Watch Repair Timeline – The Watch & Clock Hospital

WE START OFF WITH THE BASICS

The first step of the watch servicing process is to visually check the watch over and to manually check all of the functions and wether they work or not.

A Rolex OysterDate Precision having functions checked to assess if there are any noticable problems.

REMOVE THE MOVEMENT FROM THE CASE

The next step in the process is to remove the watch movement from the case. Most of the time, this is done by removing the case back then the crown & stem, sometimes though – the watch has to be removed from the dial side and can be a little more tricky! we call this a top loader.

Once the case is open we can establish if and how the movement is secured to the case in order to remove it.

REMOVE HANDS AND DIAL

We now need to remove the hands and dial from the watch. A special tool is required to remove the hands, we also cover the watch dial with a protective film so as not to mark or damage the delicate dial face! The dial is also removed by undoing the retaing clips or screws that grip the ‘dial feet’.

Prying levers are used to remove the hands from this pocket watch.

DISMANTLE THE MOVEMENT

Now we have the movement out of the case and the dial and hands removed, its time to completely strip the movement down. Every single part needs to be removed and inspected for wear and tear, or damage. We use a very powerful microscope to aid in this process.

Here we have the bare movement ready to strip down. This is a swiss ETA 2824.2 movement. Very popular in swiss made watches.

READY FOR CLEANING

Here the movement has been completely stripped and all parts checked and assessed – with this particular movement only one part was required to be replaced – the pivot on the bottom side of the centre wheel was very worn and had a mushroom shape. This was probably because it wasn’t oiled corrrectly during the manufacturing process or during its last service – if its had one.

The completely stripped down movement . This one is an ETA 2824.2

CLEANING

All of the parts now need to be cleaned. Some are cleaned by hand first in a solvent solution to remove the bulk of the dirt before going into the watch parts cleaner. We use a machine built by a company called Elma, it is made specifically to clean watch parts and does it in 4 steps. The first step is the actual clean. Step 2 and 3 are the rinse and step 4 is the drying process. At no point during the clean do any of the parts come into contact with water. We only use a water free solution for cleaning – this means there is no risk of rust forming on any of the parts.

Parts being cleaned by hand before going into the watch cleaner

Re-assembled and Regulated

The final steps of the service procedure. The watch is re-assembled, with new parts where necessary, and each fucntion checked as we go. Once completely rebuilt, the movement then has to be tested to check the time keeping. Quite often it will need setting in beat and regulating. We do this with a little computer called a timegrapher. Once this is done the dial and hands are replaced and the watch is put back into its case and we do a final check on time keeping. Once satisfied, the watch can be returned to its owner!