you don’t you will significantly cut their life span.
So how do you clean your watch? Check out this post from Jan 28, 2008.
As a side note, one of the ways your watch gets dirty is if you wear it while applying creams and lotions (this especially applies to you ladies). Hairspray is really bad. In fact you should take off all your jewelry when you apply creams and lotions. The creams and lotions turn into a glue when combined with dirt, dust, and dander.
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Tags: Daytona, GMT, hairspring, milguass, parachrom, Rolex, watches, watchmaking
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It seems there is a lot of mystery surrounding this innovation made by Rolex so I will try and clear it up using two documents of pretty good authority. I wish I could say I had talked to the head of the parachrom department at Rolex but I haven’t.
The parachrom hairspring didn’t really start getting attention until a couple of years ago when it started appearing in the new GMT-Master II. It’s distinctive blue color meant that Rolex had to spill the beans about what they had done. I first heard about it when a Rolex representative taught me about it in early 2007.
James Dowling (Mr. Rolex) of timezone wrote a nice article about the Parachrom Blu hairspring in August of 2007. — John B. Holbrook, II of the Rolex Reference Page refutes Mr. Dowling’s claim that the parachrom blu hairspring was fitted to all Daytona’s featuring the 4130 movement in his article The Evolution of the Modern Era Rolex Daytona. I am going to take a middle ground.
The following is from a Rolex communication titled Parachrom Hairspring dated 08/12/06 given to representatives at a factory tour in Geneva:
ROLEX has developed and patented a new hairspring called PARACHROM. This hairspring is made of a niobium, zirconium and oxygen alloy. It has been used for the Cosmograph Daytona starting from 2000.
In 2005 a blue-coloured version was introduced for the new GMT Master II and the Cosmograph Daytona. It has an even better performance as regards to long-term stability. This blue version has also been patented.
The hairspring and balance form an oscillator, the regulating organ of the watch. This oscillator is the guardian of time. The precision of the watch is determined by the regularity of its oscillations. The requirements of this regularity are very great since measuring the time with a precision of 1 second per d ay is like measuring a distance of 1 km to within 1 cm.
To guarantee this extreme precision, the torque must be as constant as possible regardless of the temperature to which the watch is submitted. It is for this reason that only a few, very special materials can be used for the hairspring.
Commonly used alloys have an iron - nickel - chromium base. These alloys are ferromagnetic and so have two major drawbacks: they make the hairspring susceptible to magnetic fields and to shocks.
ROLEX has developed a new family of alloys with a niobium - zirconium - oxygen base know as PARACHROM, which is up to ten times less susceptible to shocks and absolutely unaffected by magnetic fields.
The registered name comes form the fact that the alloy is paramagnetic and that it is coloured (CHROM in Greek).
This development required 5 years of research by physicists and materials engineers and called for the most advanced observation and analysis techniques. It resulted in the filing of applications for two patents, one for the protection of the chemical composition of the alloy, the other the way of modifying the surface of the hairspring to stabilize its properties (blue colouring). The blue colour of the hairspring increase the prestige of the watch. As a matter of fact, in the history of watch making, bluing a hairspring was an operation done only for the most accurate and sophisticated watches.
If the material of the PARACHROM hairspring is very specific, its manufacture necessitates very high technology which is fully mastered in house.
. . .
In 2005, ROLEX introduced another new feature on the PARACHROM hairspring by modifying the structure of its surface. The layer of oxygen present on the surface is transformed and thickened to about 50-100 nm to increase the long term stability of the oscillator even further. This modification of the surface colours the hairspring in blue (colouring by interference). This innovation has been patented.
The hairspring shown in Mr. Holbrook’s article which he says, clearly “is not a Parachrom Bleu but rather a standard Nivarox hairspring” is in fact a Parachrom hairspring from before the color innovation of 2005.
You can see a short video from Rolex on the parachrom hairspring at their web page.
The parachrom hairspring has been fitted into:
It will eventually be fitted into all models (apparently as they get redesigned) as production allows.
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Tags: asco, beco, leica, loupe, school, Tuesday Tools, watchmaking
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For the most part watches and their components are fairly small machines. I would never be able to work on them and properly examine the condition of parts without using some magnification. I don’t really use the loupe pictured at top (it is a presentation piece made in sterling silver, it weighs a ton, and only offers about 2X magnification.) But I will talk about the magnification I do use.
When I first started in watchmaking school I had to get used to wearing a loupe. I started using a loupe with a 2 1/2 inch focal length offering about 4X magnification. As time has gone on I have gotten use to using my 10X loupe and I rarely use anything less than that. I keep it on a wire head band (like in the picture). Some people like to support the loupe in their eye with their facial muscles, but I find that to be annoying, plus then you have to keep track of it. I always know where my loupe is it’s either on my head or around my neck. For close-up examination I use an Achromatique 25X loupe held in my hand. It’s focal length is too short for working with but it works well for examining the condition of very small parts.
In watchmaking school we also had a fantastic Leica Stereo Microscope. It had magnification up to 40X and a working distance of 4 or 5 inches so you could actually work under it for delicate tasks like adjusting a hairspring or the tension on an Accutron pawl.
I don’t have such a luxury in my daily life but I have access to several Gem Scopes which provide the higher magnification but not the working space. When I need to work under a microscope I use the jeweler’s laser welder. It has a built in Leica lens and offers about 2 inches of working space, the big downside is that it looks in at an angle instead of straight down and there is always the potential for accidently shooting a laster beam at the watch 
Just Kidding! 
All of my loupes are made by ASCO in Switzerland. They are very nice loupes with two lenses. They can be disassembled for cleaning and the image is perfectly clear. The 25X loupe is a little bit rare. There are lots of 20X loupes out there, but there really is a huge difference between my 25X loupe and the 20X loupes I’ve tried, but you pay for quality. My 25X loupe is a $150 loupe.
I haven’t personally had the opportunity to try Beco Loupes but I have heard very good things about them and it is my understanding that they have become a standard part of the LWT tool kit. I would order them except that Beco requires a 500 Euro minimum purchase.
If you have a favorite loupe, or know where I can get a Beco loupe for less than 500 Euro, let me know.
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Tags: haiku, Rolex, timezone, vintage, watches
Comments (0)I was just flipping through my book Vintage Rolex Sports Models
My gnomon casts the
Longest shadow of the year:
The winter solstice.
The book is a fabulous reference by the way for anyone who looks at lots of vintage sports Rolexes. The prices may not be entirely accurate, especially with the insane interest watches are bringing today. History of previous auctions on Antiquorum is probably a better source for that, but for pointing out variations between models it’s great, although not complete.
Tags: george clooney, omega, watches, watchmaking
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Not sure where this ad is running, or who it is supposed to appeal to, but it looks like Swatch Group is in need of experienced watchmakers. I guess the six per year they are graduating from the Nicholas G. Hayek School of Watchmaking isn’t enough. I saw the ad on the Swiss Watch Boutique
