Gandhi Watch continued

 Disassembling the watch revealed a couple of surprises given the watch had been "refurbished."

The basic procedure for servicing a watch is three steps: disassembly/inspection, cleaning, and reassembly/oiling. The service this watch received failed on at least two of these steps.

The most glaring problem was broken teeth on the ratchet wheel, seen in this image:

The HMT mechanical hand-wind movement is based on the Citizen 0201 design, and Citizen is said to have overseen manufacture to insure high quality. It looks like that quality control may have relaxed, given that this wheel looks as if it is stamped steel that's been thinly plated. I was able to replace this wheel using another identical movement. (This wheel mainly interacts with the click to prevent the mainspring from unwinding, so its proper function is essential.)

The refurbishment was certainly sloppy. Look at the wild amount of oil pooled under the keyless works:

There's another anomaly I noticed in the first HMT I practiced on that is repeated with the Gandhi watch. The sweep second wheel passes across the barrel bridge, and it looks as if there has been an attempt to slightly deform the bridge at the point the wheel enters over the bridge, possibly to provide greater clearance between the wheel and bridge. I have a few more HMTs and it will be interesting to see if this deformation appears in them as well.

The technician who did the refurb either missed or didn't care about the missing teeth, and really pumped in the oil. The watch does run, though, so the basic requirement is satisfied.

I've done the disassembly and reassembly without incident, but my cleaning was not adequate to remove the really baked-on gunk. Soaking in naphtha and scrubbing with  stiff nylon brush got some but not all the parts clean. I think I'm going to disassemble it again and run it through the ultrasonic cleaner, then oil and reassemble. 

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I had been hoping to attend a meeting of the Midwest Watch Club's Spring Meeting, but it was moved from March to late April. The problem that continues to be central to this hobby is the direction to go with it. Collecting watches? If that's it, should it be wristwatches or pocket watches? And should they be antique, vintage, or contemporary? Or should I take brand new modern movements and ready them for sale? 

Or make a hobby of restoring old watches to working order? This is an expensive option since it requires the purchase of expensive tools like mainspring winders, crystal fitters, and

It would be nice to get the perspectives of other watch enthusiasts.

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I've also now completed a beginner course in watch servicing offered by a local watch shop. We took a new 6497 clone movement through the three servicing steps mentioned above and put it into a case with straps. It's ready to wear and running great. It's amazing how much easier a modern movement is to work with than the designs of the early 20th Century! Except for the shockproof springs, I hate those! 😖

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Next time, the Gandhi will be back, oiled and ready, with its results from another run on the timegrapher.