Translation needed for repair terms
 

I bought a watch a few weeks ago which was DOA. I returned it to them (an eBay vendor / B&M jewelery-type of store) and this is what they said about it:

"The watch has been tested for the power reserve as well. My watchmaker held onto the piece for 2-extra days just to make sure. The watch is still keeping perfect time this morning. My watchmaker shared that the watch was 'out of beat' and the adjustment was made to get the beat back in place and he also tightened the detent screw.


Does this make any sense and what does it mean; would you be confident that it is the cure for a dead watch? Dead meaning it would run for 15 seconds or so and sometimes 15 minutes, but mostly is lasted only seconds. Cal. 3035.

Sounds to me like the balance wheel was out of order and they tightened it.

Not enough information....... :thinking:

Did you fully wind the watch before you put it on ??

All I can tell from your post is that your watch didn't work, you sent it back, and they fully wound it to make sure that it stayed running for ~50 hours (power reserve) and they timed it ... :thinking:

X2 Far too little information afraid today many have no idea how a mechanical watch works.

Yeah I wasn't spacing out, I fully wound it 40 times...twice. I told them that. They better not have just wound it and said "good enough." I mean I hope it's not an intermittent problem. You know, like when your car acts up, but when you take it to the dealer it of course runs perfectly and they note on the invoice that the problem can't be replicated.

Unfortunately e-bay doesn't have the best reputation for buying high-end watches...

Let's hope for the best and they did find an issue which was corrected.. If not, your best bet would be to find a Dealer with watchmaker on staff and have it properly serviced (or the RSC). That would set you up for a decade or so of trouble free use......... :cheers:

^Before I bought it I added (in my mind) ~$750 for the cost of a service. Once their "warranty" runs out in a year it'll go in unless it has been running flawlessly.

The detente screw is what holds the set lever in place which holds the stem in the movement. I allows the watch to be wound and set. The beat of the balance wheel is it's rotation to the left and right if it is off center it will spin in one direction more than the other and if way out could stop the watch completely because the the roller jewel will not be able to make contact with the pallet fork to get an impulse to keep running.Centering the balance is loosening the arm that holds the end of the hairspring and adjusting it so that the balance wheel centers it's roller jewel to the pallet fork,thus receiving the same impulse left and right. Amplitude is the degree of arc from the dead point or center point of the pallet fork in one direction till the force of the hairspring returns it to the dead point to imlulse and go in the other direction. Hope that clears it up. Rikki

Very informative. Thank you. :cheers:

Thanks Rikki! At least what they did seems to makes sense.

Got it back and the watch is running flawlessly. I pick it up and just the movement strarts (for just a few seconds of course). It has great reserve power now, so whatever they did, it's fixed.