raketa fix
A month or two after I got my nifty 24-hr watch the already loose crown started to rattle. Or rather, the entire mechanism and face inside the case started to move about in response to the wobbly crown.
It didn’t seem to affect the working of the watch, as far as I could tell – it still kept remarkable good time (within about 30 seconds per day). Not bad for eBay, I thought!
But then today, it just stopped at 17:15. When I got home I could see that the face and mechanism had got wedged against the glass, and possibly the hands were blocked from travelling.
So. I thought I’d take the back off and have a look, as you do.
And as I took the back off, the answer presented itself: a tiny screw had come out. You can see the hole on the outside of the mechanism directly above the large cog. It seemed that this screw, and its twin 180° around the outside, were there to lock the mechanism and face to the back of the case. Somehow it had become loose, and over time worked its way out. I’m lucky it didn’t get stuck in the mechanism and cause real damage.
Anyway, with the help of a set of $1.99 screwdrivers from Dick Smith I was able to get the screw back in. And cool! No rattle. But look at that mechanism! The surprisingly quick movements, the sweet sound, the captivating complexity. And all completely understandable by observation and disassembly, were I foolhardy enough. There’s something nice about that, something that can’t be said of any of my other, more electronic obsessions.
I’ve actually already gone mildly potty on these all-mechanical Russian watches, particularly the Raketa ones. I found that you can subscribe via RSS to any keyword search you might fancy on eBay. And so now there’s another watch coming (I hope) that is quite different to this… but just as cool.
But don’t worry, I’ll be sure to let you all know when it’s arrived.
Ben
17 October 2006, 09:29 #
Your feeds aren’t particualary useful these days. Why have you replaced them with one-liners?
Alan
17 October 2006, 19:46 #
I didn’t like my words ending up on splogs.
On the other hand, I’m thinking about it again, as I’m getting annoyed with other blogs that do the same – harder to read in a convenient fashion…
sarah
19 October 2006, 10:04 #
I have the same watch you do, also from ebay. This is the first watch of this type I’ve ever owned, and to be honest I bought it merely because I thought the 24 hour feature looked cool.
So here’s why I’m making a comment. You seem to know a bit about these things, and since I’m clueless and can’t find the answer anywhere else (I’ve been looking for a few days), I’ll ask you.
When I wind the winder clockwise, the button springs back a millimeter or two. Is this normal? Also, I’ve noticed that even with moderate winding, the watch seems to stop six or so hours after I take it off. Am I just not winding enough? Help me with your expertise!
Alan
19 October 2006, 10:32 #
Sarah: I don’t know that much. There are a couple of good forums out there specialising in these watches: here and here. There’s some real experts there.
Having said that, I can confirm that I get the same behaviour you’ve noticed with the winder. I’ve had other mechanical watches that did this too, so I must assume it’s OK.
As for the winding – I give mine about 40 winds per day – usually it will run for 36 hours without needing another. You can sort of feel by the tension required to wind it when you should stop.
j s
26 December 2007, 08:31 #
I just got a new-old-stock late-80s Raketa with a 2609.NA movement (the Cyrillic ‘H’ is an ‘N’ in Latin script) and it actually has an area on the balance bridge where the screw hole chamfer was botched (it looks like it happened during assembly).