Tascione

Hi all

Sorry for the newby question. I am assembling my first vintage watch, a Movado cal.175 (Identified by the rannft movement archive). The gear train and balance wheel are running freely; however, when I press the hands into place the balance wheel stops oscillating. It has been suggested to me that the subsecond arbor maybe bent. My questions are? (1) have I correctly identified the subsecond arbor and (2) does it look bent?

thanks
John

Hello John,
No that would be the minute or intermediate gear post. The sub second pivot would be the longer pivot that extends through the jewel at the 6 o'clock location. This is the pivot that the second hand fits on. Yes it sure does appear to be bent.
Hope this helps
Dean

To test this, I put the hands back on and the movement didn't stop. Put on the subsecond pinion and it came to a stop quick enough.

Any thoughts/tips on bending it back without breaking it?

Johnno.
My guess is that it's bent just enough to cause some rubbing, either the base of the hand rubbing on the edge of the dial/jewel cup or the point of the hand hitting the dial face, therefore stopping your motion.
You can try to straighten it by using some wide - flat tweezers.
Heat the tweezer ( not red hot..but pretty warm). Place them over the pivot and "draw" them towards the tip of the pivot while applying VERY light pressure. You may have to do this a number of times to get it close enough to be acceptable. Don't twist the tweezers back and forth as it will take nothing to work harden the pivot and it will snap..Also,..there's no guarantee that it won't break off anyhow..they can be pretty fragile.

Best of luck


Randy