Jet Jetski

I was talking only about withdrawing the stem! If the watch falls to pieces as you withdraw the stem you are doing something wrong!

Once I'm weatherproof I'm staying weatherproof! Let's see if Vostok can stick with the programme .... HAGD They better toughen up!

Well knowing whether to withdraw it from the winding position or the setting position always throws in a bit of guesswork! Quartz are a cinch by comparison.

Hell's teeth, is it spring? Everybody up before their breakfast this morning! 100m dress watch. In case it rains. The 0.2 sec graduations on the chapter ring do come in handy for gauging the backlash. That's class!

i do have a book but my monitor is on the wall behind my desk so it is too convenient!

well the heaviest case was 31659 - it has fewer holes - by a gram or so to put that in perspective a pair of spring bars weighs about a third of a gram however, interestingly it appears the 3133 stainless cases are a couple of grams lighter than the chrome ones I have heard that the case dimensions are not identical, because the length of the rods on the pushers is slightly different, although I have never measured any - so that could be a factor too

that was great work, thanks for sharing

Often the trickiest bit is the first and last - stem removal and insertion. When you pull out on the crown, a little nut is sent towards the centre of the dial in the opposite direction - engages with the setting gear for the hands. When you push the stem in, this little wheel goes in the opposite direction, back towards the crown, propelled by a lever, and engages with the winding mechanism. It appears this is no longer happening. The lever is not engaged properly with the stem, or the keyless works are messed up. Some watches, before pressing the stem release, or undoing the screw, you need to have the crown pulled out in the setting position first. And if you press the stem release button too hard- ie follow through the plate - the setting lever can end up on top or underneath the bits which are supposed to engage with it - they are no longer co-planar. Unfortunately you will not necessarily get it right next time - I have about a 50% success rate after doing it 7 or 8 times - but you will get better, and you can reset the keyless works fairly easy if it is a well known movement - with luck there is a how-to on the net. BUT tale pictures as you disassemble - the first 'how-to' I followed, the guy put one of the pieces back on upside down! Luckily I spotted that by checking against my pictures. The website was called amateur watch repairs I think - make sure you watch 'professional watch repairs'! Don't lose this spring: You can do it. So far I have done a Pobeda a couple of times and more 3133 chronographs than I want to admit. It may have a screw of course, not a button, as Scott points out.

rebuild by forum member:

And Poljot

little brother says hello

The glass is falling like a stone! First day of my hols ... Deep joy. HAGD

will try that! I'll tell you a funny story about that - I was an architect, now I'm a project manager for construction projects, and an autoclave that our client fitted wasn't working, the finger was pointed at our pipework (low flow rate of chilled water). I could see there was no condensation on the valves, so I guessed their water was not actually chilled, then I stuck my finger on the pipe under the insulation, grimaced, and said 'that's about 12 degrees'. Everybody laughed, but when they checked it, they found it was 13 degrees! I had to send my finger off for calibration ...

I think this is true, they are easy to tell apart once aged, but I have a really new (I think) stainless cased watch out of Italy, and a very new looking watch that I thought was SS but is possibly chromed - that came from Spain. There was a decent amount of Poljot retailing done in Italy, and I believe a lot of spares went that way too, so these are probably now being turned into watches and being sold as 'NOS' .... So my old Russian watches - no problem identifying them

I still have my 18th watch, only 35 yrs ago - Seiko do great sports watches as above, and dress watches: Had to wait till I was 30 to get my Tag ... But now, for a thousand - that is an awful lot for a quartz ... would have to be a Tag, Mechanically I would go Oris, and some places (Goldsmiths I think) have these under £1k: Prolly won't attract the wrong kind of attention!

Put this on overnight to check it's ok - just ordered a red croco strap since my daughter likes it, although no idea what she has against this jolly nice sensible strap. p.s. my sekonda Strela I just took off kept amazing time. Shame to service it but setting sounds a bit 'gritty' - prolly a replacement stem (crown is new).

thanks, all the 3133 chronos had a stainless steel back I believe - the miltary cases were stainless, and the civilian chromed, however it appears that later on, probably on the Volmax and Maktime eras, a) parts were mixed and matched to make 'special editions' like cars when they are closing out a model to make way for a new shap, and b) some traditionally cvilian offerings ended up in stainless cases, however, the rampant refurbishment and remanufacturing of these watches leads me to believe that this happens now the other way around, and I believe I have a civilian Poljot in a stainless case and a military sturmanskie in a chromed case. As I have only recently had a decent percentage in removing and re-inserting the stems on these watches, I don't want to think about swapping them until I am 100%! I have a 31659 (hacking version) in a stainless case - guaranteed - so i will use that as my benchmark. It should be heaviest of all as it ought to have an extra mechanism to stop the balance while you set it! I also have one watch that has signs of wear - ie definitely chromed - There is a massive difference between titanium and steel, so there may be a measurable difference between stainless and the famous Russian alloy. I will have to take all the straps off. Anyway, I am off work for 10 days so plenty of time!

drive safely lol

Hi, I was wondering how to tell the difference between polished steel and chrome cases, not always easy, and some chromed 3133 cases can have the chrome taken right off and polished up - it's a white copper alloy. see: https://forums.watchuseek.com/f10/restoring-early-model-poljot-cal-3133-chronograpah-case-694304.html In the absence of a sensible magnetic test for a watch case () , if there are no signs of wear, what do you think is the best way to tell? Generally chrome is harder than stainless and resists swirling, but I have some new looking cases in what I believe are both materials and not easy to differentiate. Anyway, I bought some scales (500g in 0.001g increments) and will do some weighing tests, but otherwise?

Buy watches that have already been butchered!

It's your watch, re-dialling and re-finishing is a regular Horological pastime. So is conservation and preservation. I do some of each. I had a car once and spent ages making it look 'better', the chap who bought it from me spent ages returning it to original condition.

Agree with that. The secret appears to be buying a couple of dozen and two or three will stand out! The others look pretty in a display box.

Little brother says hello.

HAGD

Armand Nicolet 'M2' AN9146 (2824) - 2, - Armand Nicolet I believe made a name for themselves as watch finishers, and I read that the entire Venus chronograph production passed through their hands at one time. I can't find that article now but AN refer to it here: https://armandnicolet.com/process Mine has a DD big-date (which is why I bought it thinking I would wear 'one watch' ha ha ha ) small seconds complication. Grey market (catalogue return?) from Ashfords, deal of the week, x% off your first order etc. Shame about the VAT. Came with the timing positions from the lab and 300 boxes like a Russian doll. There's always something though - I find the chapter ring busy - I mean, there is never a practical use for the 1/5 seconds markers anyway unless you have the eyesight of a peregrine falcon, but without a sweep seconds hand it is a bit supernumerary.