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| Hamilton 980 “Overwound” |
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| The Pivot Broke |
You bought a nice looking Hamilton Wristwatch on eBay. The seller wrote that it was overwound. You can’t overwind a manual watch. Something broke and in this case, it’s a pivot on the third wheel. (Just say a wheel) which kept the power of the mainspring from winding and moving the hands.
To find the problem and fix the watch, you have to disassemble it. That begins with removing the balance and the pallet. This is a delicate operation.
In this photo the watch is primarily disassembled with the exception of the winding and setting mechanism. Notice the crown. It’s attached to the stem. We just want to repair the watch for now. We will clean and adjust it later. We just want to make sure it “ticks” in case another problem exists needing repair.
Our watchmaker removed the main bridge, the racket wheel, click and barrel (which contains the mainspring) and he sets those parts next to the balance.
This fellow is an old-timer and doesn’t use a parts tray. I would have done that. He says that he wants to photograph the operation and putting parts in the tray would make that difficult. Here he’s exposed the center wheel and has yet to remove the train bridge that holds the other wheels in place.
This is a different angel from the previous image.
In the photo he’s disengaging the click. The click allows the racket wheel to turn as the watch is wound. Without it, the mainspring couldn’t wind.
In this image you see the wheel train exposed. Somewhere in this part of the mechanism is a broken piece or pieces and we have to examine the parts to find the antagonist.
We did find that one of the pivots broke and that could mean someone didn’t put the wheel bridge on correctly. These parts rarely break on their own. It can be pilot error or jewel holes so gummed up that the pivots can’t turn and pop.
When we replaced the wheel with a new one and reassembled the watch it ticked. It ran nicely. Initially, as we disassembled the watch we notice that the oil in jewel holes were gummy. The watch was dirty and it didn’t keep time correctly.
We disassembled the watch again, put the parts in cleaning trays, ran it through a cleaning machine, oiled and reassembled the watch. We then checked the timing and had to make some adjustments to the balance.
It’s not as simple as some watch sellers on eBay try to make it seem. You’ve read the quote, “it’s not running but just needs a good cleaning.” This operation took some time and we had to find, order the part and pay for shipping. That took a few days and the part wasn’t cheap. It took a few hours of work and we don’t work for minimum wage.
If you have purchased a vintage Hamilton wristwatch, you do want to keep it serviced. At least after you buy it. Over the weeks, months, years and decades – the movement will begin to have problems and they only get worse.
The purchase cost of a Vintage watch is just the beginning. The 75 year-old wristwatches usually need servicing; we never know what we’ll find inside. Prepare yourself.
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