Hi all, I'm after a bit of help. Last year I bought an old Timemaster watch on ebay, probably from the 70s, manual wind Eb8800 movement. It ran fine up to last weekend, when it stopped. I can shake it and get it ticking for a few seconds, but then it stops.
So today I took it in to town, and was quoted between £75 and £180 for a service - I only paid £25 for the watch! Then I wondered, is there anybody on here who might be interested in servicing, or repairing, my watch? I was thinking someone who did this as a hobby and wanted a piece to practice on? Maybe on a kind of 'no fix, no fee' basis?
Cheers!
Will
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Ok Il weigh in as it’s a bit quiet. You most likely know this is a one jewel pin lever movement? I think they are and we’re a disposable movement.I would see if You can scource an unused old stock movement .I was lucky enough to get one and it was a straight swap.A forum member Ian has kindly let Me have a second hand for it.I think the trouble is these run with high friction which of course results in wear.
Yes as above a cheap movement that wears badly. Designed in a day when servicing was much cheaper and replacement movements were easy to get.
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If you want a decent service done on it then it will cost more than you paid for it.
Thanks both for the comments. The movement is marked seventeen jewels actually. Would a cheap movement replacement be a better option then? Do you know what might be 'compatible' with what's in there at the moment? There's the date function as well.
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I've nothing useful to say about the movement, but for budget servicing, I've used this old family firm in Scotland. Their turnaround is glacial, but for their prices are a good fit for cheap purchases like these. For example I bought a basic manual wind Seiko from 1971 on eBay for next to nothing, had it serviced by them, and five years later, it's still keeping excellent time.
https://www.michaelswift.co.uk/services
Greg at Woodland Technical is your best shot.
http://www.woodlandtechnical.co.uk/
+1, I work on a profitable hobby basis so I charge less than commercial repairers, but I won`t work for less than I could earn working part-time at B & Q, that's what you're asking skilled repairers to do if you expect them to fix a watch like this for buttons. there's at least 4 hours work in this, possibly more........ask yourself how much you earn per hour and do the maths.Originally Posted by me32dc
These things aren`t nice to work on either; coupled with the fact that the watch is likely to be very worn the best a repairer can hope for is to get the thing to run reliably and keep time to +/- 30 secs/day. An added complication is the fact that a Timegrapher can`t 'read' a pin-pallet movement accurately, so regulating them is a struggle too.
I`ve fixed similar watches where there's a strong sentimental link and the owner's been happy to pay a fair price, but they're never fun to work on.
Yeah fair point. I wasn't asking anyone to work for free, more offering it up as a hobby project for someone who wanted to practice on something 'real'. I haven't owned for long enough to build up an emotional link, and therefore spend the outlay on a repair or full service. As it stands, it's likely to go on ebay as a spares or repair item.
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There's no such thing as a cheap watch. Almost all the old watches sold on ebay will need servicing, that involves stripping the movement, cleaning correctly, and rebuilding it properly. Any faults detected will need rectifying too. Usually it's just the oil that's dried up, most watches respond well to being cleaned and re-oiled but there's no quick easy way to do this.
Always budget around £100 to get a watch sorted out, or more if it's an Omega automatic (or similar), it pays to be realistic when buying.
Why not scource an old stock new movement and have a go Yourself?
If your not in a rush drop me a pm and we can sort out the details
Dave
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