Quartz watch movement replacement - tutorial

[Lee]

Simple movement replacement.

Many of you replace batteries but if the results of our price survey are anything to go by not so many replace movements when they fail.
Movements are really very easy to replace, so here’s my guide to replacing a very popular Miyota movement.



Movement calibration

Using your eye glass you will need to identify the movement in the watch, this is done by documenting the manufacturer & what is referred to as the calibration number in this case Miyota 6M02 it is always worth checking availability before removing the old movement.



First of all refer to this tutorial for details on removing the movement from the watch.









Hand Removal

Next we need to remove the hands from the watch, you will need to grip the edge of the dial in a small vice similar to the one show, I always make a “dial protector” which is simply a small piece of paper which I cut a hole in the centre of using a watch strap hole maker and then cut a slit to the centre hole.









Place this around the hands to avoid any damage to the face.
There are two ways which I use to remove the hands, the first are hand levers,



and the second is a wrist watch hand removal tool, the first method replies on levering the hands against the dial to remove them the second has a clever design which as you nip the sides together the centre pin pushes against the centre of the hands so you lever them against themselves.





Experience only teaches you which to use. Its worth noting here that hands are only a press fit.

Dial Removal

Once the hands are removed its time to take the dial of the watch of away from the movement. Again there are in general two ways the dial is held onto the movement the first is with tiny double sided sticky pads (similar to the disks used on trophy centres but a tiny version) these are rare mind you & the second is with tiny push fit pegs.



To remove the movement turn over the components in the vice and using the watch hand levers simply work the dial away from the movement.









Fitting new movement to dial

When it come to fitting the two back together hold the movement not the dial and push the two together with light force.







Hand refitting

Now for the fun part! Refitting the hands! When you get each movement it is fitted with a temporary stem & crown wheel. Us this to bring the watch to 12 midnight by turning it clock wise until the date wheel begins to change.



Make sure you grip the Movement when refitting the hands and not the dial then you are applying pressure to this and won't dislodge the dial.



Again use your dial protector but cut it down so you can see the 12.00 marking.



Refit the hands using a fine pair of tweezers and a set of these hand refitting tools (not sure of the correct name) these basically have different sized small holes in the ends to clear the small pins that each hand pushes onto.



Replace first the hour hand, then minute hand and finally the second hand, most second hands have a tail on them which id handy for refitting, always set the second hand to the 12o’clock position to get its ticking alignment correct.















Refit movements to watch, set time & pressure test.





Prices of movements can vary, so always get a price before quoting the customer!

Lee

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