Repair advice for a Bulova Accuquartz

corpo3030

I have a 1974 Accuquartz that is now running fast I don't know anywhere local that can repair it. Does anybody here know of any Irish watch/jewelery repair centres that might be able to do this? Dublin actually if possible.

Mitch Buchannon

corpo3030 wrote: »

I have a 1974 Accuquartz that is now running fast I don't know anywhere local that can repair it. Does anybody here know of any Irish watch/jewelery repair centres that might be able to do this? Dublin actually if possible.

She isnt in Dublin but comes recommended from a member of this forum: See the thread below:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056023120

corpo3030

Thanks for the link I've just mailed them fingers crossed they can fix it. The last place I brought didn't have a clue, they kept trying to put a rechargeable battery in it even though I told them it wouldn't work that way.

corpo3030

I'll try them all it's worth it to me to get it working again.

marcus1971

What you have requires a specialist watchmaker, these watches are becoming collectable and with regular service should last a lifetime.

The watch you have uses a quartz crystal for the timekeeping and a tuning fork for the movement of the hands. There were lots of tuning fork watches sold by almost every prestige swiss watch manufacturer, but the "movements" were ALL made by Bulova.... who happen to make your accuquartz.
These watches were made to run on a power cell that is no longer in production, but a substitute Energizer 344.350 will work in it.
If the timekeeping is only off by a little there is an easy way to "regulate" the watch, one version is by meabs of a "trimmer" screw the other is by moving screws around various holes on the main circuit plate.
These are specialized watches, but easy to fix. Almost all parts that are likely to wear are interchangable with any tuning fork watch.... most common are the index wheel, jewelled pawls, date disc, tuning fork coils.
You could try putting in a battery yourself...bearing in mind it goes in upside down, if it humms it should work with service, if it doesnt it might cost a bit to fix.
The downside is that at present they are not worth more than 100 or so euro and if parts are needed would probably cost more than that to fix, if it has sentimental value its more than possible to get it back to as new order, if not its probably not worth fixing

corpo3030

I've sorted the battery, but the timing's ruined on it. I'm writing this at 1:55am, the watch says its 7:43am. Looks like its off to a repair shop as soon as possible. I contacted a member of a watch forum in the US who has a lot of these type of watches he has sent me the details of his watch restorer, so I'll just have to wait and see.

CarltonBrowne

I would give Paul at Electric Watches a shout. Quartz is not his speciality but because the Bulova Accutron is one of his favourite subject areas he may either be able to help or point you in the right direction.

Paul recently did some work on a Universal Geneve Unisonic for me and I couldn't fault either his comms or professionalism and I thought his charges were very reasonable too. Turnaround was fairly quick.

http://www.electric-watches.co.uk/

corpo3030

@carlton browne, thanks but no go with Paul. I'll keep looking. Shame, because when it was running normally, it kept great time, as good as my Precisionist.

marcus1971

If you are a member of watchuseek, or if not you can join for free, there is a heq (high end quartz) forum - you will find lots of good info there, they will be able to recommend someone able to fix your watch in the US/UK

- here is a link explaining how to regulate the timekeeping on an Accuquartz, although yours sounds like it might be a bit beyond simple regulating.

http://forums.watchuseek.com/f9/bulova-anniversary-accuquartz-too-383052-post2865904.html

corpo3030

Thanks I'm a member there already, good link as well, I'd not thought of the HEQ forum for help. Its running 6 hours fast now, I think it might be beyond repair.

mackeire

pm me your phone number. I'll get it fixed for you. My grandfather specialises in watches and clocks.

mackeire

pm me your phone number. I'll get it fixed for you. My grandfather specialises in watches and clocks.

corpo3030

Thanks I will. Are you sure he knows about Bulovas? I haven't found anyone so far in Ireland so far.

mackeire

i'd say he does. He's been working on watches for about 60 years and people from all over ireland and europe send him watches and clocks that nobody else can fix. He works from home now so you would have to drop the watch out to him.

corpo3030

Brought the watch to a shop in the city centre. It turns out its the movement is f'ed and it would be cheaper to buy a new one than repair. So this one's going into the drawer.

Wibbs

That''s a pain. Could you not replace the movement with a modern quartz movement as people have done with the early Hamilton electric watches and the like? Keep the original safe of course. Or find out the movement type and keep an eye on ebay. They do come up and quite cheaply too.

corpo3030

Maybe I should Wibbs, good idea. Pity I cant get a Precisionist movement in there. Failing that, an ETA quartz.

marcus1971

TBH there probably isnt a single high street watch shop out there that would bother trying to fix your watch, you need to nail down an enthusiast who enjoys fixing watches like yours.

I bought a NOS accuquartz about 6 months ago in NOS conditon and broke it down for the index wheel for an Omega Seamaster, I might still have whats left of it here somewhere if it would be of any use to you, but your problem was that it was running fast? That is unusual for watches like this as the quartz module regulates the timekeeping and the coils/fork etc. are just there to move the hands, the method of adjusting the frequency on the regular hummers just causes the battery to run down more quickly on an accuquartz if the frequency is wrong, it does not affect the timekeeping.
If it is running fast at least it runs, the coils should be ok. the problem would most likely be in the quartz module.
You could try mailing this guy,
http://stores.ebay.com/accutrons4u
afaik he does repairs on them

or you might have more luck here:
http://members.iinet.com.au/~fotoplot/accrep.htm

or here:
http://www.accutrons.com/

or this guy is popular on some of the other watch forums:
http://www.watchdoctor.biz/index.php


EDIT:

I just re-read your initial posts, is it possible that the watch just needs an oac service?, If the watch hasn't been cleaned for a long time the hand stack might be slightly gummed up and the minute hand might be dragging the hour hand along with it.

One of the reasons that the hummers fail is as you might know is the fact that the teeth get chipped away on the date disc, this is because the tuning fork setup produces much much more torque than either regular mechanical or quartz movements, this causes the watch to keep running long after a mechanical watch would have stopped from lack of oil this causes the date disc to be damaged..
If it just needs a regular oil and clean service i'm sure any Bulova tech would have a go for you, expect around E75-E100

Slutmonkey57b

I'd recommend Sam Elliott to anyone as well. Very reasonable, excellent work, and a real watch enthusiast to boot.

corpo3030

Thanks Marcus good to know. If you don't need the Accuquartz you have I could use it for parts. How much would you want for it? PM me when you have some free time.

corpo3030

Slutmonkey57b wrote: »

I'd recommend Sam Elliott to anyone as well. Very reasonable, excellent work, and a real watch enthusiast to boot.

Thanks for the recommendation, but I tried Sam Elliott already and he can't repair it, actually told me it can't be done at all. I may as well just put it in the bin is the gist of it. Don't know what to do now.

Wibbs

Or maybe follow marcus1971's advice and see where that takes you? It does come down to cost versus value. Not always monetary of course, often sentimental.