Simon Frankau's blog
I have destroyed a Swiss watch
I've killed a 17 jewel mechanical Swiss watch. All in a good cause, though. I've been intrigued by mechanical watches for some time, so I finally got an online course in how to disassemble and reassemble a watch. It's really the very basic stuff, but you have to start somewhere. I started with a super-cheap clunker off ebay, and I'm glad that I did, since I promptly destroyed it. To my surprise, I didn't total the balance, but instead broke the head off the crown wheel. Yes, I read that it turns the other way, but then I went and got it confused with the ratchet wheel. Oh, and I broke a little bit off part of the keyless works. Ho hum. I have learnt a lot, though.
I've taken a photo of it in its disassembled state, along with a few of the cool new toys^Wtools I've needed to get it into this state. One of the things I've learnt from these tools is how precise movements human beings can make - working manually down to a scale of 0.1mm is quite doable, and it's astonishing what you can see with a loupe and even just a little practice...
The movement in question is an FHF 28, which has the extra fun of an extra layer due to its way of doing centre seconds. I notice in the photo they have that their keyless works broke in the same way as mine. I think it must be a design flaw!
Anyway, at this point, I have disassembled it all into myriad parts, but I've yet to reassemble it. I do hope I haven't forgotten everything...
Posted 2013-02-04.