# Re-hummeration



## foztex (Nov 6, 2005)

it seems to be a phenomenon of this forum (and a fine one it is, both the phenomenon and the forum) that every year or so Hummers come to the fore.

I myself was a victim in 2005 and am much the happier for it and it seems to have happened to many of us since.

Reading the recent 'first Accutron' posts I was inspired to revisit a couple of Hummers i've had on the back boiler for a while.

In my early WIS days i was intruiged and facsinated by Hummers but a little intimidated by the prices of the 'grandaddy' 214's and so started this path with 218's. The variety of them is unbounded and I amassed a fair few for little money. I was on the slidey slope and accelarating fast. Then came the 214's and hidden spaceviews took my fancy, the back set crown being too cool. Evolution leads us to f300's, my Seamaster and the birth of DeskDivers. Finally there is really only one grail to go. The unique technologically outrageous Megasonic. Rare as hell and often incomplete the 720Hz micromotor magnetically coupled 1220 movement is the definition of necessity being the mother of invention. years before neodynium super strong permanent magnets Max Hetzel the father of the 214 came up with the insane idea of a sprung box mounted on a tuning fork containing a sapphire sandwich that would bounce from side to side and rotate, driving a watch movement by nothing except a bunch of pinhead sized magnets. Outstanding.

So I needed one. I managed to pick up a NOS Megasonic that was a non-runner and at the same time a runner from JonW. The original idea was to use the NOS case dial and hands together with Jon's movt to make a working watch.

As things do, once i was in possession of a micromotor, I ogled it under a scope and was sated. Things like second child's came along and it was forgotten.

Then the old Hummer merry-go-round swings past again. I'd not taken much notice the first time around to the NOS and its problems, but as I had finally decided to finish this project I thought I'd give it at least a chance of resurrection.

On close inspection i found one of the coil wires to be broken and using my Heath Robinson super fine soldering tip, I re-attached it. No joy. I had a couple of further goes and nope, nowt. Must be something else. There was a ding on the coil and looking at Jon's, which was obviously repaired, I noticed a blob of solder on his coil. now this blob looked deliberate, applied to a wee hole, I'd risk it.

I applied me iron with a sniff of solder to my coil ding and the thing roared into life. Here's the solder.










and for a bit of perspective.



















When i was checking the coil joint i needed to see if the wire was fixed. they are a tad thin and tweezers would have broken it. So I used a beard bristle, worked a treat and here it is for comparison.










And heres the sweetie all sorted.










well I'm made up, dam tricky job but a great result. Hmm so now I have a Megasonic spare. I must time it for flippment !

cheers

Andy


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## bridgeman (Dec 9, 2008)

managed to get mine ready done-stunning it is-different sound altogether from f300 and accutron-wellrepaired


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## dombox40 (Oct 20, 2008)

Hi andy you,ve made a great job of that and its nice to see people still have the skill and patience

to repair these old classics well one. By the way if your flippin a spare Megatronic in working order

and the price is right might be interested as I have a few hummers but not one of those.


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## JonW (Mar 23, 2005)

Superb post Andy! totally agree with what you say about the waves of hummer love on the board, but wow youre the man when it comes to close work! superb....!!!

That bristle looks like a log compared to the skinny wire... must be scary using such tiny hand movements to solder under a scope. Brilliant work mate 

Love the checkerboard dial on your new pride and joy, great watch


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## Zessa (Apr 9, 2008)

foztex said:


> I myself was a victim in 2005 and am much the happier for it and it seems to have happened to many of us since.


Great post Andy!

I have to admit to being a "victim" of the weird and wonderful world of hummers (hummerated so to speak) and find that the sheer genius of the hummer movement and the "life" it gives to a simple watch, a source of continual amazement.

It never ceases to amaze me just how skilled a manufacturing process was around in the '70's to produce things so small that have proven so reliable. Some of the watches the come my way have never been serviced and yet still run. As Keith once said - the "quatro" of watch world!

I've kept all the broken coils that I have in the knowlege that one day I will probably have to fix them as parts become ever more scarce....

Cheers, Mike


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## Silver Hawk (Dec 2, 2003)

Well done Andy! So satisfying when it bursts into life. 

In one of my Megasonics, the coil has come away from its araldite-like mounting and is floating around in the top of the tuning fork; its probably been like that for years and is probably damaged beyond repair, but this post has re-invigorated me to take another look at it :thumbsup:.

Fancy fixing my bad Ultra-Quartz coil (below)?  although there are no visible signs of where the break might be. :sadwalk:



Zessa said:


> It never ceases to amaze me just how skilled a manufacturing process was around in the '70's to produce things so small that have proven so reliable.
> 
> I've kept all the broken coils that I have in the knowlege that one day I will probably have to fix them as parts become ever more scarce....


I wonder what the production failure rate was for coils? I bet it was quite high --- I'm sure I've got some early Hamilton factory pre-production literature stating this. I've been thinking about posting a topic on coils for some time, since nearly all my electric & electronic watches have some sort of coil in one form or another. I have medium sized tins full of open circuit Hamilton 500/505 and ESA 9162/4 coils; I have slightly smaller tins full of Accutron and LIP coils. The tin gets smaller for broken ESA 9150/9154/9157/9158 coils. And one tin remains empty --- I've never come across a single broken coil for this very common electric watch! Any guesses what this is and why?


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## watchnutz (Jan 18, 2008)

I'd say most likely Timex, Paul. The only guess I would have as to why would be heavier guage wire. Then again it could be because a battery change does not require tools near the coil.

Am I at least close?


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## Silver Hawk (Dec 2, 2003)

watchnutz said:


> I'd say most likely Timex, Paul. The only guess I would have as to why would be heavier guage wire. Then again it could be because a battery change does not require tools near the coil.
> 
> Am I at least close?


No, you're not...sorry Bill!


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## foztex (Nov 6, 2005)

Cheers Fellas,

must say the soldering was a bit nail-biting. My 'fine tip' is a length of stripped solid core copper wire about .8mm in diameter.










Under the 'scope it looked like a broomhandle.

Paul, I had it easy on this one as there was an obvious candidate for the possible damage, so I don't think I could do any more than you on the Ultra-Quartz. Did you think any more on the rewinding idea? Ive done a couple of international flights recently and have collected a few sets of the free in ear headphones for possible cannibalisation. I will try to find time to strip one and see if the coil wire is recyclable.

On your coil question, blimey if Bill cant get it! I haven't a clue about the mark :huh: although I could guess the reason for indestructibility, encased in resin perhaps or etched?

cheers

Andy


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## Silver Hawk (Dec 2, 2003)

foztex said:


> On your coil question, blimey if Bill cant get it! I haven't a clue about the mark :huh: although I could guess the reason for indestructibility, encased in resin perhaps or etched?


Love the soldering iron modification...that's a great idea.

And you're spot on about the resin :thumbsup: ...its my old friend the Landeron 4750 where the coil is encased in plastic...never had a busted one and I must own about 20 of these now and have serviced another 20-30 for other people. Bent contacts wires, broken pivots but never a broken coil  .

When I first posted a picture of this movement on this forum 3-4 years ago, someone commented that it looked a bit "plasticy"...


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## foztex (Nov 6, 2005)

Cool, that's actually rather a looker. nice one Paul

Andy


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## Deathboy (Sep 7, 2008)

Great post!

BTW, if you want to get rid of one of those Omegas, send me a PM with the price to see if I can meet it.

I just received my first Accutron and am entranced by the humming noise.


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## mel (Dec 6, 2006)

Interesting Paul, the Landeron movement signed " A Reymond" which turns out to be the parent of Unitas - my birth year mechanical watch I've just got my hands on. Auguste Reymond S.A. and also comes up as ARSA on some Swiss movements. 

I would have thought that by that time they were concentrating purely on movements, and not making any complete watches? :yes:

Love the Antex "mod" on the soldering iron. My eyesight is just too bad to tackle this sort of work nowadays :blink:


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## Silver Hawk (Dec 2, 2003)

mel said:


> Interesting Paul, the Landeron movement signed " A Reymond" which turns out to be the parent of Unitas - my birth year mechanical watch I've just got my hands on. Auguste Reymond S.A. and also comes up as ARSA on some Swiss movements.
> 
> I would have thought that by that time they were concentrating purely on movements, and not making any complete watches? :yes:


Sorry Andy...going to go off topic for a second.....

Mel, this "A Reymond Ltd" signed Landeron 4750 comes from my UNIC watch below. So is UNIC somehow related to Unitas? Not found anything on UNIC....


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## foztex (Nov 6, 2005)

Silver Hawk said:


> mel said:
> 
> 
> > Interesting Paul, the Landeron movement signed " A Reymond" which turns out to be the parent of Unitas - my birth year mechanical watch I've just got my hands on. Auguste Reymond S.A. and also comes up as ARSA on some Swiss movements.
> ...


 Haha no worries Paul,

I love the OT's, that's when it gets interesting. That UNIC is ace, lightning bolt hands are so 25th century 

Andy


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