Closing words and summary

8 March 2011
This will (probably) be the last post on the blog.

I have really enjoyed this build, and I'm feeling a little restless now when it is finished, however, I will let the watch run fore a few weeks, then give it a final service, so that eventual unwanted wear can be detected and adjusted.



It all started with an experiment of getting a 6497 to run backwards, my intention at first, was not to go as far as making a complete watch. However, the steps came natural and soon I was on my way...

The project has been about rebuilding an existing movement, with as little manufacturing of new parts as possible, working with what I have. I feel successful with this aspect, the only thing I have had to make is a screw for the minute wheel, all other details are modified original parts from the 6497, the only extra parts I have needed is one setting lever, one sliding pinion and one winding stem, I have also needed three extra screws for the setting mechanism and two new jewels.

The watch is far from perfect, I regard the watch as a kind of prototype, a proof of concept. If I were to do it again I wouldn't change anything, even though there are different ways of solving the problems. Instead of having the setting mechanism on the movement side it can remain on the original dial side. This can be done by drilling a hole through the centre axis and having an extra axis pressed through, acting like an inverted canon pinion, which the minute hand can be mounted on and then having the minute and hour wheel on the movement side. But I liked the challenge of moving the setting mechanism, and I like the look of having it visible on the front side, and two crowns. Not many watches have the setting mechanism visible, almost only skeletonized watches without dials show this mechanism. And I must admit, it is a fascinating piece of mechanics, you pull the crown out, and the sliding pinion moves in on the same axis. For a watchmaker this is absolutely nothing spectacular, but someone who doesn't know so much about watches, really appreciates seeing this happening.

There is also the way of off-centering the dial, then the watch can run in its original direction, but that's cheating... And with that solution the sub second can't be used, the second hand will turn in the wrong direction.

One thing that I am thinking about, is the possibility of extending to a 6497 Flipp Automatic. This is very possible because there is nothing left on the old dial side. By making a new barrel arbor and rebuilding the winding mechanism again, I can take pretty much any automatic bridge and mount it on the old dial side, and adding weight to the rotor. There isn't room right now in the case, however, I am sure I can fit a domed crystal on the back side, to create more space. Maybe it won't be the most comfortable timepiece on the wrist, but extremely unique.

If I were to do this, I will continue on the blog, but not in the near future.

I was planning on having the back side engraved, but I will have to wait until I decide if I am going to continue with the automatic.

Works with a 24mm NATO-strap too.

On display with its big brother, my project from first year. Someone asked what was wrong with me, whay do I always want to have the regulator on the front side... Simply looks good!

For those of you who aren't familiar with blogs, the first posts are at the end, so scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on "older posts", do this twice and then work your way up. Or use the blog archive on the right side.

I would like to thank all readers for your time, hope you have enjoyed following the project, I certainly have!

Regards
Matthias

Complete assembling

4 March 2011
I received the new hands for the watch, I was very excited to see how it would all look.
I can't say that I am disappointed!

Final movement assembly

3 March 2011
A new Hirsch Liberty arrived for the watch, a very thick, Panerai-look leather strap. I think it will match the watch.



The final assembly of the movement went fine, The matt surfaces are tricky to work with. If you accidentally touch the surface you can't remove the stain with rodico, it sucks in to the structure and needs to be removed and washed. The only problem I had was a result of the sandblasting, if a thin metal detail is sandblasted it will extend on the blasted side, and bend, like hammering out a metal bowl. I knew this from experience, however, I have only seen this happening once, on a thin dial.
The same thing happened on my balance bridge, witch resulted in the balance being jammed, a lot! Because of that the bridge was bent by the extension on one side, I couldn't just bend it back. I had to work around the problem by adding a distance washer under the bridge, plus adjusting a few other things. The positive thing is that, because of the matt surface on the bridge, one can't see that it is bent by any surface reflection from the bridge. Another observation I made is that the balance bridge is actually lower than the gear train bridge and the barrel bridge, so even if I lifted the bridge up, it is not higher than the other bridges, and won't create any problems when i mount the movement in the case.

Finish

1 March 2011
I decided that I wanted most of the watch matt, so after sandblasting the bridges I started with the steel details. To obtain the right surface structure I used a coarse diamond powder, mixed it with oil, then pressed the details against a steel surface and with very small oscillating movements ground it until I got the right result. These parts will be blued, the effect of blued matt surfaces is that they look the same color from all angles.

This is an original polished click compared to my matt click.



Same with the crown wheel.

Black rhodinated main plate and bridges.

Counting a new hairspring.

Sandblasting

25 February 2011
I haven't been able to work on the watch for a while now due to school work. However, I have been wearing it for a week and it works fine, and I've had a lot of time to think about how I want the finish. I have decided not to over-finish the watch since I like the raw look, or as an enthusiast would say, tool watch look.
My brother helped me with some photoshopping to help me see the different colour combinations, and we both agreed on having dark bridges (black rhodination), blue or purple steel details, and brass gear train wheels. I wanted to have a matt finish on the bridges so I decided to try sandblasting. We have built a makeshift sandblasting box, it looks like MacGyver has been in the building, I don't dare to show a picture of it, but the important thing is that it works, even though there is a lot of cleaning up to do after the operation.
For some reason I have saved all my old rodico, not knowing what it would be good for, today I was thank full that I had saved it. It turned out that the rodico is very resistant to the sand and was extremely good for masking the parts that were not supposed to be blasted.
I have also removed material from the gear train bridge to show more of the movement.

I managed not to blast through the original rhodination, and the colour looks surprisingly good, so I'm not sure about the black rhodination any longer, I'll have to try it first on one of the test bridges.

Styling

14 February 2011
The watch is running properly, so I can start with the styling. I don't have a clear picture how it will look, so I'll be testing and experimenting. I drilled out the crown wheel, minute wheel and the hour wheel in the schaublin.

I blued the ratchet wheel and the crown wheel just to see what it would look like, but I can't help thinking that too much is happening between 12 and 4 o'clock. I have been sceptical to using blue because of this reason, however, I will create some more action around the second hand that might compensate for this.

I was in contact with a goldsmith, he recommended against filling the hole with gold, apparently it is not so easy to get the gold to merge nicely with the steel because of the high temperature required. So I made a plug, with the shape of a mushroom, and hammered it into place and then polished it. Feels good now when there isn't a hole straight into the movement any more, rodico has done the job until now.

Case

9 February 2011

Assembling the movement went fine with only small adjustments. I used hands from a pocket watch, these will be replaced later. I think red gold plated sword hands, without lumina would look good. Otherwise I am quite pleased with the machine-look, works for now anyway. The film shows the function of the stems.

Now I could start with the caseing. I started with the winding stem, chose a red gold crown. This hole was the easy one. I measured and drilled for the tube and fitted the winding stem.

The setting stem required some tricky measuring, but after a few control measurements I dared to drill.

This is the result, it turned out that there only was one red gold crown, so I changed to gold. The crowns are at different heights, something that was impossible to avoid in this build, however, this gives the watch some life. I also decided to change the flat mineral glass to a domed plexi, this also added some more character to the watch.

I tried to get the balance at six o'clock and the ratchet wheel at twelve o'clock, however, these are not in perfect line with the centre...

The hole for the old winding stem is still left to be filled (now at nine o'clock), the tube is removed, I'm thinking of having it filled with gold and then engraved, it would be a circle with a diameter of 8mm.

I'm pleased with the result so far.

Minute wheel

8 February 2011
Finally the last detail is in place, the minute wheel. Drilled and threaded for M0.6, the bridge is very thin so I had to be careful, otherwise a quite small job. I made a makeshift screw out of an old setting lever screw, haven't decided yet if the screw needs a head or not.

Spent the last hour of the day with cleaning the movement from all the metal cuttings and oil. Hopefully I will have time over tomorrow to assemble, adjust and test the movement.

After I get it working (if I do), the plan is to start working on the case. And later, continue with the finishing.

Construction site...

4 February 2011
The intermediate wheel has to be twice as high to reach the minute wheel, I decided to solder two together. I started with removing one of the inner corners on both wheels, then pressed them into a brass tube, this held them in place with the teeth lined up thus creating a groove between them. I could now easily heat the whole tube and apply filler metal in between the wheels. This worked surprisingly well, the new wheel could be pressed out after cooling the tube down.

To hold the new wheel in place I drilled and threaded an M0.8 hole in the bridge and made a steel tube as a distance, so that the screw presses against the tube and allows the wheel to turn free.


The new setting lever spring is filed out from an original, my first spring broke, probably because of the tempering failing. However, the second one works fine. To the left the setting stem is in, and to the right it is out.

Here you can compare the new setting lever spring with an original.

The mechanism is starting to look like a construction site, or that it's been in a fire, but everything works like it is supposed to and I'll have to work on the finish later.

Drilling and soldering

3 February 2011
I drilled and threaded two M0.8 holes in the barrel bridge to hold the setting lever spring in place. The setting lever spring will cover the yoke to hold it down, and one of the screws will hold the new yoke spring in place.

The winding stem needed support, so I soldered in a piece of brass tube that I had filed in half. Otherwise the stem would bend under the setting lever and wouldn't work. I suspected that this would be an issue, but easily fixed. I also removed the Breguet teeth on the sliding pinion.

Setting mechanism

1 February 2011
Started the day by drilling the new hole for the setting lever screw in the balance bridge, then set the movement in the lathe. Here I turned out the space for the intermediate wheel and the yoke, pretty tricky.

Next in turn was the milling, to create room for the setting mechanism. This was done in a drill, since we don't have a real milling machine.

This is the result, to the left the setting stem pulled out and the sliding pinion working with the intermediate wheel. To the right, the stem pushed in and the sliding pinion out from the intermediate wheel. I have also made the screw holes deeper and the screw heads thinner to make room for the milling. There's still a lot of work to be done here, making a spring for the yoke and adjusting the original setting lever spring.

Setting stem

28 January 2011
After hours of measuring and planning I finally sett the movement in the drill. The plan is to copy the setting mechanism and mount it on the front side, this can sound quite straight forward, but this requires a lot of measuring, and thinking several steps ahead. I will be making one change, removing one of the intermediate wheels.
I used two end mills to cut the flat bottom hole that will house the sliding pinion, and in the bottom drilled a 0.5mm hole for the tip of the setting stem.

This is a simple mockup of what it is supposed to look like, from the intermediate wheel and out, the bridge will be milled down. I will need to make the intermediate wheel twice as high, the second intermediate wheel will be mounted on top of the first.

Setting lever

28 January 2011
The problem was that the setting lever still allowed the winding stem to move in and out, and I wrote earlier that it needed an additional screw to hold it still. This is how I've solved it.
I started with taking away the ring on the setting lever screw, this turns it into a guide pin. I wanted to keep the screw head, otherwise there would be a hole on the frontside and that wouldn't look nice. The picture shows an original screw and my "guide pin screw".



I removed the pin for the setting lever spring then drilled a hole (1.1mm) in the setting lever after de-hardening it.

This is how my new setting lever looks now.

I drilled a hole in the main plate and threaded for M1.

I can now loosen the setting lever from the new backside.