Diamond brought me two watches, this fella and this Rolex. The Eterna was working, but, was losing more than a minute per day and it just needed a general cleaning and overhaul. We will also learn down at the bottom of the page, it needed more than a cleaning.
Gents Eterna-matic 3000 Seven day 18kt gold watch, Beautiful piece!! Pre-Owned Eterna Men's. From United Kingdom. Or Best Offer +$20.28 shipping. Vintage Eterna 'Eterna-Matic' Watch Wristwatch in Mint Original Condition. Pre-Owned Eterna. From United Kingdom. Eterna produced many innovations in their history: the smallest production wristwatch with a Baguette movement in 1930, an eight-day alarm watch in the 1930s and their first automatic watch in 1938. [citation needed] In 1948, Eterna advanced self-winding watch technology with the development of the Eterna-matic automatic movement.
Anyway, just a few close ups to start this post off 🙂
I admit, I’m somewhat of a fan of Eterna watches. Here’s a pic with the case back off and a view of the rotor still on the movement and another shot with the rotor taken off to give us a view of this very handsome timepeice.
I’ve taken off the automatic assembly and started stripping it down.
With the movement out of the case, it’s time to take the dial off so we don’t damage it in any way.
And, with that being done, it’s time to start taking apart the dial side of the watch. We start off with the day and date wheels indicators. In the first photo, you can see the day jumper and spring, pretty nifty eh! With that assembly off, we can now take out the day wheel indicator.
Next to come off is the date jumper bridge and date wheel indicator.
On the dial side, all that is left is the motion works and keyless works.
We turn the movement, put it in the time grapher for a comparative later on. We can see, that this watch is losing about 75 seconds per day.
Finally, time to start taking the movement apart. First, we remove the center wheel bridge, followed by the center wheel then rest of the gear train.
All that is left on the bridge side is the barrel bridge, barrel and the intermediate wheel.
Turn the movement over once again and remove what remains of the keyless works.
A quick pic of the barrel and mainspring
Unfortunately, I only took one picture of the barrel bridge disassembly. Too bad, because it’s rather detailed, hence why I only took one picture, I guess.
Next, it’s time to take apart the automatic works and reverser gears from the rotor.
With the case ultrasonically cleaned and crystal receiving a little polishing, and the whole movement gone through the watch cleaning machine, it’s time to get started.
First, I start off with by assembling and oiling all the parts on the barrel bridge,
followed by assembling the automatic bridge.
A quick picture with the barrel bridge and automatic works assembled as well as the mainspring back in it’s barrel.
First, I like to start off with assembling the keyless works. This is part of the watch that you use the crown for winding the mainspring and setting the date and time.
We now turn the movement over…again, and install the barrel, the intermediate wheel and the barrel bridge followed by the rest of the train wheels and their respective ponts (bridges).
Before reattaching the balance, I must oil the endstones of the balance. Sometimes this can referred as the shock system or incabloc. To do that, I must unhinge the stones on both the top and bottom of the movement, and carefully take the stones out, clean them in a very strong cleaner called one-dip. Then, I use a special oil called Moebelius 9010. Carefully oiling just the center of the stone, and preferably oiling about 2/3 of it, I then must put them back in the movement and again hinging it securely back in place.
Next, we turn the movement over,yet once again, and start assembling the rest of the keyless works, motion works and then the calendar and date wheels.
And there you go, the comparative. The amplitude is higher, which will also gain with letting it run. The beat error is perfect as well as the rate, we’re now not gaining nor losing time. And, while I write this post several days later, and with the watch on my automatic watch winder, it’s confirmed, it’s keeping absolutely perfect timing. But, wait, there’s more, much much more.
A couple pics of the finished movement.
With the watch finally finished, it’s time to put the dial back on, followed by the hands.
Then casing the movement.
Well now, that can’t be good. After the movement is in the case, the seconds hand completely stopped. Hmmmmm. Time to remove that movement. Obviously, the first thing I look for is the balance, and why it has stopped. The hairspring was cracked off, in other words it wasn’t attached to the balance anymore. At first, I wasn’t sure if it was me who did it when I put it back in the case or if it was already damaged. But, with further inspection, it was definitely wear & tear. We were very lucky on this, because it broke off right at the piton (this is the French word for the part). If it had broken off anywhere else, we would have had to find a new balance and hairspring assembly.
The first part of the job was to remove the broken piece of the hairspring that was still left in the piton. Then, to re-thread the hairspring back in it, then, finally securing it with a brass rod.
The first part of the job was to remove the broken piece of the hairspring that was still left in the piton. Then, to re-thread the hairspring back in it, then, finally securing it with a brass rod.
Here’s a few more pictures of the piton finally back on the hairspring
And, finally, it’s back in the movement. And, look at that nice amplitude.
I hope you enjoyed my newest watch service.
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Eterna |
Eterna S.A. is a Swiss watch manufacturer established in 1856 and currently part of the Citychamp group.
- 1History
History
Dr. Girard & Schild
On 7 November 1856 the physician Dr. Josef Girard and the school teacher Urs Schild founded the raw movement manufacturer Dr. Girard and Schild Ebauches in Grenchen. The company was formally organized eight years later, as production grew.
In 1866, Girard retired from the company, selling his shares to Urs Schild for CHF 35,000. Schild as sole owner introduced the production of complete mechanical watches under the new name, Präzisionsuhren-Fabrik Gebrüder Schild (Precision Watches Factory Schild Brothers). In the following decades, greater mechanization was slowly introduced, including water- and steam-powered machines.
Eterna
Since 1875 (or perhaps as late as 1889), the first watches signed with the Eterna name on the dial appeared. Beginning in 1878, the company also produced its own cases and dials, becoming a complete manufacture. Urs Schild became a National Councilor in 1882 but died in 1888. The company was taken over by his brother, Adolph Schild, his widow, and his sons Max and Theodor. The company was soon renamed Gebr. Schild & Co. even as the brand name Eterna became more prominent. Adolph Schild left in 1896 to found A. Schild SA (ASSA), a movement maker that would remain mostly independent of the Schild operations until the creation of the modern ETA in 1979.
Max Schild traveled to the United States around 1890 to see the mechanized American production model. He returned with machines to help automate the company's production, but these ideas proved unpopular. He left the company and his brother, Theodor Schildm became the head of the company in 1899, serving in that capacity for 33 years. The company was then known as Schild Fréres but officially changed its name to Eterna in 1905.
Eterna was an early proponent of wristwatches after the turn of the century, patenting 'safety' lugs in 1904 and introducing the world's first alarm watch prototype in 1908. That watch went into mass production in 1914. Eterna was gaining renown in those years, winning the Grand Prix at the Swiss National Exhibition in 1910. By the 1920's, the company had grown to produce over a million watch movements each year, introducing mens products like a cigar lighter watch and protected self-winding sports watch, the Hexa. The company continued strength in women's watches as well, with a tiny baguette movement rivaling Jaeger-LeCoultre's Cal. 101.
Eterna and ETA
The great depression of the 1930's hit the Swiss watch industry hard, and the Swiss government and banks moved to consolidate the vast number of small suppliers to reduce disastrous 'dumping' of product. With Eterna one of the strongest companies in the space, many component manufacturers were consolidated within the company's ETA AG movement arm. Watch operations remained separate as Eterna AG under Theodor's son, Rudolf Schild. Both parts of the company became part of the ASUAG holding company in 1932, with ETA falling under the Ebauches SA umbrella. Although A. Schild was a founding member of Ebauches SA, it remained separate from ETA/Eterna until 1979.
Development continued throughout the 1930's and 1940's, with Eterna introducing chronographs, sweep central seconds and the first automatic movement in 1938. The Eterna-Matic of 1948 was a watershed for the industry, with its ball bearing-supported central rotor setting the standard from then on. The five balls used to support the rotor became the company's logo in the following decades.
Eterna grew with the Swiss watch industry throughout the 1950's, introducing the famous Kon Tiki watch to celebrate Thor Heyerdahl's 1947 journey, which had included Eterna watches. Other important pieces from that decade include the very-thin Centenaire automatic watch and the Golden Heart, a women's watch with a large gold rotor that became a Hollywood favorite.
In 1962, Eterna introduced the ultra-thin Eterna-Matic 3000 Dato, the thinnest-yet automatic men's watch with a date mechanism. For women, the 4 mm thin Sahida was a favorite thin watch.
As electronic watches rose to prominence in the 1970's, Eterna introduced their own tuning fork watch, the Eterna Sonic, as well as a quartz watch in 1974. The 1979Estrellita Quartz was the smallest water-resistant watch ever made, wit a 1.06 gram movement. In the 1980's, Eterna's Museum line competed in the ultra-thin category, with a .98 mm watch the crowning achievement.
SMH and Porsche Design
In 1982Eterna was bought by the SMH trust. This emerging conglomerate, later to become Swatch Group, needed access to Eterna's holdings in ETA, the movement maker. Keeping ETA, SMH quickly spun the Eterna brand off to the PCW Group, part of Prof. Ferdinand Alexander Porsche's F. A. P. Beteiligungs GmbH ('Porsche Design') group. Eterna continued watch production in the 1990's, but the highlight was the Porsche Design line introduced in 1998.
One major innovation of this era was the 2004Porsche Design Indicatorchronograph. Introduced at Baselworld, the Indicator was the first chronograph to feature mechanical digital hour and minute counters.
Although stripped of ETA, Eterna set about once again designing in-house movements in the 2000's. In 2004, Eterna once again introduced their own movement, Cal. 6036. This was followed in 2005 by the automaticCal. 3030 and Cal. 6037 in 2007. Eterna returned to their roots with the introduction of the ball bearing-supported mainspring barrel, called 'Spherodrive' and introduced in 2009. Another major advance was Cal. 3510, a hand-wound eight-days movement with the Spherodrive barrel, introduced in 2010.
Citychamp
Eterna was purchased in 2012 by International Volant Ltd, a subsidiary of China Haidian (now Citychamp) that also includes Corum. That same year, Eterna introduced Cal. 3843 in the Advantic.
In 2013, Eterna announced Calibre 39, a modular in-house movement. The project or five years development, Cal. 39 can be equipped in various configurations, including as a column wheelchronograph. The company plans to make this movement available to other Swiss watchmakers looking for an alternative to ETA movements. They claim that over 70% of the movement is sourced from Grenchen.
Adolph Schild S.A.
Adolph Schild left the company in 1896 and founded the Adolph Schild S.A. (also called ASSA). Amid economic issues in 1926, ASSA was merged with FHF to become Ebauches SA. This was reunited with Eterna when it was merged into ASUAG in 1931, though movement manufacturing continued under the A. Schild name for decades. These familiar 'AS'-marked movements were used by many companies into the 1970's. But the quartz crisis ended production, with ASUAG's movement assets merging with ETA in 1979. This merger reunited all components of the Schild family watchmaking operations for the first time in almost 100 years.
The ball bearing of the weight segment
The company belongs to the pioneers of wristwatches with automatic winding and in 1948 introduced the central rotor with miniature ball bearing (at the automatic watch model „Eterna Matic“).
Because of the superior importance of this development Eterna has the principle of the ball bearing weight segment also shown symbolically in the logo of the brand.
Weblinks
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