using up my watch karma; a saga of parts
Dec. 13th, 2007 02:22 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
solipsistnationSo the other day I decided to case my watch movement with the TZ Watch School face and hands so I could wear it home over Christmas and show it off before coming back and taking it apart and possibly making it unhappy. Of course, somewhere in here, I managed to biff up the keyless works (AKA "the windy and/or setty bit"). So I set it aside until tonight.
Tonight I stripped down the keyless works, which is a complicated little collection of oddly-shaped bits of metal with springy parts and so on. Only 2 screws, but a couple of big flat plates, one of which is VERY important.
What I figured from consideration of how the keyless works work, I figured that most likely one of the little lever bits had gotten poked out of the slot in which it usually rests and so the windy bit would wind but the setty bit wouldn't set. This isn't hard to fix-- you just take apart the works and put it back together correctly. I managed the taking apart, and then put it back together and it didn't work in a different way. Had I somehow managed to strip out a tiny tiny gear?
No, I took it apart again and looked at the tiny tiny gear and it was fine. So, out of final desperation, I went and looked at the TZ Watch School directions for reassembling the keyless works, and lo, there was a note saying "oh by the way, make sure this little pointy bit pokes this other bit" (except more technical) and a picture of a little pointy bit sitting on top of a little rounded bit with an arrow next to it as an example of how not to do it. Ah ha. So, popped it apart again (these bits are held together with positively VAST 1.2mm screws) and set it up right and put it back together. Except that while putting the screw back into the final plate, having verified that I'd done the right thing this time, duh, and now it was all correct and happy, suddenly the plate I was hooking back on leapt forward off the desk toward the floor. The screw, huge though it was, was nowhere to be found.
"Fuckburgers," I said out loud. It seemed appropriate.
Sighing, already composing a forum post in which I would ask how to order tiny bits of this watch movement, I reached for the magnetic retriev-o-wand. Figuring that I hadn't heard the plate hit the floor (as if I would anyway), I decided I might as well start off by poking the magnetic bit into the cuff of my pants. I heard a tiny *click*. There, on the end of the wand, was the lost plate. Hooray! I carefully deposited it in the parts tray and cast about on the floor for the tiny tiny screw. Well, at least that would only be ONE part to have to ask for...
No sign of it on the floor. I turned my attention back to the watch movement. There was an unusual glint from one edge. Lo, the wayward screw had made it less than an inch from its tiny hole! I gripped it with the tweezers and it joined its companion there in the tray.
At last, hardly daring to breathe, I slit the plate into place and screwed it down. Twisting the temporary plastic crown, I wound the watch. It wound! I pulled the crown out. The little lever that keeps the movement from ticking while it's being set slid into place, the tiny tiny clutch engaged and the tiny tiny wheels moved as I turned the crown! I could set it! I have successfully performed my very first watch repair! It would be more exciting if I hadn't earlier performed far from my very first watch breakage, but hey, I take my victories where I find them.
Tomorrow, I'll put the face and hands on it and drop it in a case. Then perhaps I will take pictures. It will be very exciting. Anyone I see in the next week or so can look forward to lots of tedious watch-showing-off and enforced fawning, so most of you should be glad you're nowhere near here.
I guess I need a watch icon.
Tonight I stripped down the keyless works, which is a complicated little collection of oddly-shaped bits of metal with springy parts and so on. Only 2 screws, but a couple of big flat plates, one of which is VERY important.
What I figured from consideration of how the keyless works work, I figured that most likely one of the little lever bits had gotten poked out of the slot in which it usually rests and so the windy bit would wind but the setty bit wouldn't set. This isn't hard to fix-- you just take apart the works and put it back together correctly. I managed the taking apart, and then put it back together and it didn't work in a different way. Had I somehow managed to strip out a tiny tiny gear?
No, I took it apart again and looked at the tiny tiny gear and it was fine. So, out of final desperation, I went and looked at the TZ Watch School directions for reassembling the keyless works, and lo, there was a note saying "oh by the way, make sure this little pointy bit pokes this other bit" (except more technical) and a picture of a little pointy bit sitting on top of a little rounded bit with an arrow next to it as an example of how not to do it. Ah ha. So, popped it apart again (these bits are held together with positively VAST 1.2mm screws) and set it up right and put it back together. Except that while putting the screw back into the final plate, having verified that I'd done the right thing this time, duh, and now it was all correct and happy, suddenly the plate I was hooking back on leapt forward off the desk toward the floor. The screw, huge though it was, was nowhere to be found.
"Fuckburgers," I said out loud. It seemed appropriate.
Sighing, already composing a forum post in which I would ask how to order tiny bits of this watch movement, I reached for the magnetic retriev-o-wand. Figuring that I hadn't heard the plate hit the floor (as if I would anyway), I decided I might as well start off by poking the magnetic bit into the cuff of my pants. I heard a tiny *click*. There, on the end of the wand, was the lost plate. Hooray! I carefully deposited it in the parts tray and cast about on the floor for the tiny tiny screw. Well, at least that would only be ONE part to have to ask for...
No sign of it on the floor. I turned my attention back to the watch movement. There was an unusual glint from one edge. Lo, the wayward screw had made it less than an inch from its tiny hole! I gripped it with the tweezers and it joined its companion there in the tray.
At last, hardly daring to breathe, I slit the plate into place and screwed it down. Twisting the temporary plastic crown, I wound the watch. It wound! I pulled the crown out. The little lever that keeps the movement from ticking while it's being set slid into place, the tiny tiny clutch engaged and the tiny tiny wheels moved as I turned the crown! I could set it! I have successfully performed my very first watch repair! It would be more exciting if I hadn't earlier performed far from my very first watch breakage, but hey, I take my victories where I find them.
Tomorrow, I'll put the face and hands on it and drop it in a case. Then perhaps I will take pictures. It will be very exciting. Anyone I see in the next week or so can look forward to lots of tedious watch-showing-off and enforced fawning, so most of you should be glad you're nowhere near here.
I guess I need a watch icon.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-13 01:14 pm (UTC)Spare watch bits to replace escapees would do wonders.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-13 05:58 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-13 02:39 pm (UTC)Cool - congrats! So are you learning how the mechanisms work as well as how to piece them together? That is, could you someday design your own movement?
Oh, and I have no special powers so please do not dissect my brain.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-13 05:54 pm (UTC)You seem to still be using your brain, so I'll let you keep it.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-13 03:07 pm (UTC)But, you need more technical terms in your post.
May I suggest: "Thinger," "Dongle," "Doo-Hickey," "Gizmo," "Dooey," and the ever-popular "Thing-a-ma-Bob."
:-D
(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-13 04:16 pm (UTC)(I grew up with my dad tinkering with all kinds of mechanical stuff - nothing so tiny as watches, but aside from the challenge of scale it sounds like it's very similar.
While I usually prefer the virtual gears and pointy bits of programming for my own hobbies, I do have fond memories from my dad, and from the time I dove into my malfunctioning tape deck and managed to get it working again. What you're doing sounds awesomely more intricate / nifty. :)
(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-13 07:00 pm (UTC)Well, this and because someone I know lost mine.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-01-14 02:23 pm (UTC)Got a good source (except for ebay) for pocket watch *cases*? I have a project that will require at least one (probably several, as I destroy them during the Project)