After having a moment of madness in seeing if I could improove the regulating of my vostok, my jewel came off with the retaininer. (you can see the jewel and retainer on the left of the watch)



IMAG0380 by bok bok chickens, on Flickr


Now thinking my mate who repairs clocks thought I'll go see him and hope he could help....AAAAhhhhh sorry mike it needs a key to hold that retainer spring so it don't fly off when fitting it in the slot and turning at same tine bu##er me thinks.

Now Im more used to hammers and spanners not tiny things like this so, in for a pound or bu##er the watch up.
I armed myself with the modified screwdriver, very, very small drill bit that fits in the hole of the retainer ( blunt end ) and some bluetac, yeeesss you read right and my trusty scalpel blade I set off and try fix this watch......

Well the bluetac was binned cause it too sticky !, jewel in place but then would not let go
so mrs m asked, you got some tweezers, ah light bulb moment be easy then......so now the jewel in place, now the spring.
I would not recommend this but if I can explain, the tiny retainer loosly fitted on top of the jewel and using very, very small drill bit held in the hole of the retainer spring on top of the jewel so as it could be spun round threading it through the oh so small slot that holds it all together at the sametime using the scalpel blade spinning that retainer round....and boy it was fiddly.
Twice the retainer fell in the watch works! third time lucky it worked !


aaannnnnndddd Its fixed
Now just need to regulate it again to where it was. But I just had to show my handy work to my mate......ok ok kind of gloat

lesson..... playing with small things gives you a large headache

My head hurts even thinking about the tiny scale of the bits you were working with. Well done.


Kids. Don't try this at home.

After getting this sorted my eyes hurt, I even used a magnifin glass to start with but ran out of hands to hold everything so gave up with that and just resorted to cross eyes !

splitting me sides now matey

Oops indeed! Way to use some old-fashioned ingenuity to fix it. It is hard to tell in the picture Mike, but it it the jewel and retaining clip for the shock protection that came loose?

Maybe you should consider a new career in watchmaking.

Lavaine wrote:Maybe you should consider a new career in watchmaking.

...but not until you can say that you did all that deliberately, Mike.

Congrats on getting it back together.

Blue tac!!

Thanks guys, I would of normaly given it to someone else to repair, but me been tight I thought I'd have a go.
My first thought was how to pick up the jewel.. hell their small and in 2 bits as well....and yes they did come apart.
I think that was the hardest part to put together with out dropping it in the watch it self, mind you the clip did twice and the first time I couldnt find it.

@ Lavaine, yes it was the jewel and retaining clip for the shock protection...lesson here, dont twizzle things you dont need too or oooppps happens!
When I saw my mate he even said that he does not take the shock protection to bits as they are so small and fiddly......and he works with clocks .....some what a little bit bigger than watches though

Kip, bluetac ....use for sticking posters on walls, notes on cupboard doors, but not watch parts, just too sticky

anyone got an old watch that need fettling....Im sure I could bu##er it up even more!

My question is.....

If you was trying to regulate the watch ? How did the jewel and retainer come off

??????????????????????????

Well done for getting them back on though

Blimey - impressed with your resourcefulness!

@ Footcrazy the jewel retainer looked wrong ( ocd kicked in ) and I thought move it a tad but one of the fingers of the retainer came out of the gap that you thread finger in and so popped out .....yes Dont medal with things. You wont beleave what the mrs said.. ...........but it was rather fresh!!

Think I'll stick to taking Land Rovers to bits and repairing them.......oh so easier


Thanks f1collin but what else could be done.....I dont like paying for what would of been a 5min job to fix that you would of payed an hours labour for, and yep it could of gone horribly wrong too and the watch is fine now, currently running a bit fast for my liking ( 30 seconds ) but will get that down a tad.