Last week I finished up the hairspring for the AMS1. It was a lot of work trying to pin the stud at the right length to make the regulator line up in the right spot. But I finally got it and it should just be down to the timing screws on the balance now. So after that I tried to figure out why I wasn't getting enough amplitude in the vertical positions. I made sure everything was clean and mechanically sound but I still had too big of a loss. So after thinking for a while I realized that the new jewel I had ordered was 0.01mm too small and therefore there was not enough sideshake for the one pivot. This was creating the big loss of amplitude and after the pivot was burnished a bit more it now runs great. Actually it was overbanking!! So I had to open the banking pins a little bit to compensate. Now it works great, about 300° in the horizontal and 260-270° in vertical. Just right for this watch. It was nice to finally have it running in a more optimal state so that I could move on with other things.
Next I did a little bit of dynamic poising to get the delta of the vertical positions within a close range. I didn't take it all the way because there are a lot of other things to do before that is really necessary. But it is delta 4-6 already so that's a good start.
Here's just a picture to kind of explain the dynamic poising. The goal is to have the same results in all the vertical positions. So you test the watch in 8 positions and this gives you info on where the balance wheel is heavy. Then you cut (or move) the weight so that it evens out. Sometimes it takes a long time because you have to wait for 10 minutes for each test. But it's pretty simple I think. This is part of the process in making a chronometer certified watch. Of course there are many more things that need to be done for that, but this is a key step.
After that I decided to make the one wheel I had to make for the power reserve system. I had never made a wheel with this type of teeth before but it wasn't too difficult. The wheel is 7.15mm in diameter and has 69 teeth on it. I was limited to a certain number of teeth because of the pinion that the wheel has to mesh with. So anyways, here are some pictures of cutting the wheel...
Wheel blank
Since that wheel turns less than once, I made a cam which will make contact with a lever holding the power reserve hand. If you are not lost at this point well I am impressed. If you are, well I don't blame you.
Here is the cam I am talking about. I don't have a picture of the lever yet so maybe next week. The cam is connected to the wheel by two pins on the underside of the cam and two holes in the wheel.
Next I did a little bit of dynamic poising to get the delta of the vertical positions within a close range. I didn't take it all the way because there are a lot of other things to do before that is really necessary. But it is delta 4-6 already so that's a good start.
Here's just a picture to kind of explain the dynamic poising. The goal is to have the same results in all the vertical positions. So you test the watch in 8 positions and this gives you info on where the balance wheel is heavy. Then you cut (or move) the weight so that it evens out. Sometimes it takes a long time because you have to wait for 10 minutes for each test. But it's pretty simple I think. This is part of the process in making a chronometer certified watch. Of course there are many more things that need to be done for that, but this is a key step.
After that I decided to make the one wheel I had to make for the power reserve system. I had never made a wheel with this type of teeth before but it wasn't too difficult. The wheel is 7.15mm in diameter and has 69 teeth on it. I was limited to a certain number of teeth because of the pinion that the wheel has to mesh with. So anyways, here are some pictures of cutting the wheel...
Wheel blank
And here is where the wheel goes. It meshes with the satellite wheel pinion which has 9 teeth. The satellite wheel turns 7 times so the wheel I made will only turn about 92% of one turn.
Here is the cam I am talking about. I don't have a picture of the lever yet so maybe next week. The cam is connected to the wheel by two pins on the underside of the cam and two holes in the wheel.
Hopefully by next week I'll have the other parts that help make sense of it all. I'll have to make a sequence video of the parts or something to show where they all go and why.
On another note I was at Baselworld again this year. It was awesome to see the independent watchmakers section again. I liked the McGonigle watches the best along with Aaron Bescei from Hungary.
Also it was nice to see Nixon Watches at the show again. Will always be my favorite company and happy to support them. Looks like they have some nice stuff coming out for summer. A couple examples were a chrono watch with the indicators on one plane, and one with an iPhone like touch section which controls the modes (digital of course). Also it was cool seeing some of the Nixon WTA watches and The Regent which was even nicer than I thought it was going to be.
With that said, I don't think I would go back to Baselworld unless I had something to sell. It's nice to see the independents, but I think the rest is pretty similar year after year. But that's just my opinion....
Cya next week.
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