Thank you so much! I have my dad's mechanical timex and I tried your tricks and after 20 years of it not working, it now works!!!! I can't thank you enough!!! ❤I feel like I got a little piece of my dad back :)
There is a three step process to cleaning - ammonia . water rinse - lighter fluid some also rinse in alcohol after the lighter. making it a 4 step. you also have to oil the end caps and grease the winder Don't leave in ammonia long only a few minutes remove hands and watch face before starting.
Thanks so much. I have never messed with a main spring. They are notorious difficult. I personally believe if the watch beat error is off slightly it’s not a huge deal
Thanks for taking the time to make a video on this. You may find that with this method it will stop running again in a few days when all the alcohol evaporates. I've learned this the hard way. Don't be afraid to take the dial off. You don't take the tabs around the outside off, there are 3 tabs that come up through the movement. They are pretty durable. Taking off the dial lets you get to the other oil points. Agreed the second hand in particular is pretty fiddley though. One thing on the oil is that you oiled the pallet fork pivot. You should leave that one dry as the oil actually prevents it from pivoting properly. I've been fixing Timex for a couple of years now and I'm still learning every day. I'm not brave enough to separate the movement plates yet though LMFAO. That's for people with far more patience than I have. Keep the videos coming. I love seeing them.
I usually disassemble them to clean them fully, but please note this is NOT FOR BEGINNERS. If you disassemble your Timex movement without knowing what your doing or even if you are intermediate in your skill, you need to be ok with breaking something, and even with my experience of about 5 years working on Timex movements I still can spend about 60-90 minutes fiddling them back together. Solvent dips work well, but removing the dial and handset (as long as you are careful bending the pins that hold on the dial, use a larger screwdriver to do this, not a small one) will be ideal, especially if you need time to work on multiple Timex. You will also find that Timex watches actually have 4 screws, five in the common ladies model and sometimes 6 or 7 to secure the calendar module, the Timex manual omits this since they don't want you to take apart your watch and not be able to get it back together again.
Oh and I meant to say, when you oiled the balance wheel, that oil never saw the balance pivot, you just put it on the back of the bering. In a clever bet to save money, Timex movements from this era had a different pivot type exclusive to the balance pivot, The V-Conic bering. Two hardened end retainers hold a sharp tipped cone pivot, and this gives the watch it's classic motto, Takes a lickin', keeps on tickin'! This design, while not very accurate was very easy and cheap to manufacture and also able to withstand higher force impacts then shock absorbent systems at the time, hence why Timex was a favorite working mans watch. The dial side V-Conic bering is threaded to adjust the tightness on the balance wheel, and can be undone to oil the pivots properly. Be warned, there is a knack to getting the position just right, it might take a few tries. These berings can also be the reason a Timex isn't running (on top of being dirty) since sometimes they drift over time.
@@sketchpalosotherchannel hahahah I have seen RU-vidrs take these apart and it scares me. I can’t imagine and the wheels are paper thin. Hopefully one day, I can try, but I think for now my skills are not there yet
You should take the time to take of the hands and remove the dial so you can also oil the pivots accessible on the other side of the movement (you only oiled half of them). Also, there is a little lever under the balance for adjusting the speed (it's hard to get to, but with delicate tools you can get in there). I brought a 1965 Timex Marlin back to life by giving it an overnight soak in lighter fluid (after removing the hands and dial), fully oiling it, and then putting it back together. One of the things that made those old Timex watches so tough ("takes a licking and keeps on ticking") was an extra-heavy balance pivot. That also made for more friction and reduced accuracy. That said, you can probably get it a bit better than you have it with the extra oiling and the adjustment of the lever. I've got mine to -2 s/d in the position it sees most while I'm wearing it and -45 s/d in its "worst" position (the one it is least often held in during the course of my day). Be aware that Timex had a few mechanicals in the 70s with a bit nicer movements (visible jewels, etc). I don't know offhand about the impulse jewel and escapement jewels (if they're actually jewels or if they're all metal, like the cheaper ones), but soaking movements like that in alcohol will cause the jewels to fall out (it dissolves the shellac "glue" that holds them in place). All those cheap "soak-em" watches were designed to be soaked in lighter fluid going all the way back to the $1 pocket watches sold in the 1800s.
I gotta say that was an exciting video! That technique of putting it into the rubbing alcohol so the face is unaffected was brilliant, can’t wait to try that. I’ve been thinking of getting a time graph or, you beat me to it. I was hoping you would show what kind of oil you were using. The only oil I’ve found to work so far is Mobius 8000 which is like $10 a bottle. That’s the non-synthetic. All the big boys use the 9010 synthetic which is like 35 bucks For the bottle. Can’t wait to get a lesson on how to use the Time Grapher. Great job👍
Many of these movements (including this one) have a pivoting arm on the balance spring that allows you to adjust faster/slower on the balance. Have you tried adjusting it on this one to make it more accurate? I'm curious how much of an impact it might have.
I’d ask the pharmacist for 99.9% isopropyl, would be nice to have a cam/scope thing to get a more detailed look at the screws on disassembly, hopefully get more in depth as “time” goes by “taking of the hands/dial” ect :)
Do you have a ultrasonic yet? If you took off the hands and dial then used the ultrasonic, I’m sure it would clean deep down inside and have a more thorough cleaning before oiling
