1968 Dateline TM-2901

Did I mention I'm not a big fan of micro-rotor calendar movements?

I recently did a Dateline TM-5901 with a 629 movement and it was very challenging and established a new threshold for least favorite movement.  As fate would have it, I received another Thin-o-matic calendar watch and I was really, really, hoping it would have 624 movement but alas, it was another 629.  So it was another opportunity to validate if it's really my least favorite movement.

The watch in question is a Dateline TM-2901.  It was produced in 1968 and 1969.

The TM-2901 has some interesting styling.  The lugs look a lot like a Secometer C from 1948.  Like the Secometer C, the TM-2901 has a solid 14K gold case.  The hands and dial have very 1960's styling for sure.

Tucked inside the model is the 17 jewel 629 movement based on a Buren 1281 platform.

As received the watch was in above average shape for an almost 50 year old watch.  The crystal is a little scratched up but a polishing should clear that up nicely.

The back is engraved with a presentation from 1968.

The 629 has a slight haze so it's probably due for a cleaning and oiling.

The only issue I found while taking the movement apart is the reversing wheel that's under the large pink jewel is missing a few teeth.  Missing one tooth usually isn't a big deal but missing three teeth is a lot.  I recalled that I had a donor movement so I can replace this part.

Everything is cleaned and dried.  Time for reassembly.

Oops.  You might be able to tell that the Incabloc shock spring for the balance cock jewels broke an arm off.  That means the upper jewel setting and cap jewel are not properly supported, especially in the dial up position.  I tried my donor movement but it's shock spring arm broke off too!  Grrr!!

Why do I enjoy this hobby, again?

The watch is running dial down so I'll put it on the timer to see what it looks like.

Looks pretty much spot on so that's a good sign for when I get a replacement Incabloc spring for the upper jewels.

The watch runs about 4 minutes slow dial up but I reassembled it while I wait for the replacement parts needed to complete the balance.  It's a fine looking watch and, with the crystal nicely polished, this watch looks "factory fresh".

Update:

A friend of mine supplied me with a new Incabloc shock spring of the correct size for a Buren 1281.  The next challenge was to figure out how to install it.  In order to do so, I had to take the balance assembly fully apart and use my staking set to punch the shock setting out of the balance cock.

Just to give you and idea of how small these parts are, check out the shock jewel (my tweezer tips are pointing to it) compared to a dime.

It took a while, and just about all of the language I learned in the Navy, to get it back together and running nicely.  In the shot below everything is just as it should be.

After the watch ran for a while, I realized the minute and hour hands were not moving.  Will this blasted movement ever release me from it's evil clutches!

To fix that I needed to remove the train wheels again and tighten the hub on the center wheel.  This is a "goldilocks" setting and it needs to be just right... not too tight, and not too loose.  Too loose and the hands don't move.  Too tight and it's hard to set the time.  

It took me three tries to get the friction just right.  Unfortunately, while reassembling the final screw for the crown wheel, it flipped from my screwdriver and disappeared into the ether.  After about two hours of cleaning my workshop, it was not recovered.  It's a left handed thread and, like all the other parts of this watch, not something that I can scavenge from another Buren grade.

So, now I need to order a replacement but at least the really hard part of this overhaul is complete.

1961 Sherwood R

One of the most interesting lines of Hamilton watches was also it's most significant marketing failure.

Today it's not unusual to see all sort of interesting materials used in watches: precious metals, ceramics, titanium, you name it.  That wasn't always the case.

Hamilton was definitely an innovator in the 1950's.  When they introduced their asymmetric models like the Ventura and Pacer, they were major successes.  Around the same time, the concept of using a unique material for dials was also proposed.  Since different species of wood can be very striking, the idea of creating models with wooden dials was explored.

Turns out, creating wooden dials is harder than it sounds.  Watch dials are typically only about 17 thousands of an inch thick.  That's 0.017" in thickness.  Wood that thin isn't very strong so designers naturally landed on the idea of bonding a wood veneer to a thin brass dial blank.  But then the wood veneer would have to be even thinner.

Many species of wood were considered and eventually Hamilton designers selected a wood called benin.  The process of making the dials was challenging so they only pursued dial patterns that were round or square.

Despite high hopes, jewelers and consumers alike failed to appreciate the uniqueness of the wooden dialed models and the line only lasted two years.

Rene Rondeau wrote a comprehensive article on the subject for a June 1991 NAWCC Bulletin.

Five men's watches went intro production along with three ladies models.  One of the men's models was the Sherwood R.  The Sherwood R was available in yellow or white gold.

If the Sherwood R looks familiar, it's probably because it was based on another model available the same time (and price point), the Sir Echo.

Because the Sherwood line was a marketing failure, they are very scarce models today.  In fact, you will very rarely see one come up for sale.

A fellow collector of mine recently came across the dial and movement for a Sherwood R and snapped it up immediately.  The seller was a pawn shop and said they hadn't sent the case out to be scrapped yet and offered it for sale as well.  So a $2500 watch was saved from being scrapped for $250.

The watch needed a little TLC so I volunteered to take it on.  There is almost no likelihood that I would ever come across another.

As received, it looks to be in decent shape.  The dial is toned a little around the perimeter.  These dials look very fragile to me so I won't do anything to this dial other than handle it with extreme care.

There's a presentation on the back that is very fitting for a watch like this.  It's to celebrate 45 years of service to the "Wood Mosaic Corporation".   You might be tempted to wonder if that's who provided the wood for the dial but it's not.  Hamilton partnered with a company called US Plywood.

The case is essentially identical to the Sir Echo.

I can see the center of the dial is lifting up a little.  Perhaps the veneer has separated from the blank.  This watch should definitely be kept away from water, just like all vintage watches, but I wonder if the wood should be humidified like a fine guitar would be?

Printing on wooded dials was a challenge that Hamilton had to overcome.  The uneven texture of the wood grain made it difficult to print their logo clearly.

Although the watch runs, it's very apparent that this movement has not been cleaned in a long time.

I have done a lot of automatics lately so taking apart a manual winding movement is a welcome break.  The 770 is a very well designed movement and it's normally a breeze to reassemble.  Everything has been cleaned and dried.  Now I can put it back together.

Everything looks good after the watch is reassembled.  It's ticking away with good motion.  I noticed the regulator is at full slow.  I wonder what the timer will say?

Sure enough, it's running a bit slow.  Sometimes when I see the regulator set to full slow I worry that there's a problem with the hair spring.  That's not the situation here though.

A quick adjustment to the regulator speeds the watch up and all of the other specs look good.

I can't say the outside of the watch looks any better than when I received it.  In fact, I was asked to do nothing to the watch other than overhaul the movement.  The design of the lugs of the case are very slender, so I was happy to comply and avoid the potential embarrassment of breaking one of them off while removing the strap.

I think the Sherwood R is a very interesting looking watch.  I wonder though, if I went back in time to 1961, given all of the other models in Hamilton's lineup, would I be tempted to get the Sherwood R or the Sir Echo?  Such a fine watch would probably have been for special occasions.  A wooden dial almost presents like a less formal, casual watch... the sort of thing that goes well with blue jeans and flannel shirts.  Maybe that's why they weren't popular with consumers?

From a collector standpoint, there are very few of these watches available.  In fact, have you ever seen another?  This watch will be for sale so if you're in the market, contact me through Etsy or by email and I'll put you in contact with the owner.

1971 Dateline TM-5902

It's official... I have a new least favorite movement.  The Hamilton 629.  I've never worked on a 629 until now.  So I took extra photos to show you how it comes apart.

The 629 is a 17 jewel micro-rotor movement with a date complication.  It was used in Thin-o-matic models as part of the Dateline series.  One of the models is the 1971 Dateline TM-5902.  It was made for two years.

The TM-5902 came in a stainless steel case.  It clearly has 1970's styling with funky round hour markers and fat ol' hands.  It came with an integrated bracelet with lugs that were hidden by the bracelet and the snap-on bezel.

My project watch came courtesy of a fellow collector who found it at a jewelry story as left over inventory.  So it looks like it's brand new.

The bezel pops off with a case knife to reveal what looks like an ordinary round watch.  Now I can grab the crystal and open the watch.

"The claw" makes short work of opening the watch.  The next trick is to get the movement to separate from the two-piece stem.

The 629 movement looks to be in excellent condition - which you would expect from a showroom "case queen" that has never been used.

The dial foot screws are set at an angle on the sides.  Two screws hold the dial on.  Look how tall the hour markers are.

The dial-side of the main plate has instructions for assembling the front.  I'm not sure what step 1 is supposed to be though.  Step two is to add the hour wheel and step three is to slide the keeper down to hold the hour wheel in place.  Two screws hold the cover in place.  Once they are removed I can gently pry the cover up and out of the way.

This is interesting... I removed the canon pinion from the center.  It's actually not driven by the center wheel.  It's driven by the minute wheel to the right of center and the center wheel is under the set bridge.  This style movement has a friction set wheel on the center wheel post. So it is driven by the center wheel when the watch runs but it can be overcome when setting the time without jarring the gear train.

The back of the cover has a spring to hold the indexing arm against the date wheel.

Now I'll start to remove the wheels that drive the calendar complication.  The largest wheel and smallest wheels are lifted off but the golden wheel in the middle has a screw holding it down.

Now to remove the wheels under the set bridge on the right.

The white colored gear is the center wheel and it actually comes out the back.  The other gears can be lifted out now.

With all the parts removed from the front, I can turn my attention to the back of the movement.

First I'll take the balance off.  

Then I'll pull the pallet fork.  That will allow the gear train to unwind fully.  Two screws hold the oscillating weight in place.  I'll remove that to keep it from flopping around.

Next, I'll remove the large ratchet wheel and get ready to pull the barrel bridge.

With the barrel bridge and train bridge removed you can see the power train.  The second wheel drives the third wheel as well as a seconds pinion under it's own bridge in the center.

The gear train for the automatic winding complication can be removed now.  There's one arbor-less gear under the rose-colored jewel.  I'll slide that out once the other wheels are removed.

Everything is cleaned and dried.  So far I haven't lost any parts either - which is good, since I don't have a spare movement to steal from.

For reassembly, the first things I'll install are the setting parts.  That way I can use the set bridge to secure the center wheel when I install it from the other side.

Now I'll install the train wheels and the seconds pinion.

When I went to install the barrel bridge, I noticed the click spring was missing.  I eventually found it on my workbench.

Finally, the movement is ready to wind and reinstall the balance.

First the balance jewels have to be reinstalled under their Kif-style shock springs.

The watch is running without it's other balance jewel.  That's a good sign.  I'll install the jewel and put the movement on the timer.

Interesting... this movement has a 19800 beats per hour beat rate.  That's 5.5 beats per second, a little faster than the typical pre-1969 movement.

With a little tweaking I get the beat error to come in line.

And a little more tweaking gets the beat rate to level off too.  Not too shabby.

I'll install the original bracelet that my friend included with his watch.

Voila! You'd be hard-pressed to find a nicer looking TM-5902, I bet.  After a few minutes I realized the minute hand wasn't moving.  The second hand was fine but the other hands didn't move.  That meant the collar on the center wheel needed to be tightened.  So I had to take it apart again and use my staking set to tighten the friction-fit collar on the center wheel.  That's not fun - especially if you don't have a spare.  However, I was successful eventually and now the watch runs as nice as it looks.

I don't care much for the 629.  It took me the better part of three hours to complete this project.  There are a lot of obscure parts to the movement so having a donor movement on hand would be helpful.  There are several springs to be careful of and the date complication is a little wonky.

The large golden wheel that drives the date complication makes a complete revolution every four hours.  Each time it spins it gets a little closer to moving the date wheel. At 8:00PM it almost changes the date and the date wheel flutters but doesn't change.  When it reaches 12:00 AM it changes the date and then the wheel goes back to it's 4 hour cycle.