# Another Slava Bad Boy



## Silver Hawk (Dec 2, 2003)

Remember my topic about the Russian copy (Slava 114ChN) of the Hamilton 500 posted here? :huh:

Well, the 2nd Moscow Watch Factory also copied the Accutron 214; the copy is known as the "Slava Transistor" and although "common" is not the right word, it is much more common than the Slava 114ChN.

I don't own a Slava Transistor but an Italian collector has sent me three to work on and has given me permission to take and post photos. I had heard that the parts of the Slava Transistor were slightly larger that those of the Accutron 214 but that is not my finding --- virtually all the parts seem to be interchangeable between the two makes.

First a few shots of the watch:





































[more]


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## Silver Hawk (Dec 2, 2003)

Some shots of the movement (brown plastic) alongside the Accutron 214 (green plastic):














































[more]


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## Silver Hawk (Dec 2, 2003)

And the two Bad Boys together; Slava Transistor (Accutron 214) on the left and Slava 114ChN (Hamilton 500) on the right:


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## martinzx (Aug 29, 2010)

Excellent pics Paul, I will be saving them 

A very rare watches, it seems, still looking, maybe one day........................

Cheers Martin


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## mel (Dec 6, 2006)

Excellentay Paul - I don't suppose a bag of Jelly Babies would tempt one of those Slava's my way - I'd even make them all boys - so's you get a wee bit more then? :lol:

There must be more out there, but 'spose they will be in Olga's drawers somewhere! 

:weed: ldman:


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## Chascomm (Sep 9, 2005)

Silver Hawk said:


> I had heard that the parts of the Slava Transistor were slightly larger that those of the Accutron 214 but that is not my finding --- virtually all the parts seem to be interchangeable between the two makes.


Another myth busted!

How about this one? I've heard is that the relative hardness of the metals used on the really tiny parts differs between the Bulova and Slava movements. On one of them, the pawl tends to chew out the pawl-wheel, and on the other it is the other way around i.e. the Soviet engineers overcompensated on a perceived metalurgical shortcoming.


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## Silver Hawk (Dec 2, 2003)

Chascomm said:


> How about this one? I've heard is that the relative hardness of the metals used on the really tiny parts differs between the Bulova and Slava movements. On one of them, the pawl tends to chew out the pawl-wheel, and on the other it is the other way around i.e. the Soviet engineers overcompensated on a perceived metalurgical shortcoming.


How would I measure that? :huh:

During a routine service, you often need to adjust the tension of the indexing pawls on the index wheel to ensure correct *engagement *:










Too much pressure and you run the risk of rapid wear of the index wheel teeth. But I've never heard of damage to indexing pawls due to too much pressure. Difficult to see how that would happen with a hard jewel on the end of the pawl...although you do come across pawls with missing jewels but I've always assumed this is caused by clumsy repairers.

Another myth maybe.


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## jasonm (Nov 22, 2003)

Very interesting... The coils look slightly chunkier on the Ruskie?


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## feenix (May 27, 2008)

jasonm said:


> Very interesting... The coils look slightly chunkier on the Ruskie?


More to the point, the soldering looks a lot better on the Russian one. I'd have expected it to be the other way around.


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## Silver Hawk (Dec 2, 2003)

I did read somewhere that the Russians found it difficult to make the index wheels due to vibrations from the Moscow subway system.


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## Chascomm (Sep 9, 2005)

Silver Hawk said:


> Another myth maybe.


I reckon you're right. Until today I had not realised that the tip of the pawl is jewelled, but clearly that rules out any possibility of the story being true.


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## Chascomm (Sep 9, 2005)

Chascomm said:


> Silver Hawk said:
> 
> 
> > Another myth maybe.
> ...


My mistake  I misremembered this post from an old WUS discussion on the Slava Transistor:

"In the end, I only needed 4 parts:

-NOS Accutron 214 index wheel with reduced diameter pivots

-A missing screw (1 of 3) used to secure the train bridge

-New crystal

-Leather band...the original band was missing.

...and lots of cleaning, and rust removal. The cannon pinion is severly pitted from corrosion, but still functions. The 214 Accutron pinion could be used, however, the inner diameter would have to be drilled out to fit.

I am pleased it did not require many parts to make it functional, and that the dial is in such good shape. I will keep the 2 replaced parts for future reference.

I don't know for sure, but the damage found on the original index wheel could be indicative of a softer material being used.

I also noticed that the index fingers are much more resiliant than the 214 Accutron fingers. They are much more resistant to bending, so if they are out of adjustment, they have to be over-bent more to get them re-shaped. This made them more resistant to damage, but could have generated excessive forces on the index wheel if out of adjustment. Perhaps that was partly the cause of the excessive index wheel wear."

So what he was saying is that the stiffer pawl may have made it slightly more prone to damage the index wheel but only when out of adjustment.


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## Silver Hawk (Dec 2, 2003)

Chascomm said:


> Chascomm said:
> 
> 
> > Silver Hawk said:
> ...


Ah ha...all this could be true; I haven't checked to the same degree but as I still have the non working one, I will take a closer look later today and report back on the following:




Indexing fingers

Index wheel pivot diameter. How did he reduce the diameter of the 214 index wheel pivots? By hand, with a pivot file? This must have been really tricky; it's the smallest wheel and easily damaged at the best of times.

Cannon pinion internal diameter. Surely he used a broach rather than a drill?


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## Worzel (Jan 12, 2010)

Paul,

Just a snippet of info, if you don't already have it. On the Slava web site http://slava.su/oglavlenie.html there is a history book about the 2MWF, from which the following is a translation.










I'm using a Bablefish translation, there may well be better.

Cheers

Worzel


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## Silver Hawk (Dec 2, 2003)

Worzel said:


> Paul,
> 
> Just a snippet of info, if you don't already have it. On the Slava web site http://slava.su/oglavlenie.html there is a history book about the 2MWF, from which the following is a translation.
> 
> ...


Interesting...I assume that is a Slava Spaceview! Never seen one of those....


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## Silver Hawk (Dec 2, 2003)

Silver Hawk said:


> Chascomm said:
> 
> 
> > Chascomm said:
> ...


Chascomm, your guy was right...the pivot diameter of the Accutron 214 index wheel is bigger than the Slava version. 214 is 0.12mm while Slava is 0.09mm. So how did he reduce the diameter on these tiny and most delicate of wheels? Might have been easy to change the pivot jewels in the Slava plates...just a thought.


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## Pegwood (Jan 26, 2009)

Silver Hawk said:


> Interesting...I assume that is a Slava Spaceview! Never seen one of those....


Here is a Slava Transistor on display at the Slava museum in Moscow.


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