New Rolex Owner (passed down). Broke it, freaking out!

[scooba]

Originally Posted by R.W.T.

Now let's not jump to conclusions here. I'm not sure what is actually going on in this case.

The word being used "bent" is the coarser term for adjusted. That is how it IS adjusted. We don't say BENT in watch repair. :-) At any rate unless it broke (which it can at the pipe if they are adjusted too many times) he should be able to right it without too much problem.

The part is the sweep seconds tension spring. To add tension you adjust it by bending it downward at the pipe or raise it to lessen it. Proper tension insures a tight secure meshing between the pinion below it, that the seconds hand attaches to, and the independent sweep drive wheel that is attached to the third wheel. The pinion is not bushed or jeweled in anyway. It floats freely inside the center wheel and exits on the dial side. It can be a little sloppy and the tension spring insures that the 2 sets of teeth mesh well and have a consistent motion.

This movement is sometimes tricky. The sweep drive wheel (the big gold one with 5 spokes above the tip of that spring) runs VERY close to the caseback on these watches. VERY. The back is very shallow. The position of that pressed on sweep drive wheel is very critical. Too LOW and it drags the bridges...too HIGH and it may hit the caseback, especially if the the gasket is somewhat thin and the back is tightened more than necessary to insure a seal. Also because of the close tolerance there if the sweep drive wheel is bent or untrue in any way...and very often they are and it doesn't effect the time keeping to any great degree...it may touch one surface or the other. It may need a little truing.

Now with the watch being as pristine as it is one wouldn't think that the wheel would be out of true.

This is a very standard, extremely simple movement...but this area in these applications is one of its quirks.

The original second hand skipping is due to not enough pressure...this is a kind of hunt and peck exercise. You want the tension to be just enough to keep the hand steady but not so much that it creates a drag on the train reducing the amplitude. It's not, how can I say, it's not an exact or duplicable process that is universal on every watch of the same model. Each movement will behave slightly differently. Some can be VERY persnickety in this area. Sometimes I have found that if the little round end of the tension spring is angled slightly up to where there is a little sideways pushing of the pinion more Into the drive wheel the skipping is alleviated with less tension, rather than flat and directly coming down over the top of the pinion.

Just let him make the adjustments. Don't freak yet. Nothing here sounds life threatening to me.

Wow, Thanks for educating us !