- 2 days ago
I restore a 1962 Hamilton Gemini with a 505 movement. This also includes the replacement of the roller plate/contact.
0:00 - start
0:20: - Let the Show Begin!
20:55 - replacing the roller/contact
The ultimate 'bible' of Hamilton Electric watches...
Rene Rondeau's "The Watch of The Future"
https://amzn.to/3TNkdcf
Need Rodico?
https://amzn.to/3DiFe7n
How about Finger cots?
https://amzn.to/3fq1l3M
This jeweling press is cheap - but works for most of what a hobbyist would need.
https://amzn.to/45sOPFu
0:00 - start
0:20: - Let the Show Begin!
20:55 - replacing the roller/contact
The ultimate 'bible' of Hamilton Electric watches...
Rene Rondeau's "The Watch of The Future"
https://amzn.to/3TNkdcf
Need Rodico?
https://amzn.to/3DiFe7n
How about Finger cots?
https://amzn.to/3fq1l3M
This jeweling press is cheap - but works for most of what a hobbyist would need.
https://amzn.to/45sOPFu
Category
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CreativityTranscript
00:19Okay, this is a 1962 Hamilton Electric Gemini.
00:25The movement is a 505, and the movement is an infamous movement.
00:33It is an electric movement.
00:34It was the precursor to the quartz movements.
00:39This is not a quartz watch.
00:40It is actually a mechanical watch that, instead of a mainspring, uses an electromagnet that sits on the balance itself.
00:56And by alternating with the real magnets that sit on the watch plate, by turning on and off, it actually
01:10creates the motion.
01:12It's a pretty insane movement and was ultimately unsuccessful, only lasting about a decade before the quartz watches really took
01:23over.
01:24It works.
01:25The big problem is that there's a part that wears out very rapidly because it's basically like flipping a switch
01:30on and off, on and off, on and off, many times a minute.
01:38You'll see that it's a pretty simple movement as movements go.
01:43There's a lot less pieces in it.
01:44Once this balance plate, the main plate comes off, the top plate, you're going to see that there's not many
01:50gears in there, which is kind of cool.
01:54This is removing the shunt, they call it.
01:57The purpose of this kind of shunt bridge here was to get the magnetic waves sort of all across that
02:06area so there wouldn't be any sort of dead spots in the waves.
02:10The watch works just fine without it, so I don't know how necessary a piece that is, actually, but there
02:16it is.
02:19One thing you're going to see throughout as I disassemble this watch is that a lot of the parts are
02:24magnetized.
02:25I don't know if they have any actual effect on the way the watch runs, but a lot of them
02:33are, like, you know, magnetized,
02:34and so sometimes they spring away in funny ways from the tweezers or the screwdriver.
02:46Now I'm taking off the balance complete here, which is also the power of the movement.
02:59It's a crazy piece there.
03:05Heading into the keyless works, they are also simplified because there's no winding of this watch.
03:18So there's no gear in there for winding, no intermediates, nothing like that.
03:37I disassembled, I did actually all the work on this watch when I was many cups of coffee into the
03:44day,
03:44so you'll probably see my hands shaking a bit.
03:48So that's a habit I really probably need to break.
03:52Not drink so much coffee or caffeine, and maybe have some apple juice or something to sort of settle down
04:00my trembling hands.
04:04Here you can see the train is rather standard.
04:09However, you'll see that the escapement wheel is completely different than what we generally look at, and here that is.
04:15And there's an example of the wheels springing away to one of the magnets that are pressed into the main
04:23plate.
04:29So I'm kind of just showing that a little bit to demonstrate that it's very magnetized.
04:36This little duck-looking piece serves two purposes.
04:42The watch is a hacking device, so when you pull the stem, when you pull the crown, the watch does
04:49stop,
04:50which is very important because it's a battery-run watch, so when you stop it, it actually saves the battery.
04:56But also, the way that little duck bill on the end there is created,
05:02when you push the stem back in, it actually shoves the balance in such a way that it gets the
05:12balance running.
05:13It's almost like the balance needs a little kickstart to get going.
05:15So consequently, these watches, when you push the stem in,
05:22the watch will look like it's running, which it may not be.
05:25So you have to actually sit there for a little bit to see if it continues to run.
05:31The amplitude of these watches is incredibly low because of the mechanism,
05:37making them problematic in certain ways in that the slightest amount of dirt will change them.
05:44And here, this is something I wanted to say.
05:46This movement was doused in oil.
05:53I've rarely seen a movement so covered in oil, so it's hard to see it in these videos,
05:57but every piece is shiny with oil.
06:00So somebody really went to town, which is the absolute incorrect thing to do with all watches,
06:06but especially these electric watches, because their amplitude is so low.
06:10You have to really be careful about how you oil the watch.
06:30I've seen a few broken arms on the setting bridge,
06:33so I'm being kind of as careful as I can here, pulling it up,
06:37because that right there, where I'm trying to get the tweezers in, that's a fragile piece.
06:42So, again, this is also, magnet is fighting me.
06:46It didn't come out very easily because magnet, and there you can see, it's magnetized.
06:56Always put a bit of pegwood down when you remove springs and clips, I've discovered.
07:01That's a good way to keep them from flying into another dimension.
07:10Again, continuing with magnetized pieces.
07:16I don't know that, as I said, that it matters on this watch,
07:21because the entire premise of this watch is magnetism,
07:25so I don't think it doesn't affect the balance in any way, in any negative way.
07:30That said, I did demagnetize all the parts that obviously didn't need to be magnetized.
07:39I did not touch, you don't want, you absolutely do not want to put the main plate on a demagnetizer,
07:45because there's magnets built into the plate,
07:47as well as the balance wheel, to a lesser degree.
07:57Here you can see the copious amounts of oil and grease.
08:07Very, very carefully removing the jewel here.
08:18Those little clips can break quite easily, so care, just being very careful is a good idea.
08:29Once again, you can see just the excessive amount of oil that was put on this watch by somebody.
08:54Here is the battery clip that was in there pretty good.
08:57It took a little bit to get it out.
08:59A very important thing with these battery clips is to not lose the insulators.
09:05You'll see that those screws are actually insulated from that clip itself,
09:11and then the clip is insulated from the main plate.
09:15You can't lose those insulating bits.
09:19If you do, the watch will not work.
09:21It will essentially short-circuit itself out.
09:25There's one of the insulators.
09:58There's one of the insulators.
09:58Very important not to lose that.
10:02Again, you can see just the amount of oil that was everywhere.
10:06It's a shocking amount.
10:07This is another unique two Hamilton watches bit,
10:12which is a jewel cap that is actually also a contact, an electrical contact.
10:19You'll see all that is actually, it looks rough.
10:23It was actually metal filings that had gotten stuck on the magnets there.
10:30You can see that magnetism is a continual bit with this watch because the principle of it is a open
10:39and closing magnetic circuit.
10:43For safety's sake, I'm not running the plastic bits through any kind of chemical washes.
10:51I don't know what damage I could do with them, so I'm just tapping, cleaning them with Rodico.
10:57Soap and water would work also, but the Rodico is fine.
11:05These aren't moving parts.
11:07The idea is really to get them as sort of clean as possible of debris and oil.
11:28Just putting all the little insulators into Rodico and letting the Rodico do its work.
12:02Soap and water would work.
12:04Just look at the scene out of the movie, The Blob, as the Rodico eats the cat jewel there.
12:17Then cleaning these with one dip in a standard way, rubbing away the dirt,
12:22and then more soaking in one dip.
12:31That is 90-10 oil.
12:34That is 90-10 oil.
12:54I decided to clean, I tried to clean as much of the stuff with the Rodico before putting it in
12:59kind of a wash.
13:00Just because of the amount of metal filings on this piece, so I just didn't want to do that.
13:06So now we're reassembling the watch.
13:09I'm reassembling it.
13:09Everything's been cleaned in standard cleaning fashion.
13:13Starting with the little hacking duck piece.
13:21I have to see what the proper name is for that.
13:26This is kind of considered a clutch, I guess, of sorts that will get it in and out.
13:34I'm looking at the parts list here, trying to sort of identify every part with the actual Hamilton name.
13:40I call that, in my own world, I call that duckbill-looking lever, which I don't think is the proper
13:48term.
13:51Moving ahead, assembling the watch is pretty basic with the fourth wheel and the center wheel.
14:09As you can see, the train is a very simple train.
14:11And since there's no barrel, there's nothing that has to get to the barrel to gear down or gear up
14:22the barrel movement.
14:29Lubrication is with typical 90-10 on those parts.
14:41Putting back the insulator.
14:47And, oops, yes, no.
14:49First I have to put another thing in there first.
14:51That ca- that dual, as I call it.
15:17Double, like as I call it, the wing that has made a crawling in.
15:18More work with may now.
15:18Over and arabically.
15:23festing board, please.
15:24There are a lot of flavours that come out of the queue.
15:26Let's do that.ćć.
15:28So,
15:32wait a minute. Look for
15:38Again, be very, very sure that your insulators are all in there.
15:43If you miss an insulator, the watch will not work.
15:49A small amount of 1300.
15:52And then the Canon Pinion, standard press.
16:03The key with these watches, as with all watches, is just don't over-lubricate.
16:20The keyless works as your standard kind of keyless works, minus a clutch to engage a winding
16:32mechanism of any sort, because again, this watch does not need that.
16:49This is kind of a cool, unique feature there, where the gear that engages the setting gears
16:56is actually on there.
17:04Again, pith wood, so that that spring won't go flying away.
17:08Anyway, those are hard lessons learned.
17:22And again, this piece right here, try to be as careful as possible because I've seen at
17:30least three of them with the broken arm in there, and that, well, that sucks.
18:04Everything's working fine.
18:05Everything's moving nicely.
18:07Put down the top plate there, and that'll be pretty much it for that side.
18:17Moving back to the other side, we're closing up the keyless works.
18:29And then locking down the stem.
18:34And yes, I did lubricate that properly.
18:37It's not seen on video here.
18:41So we're getting closer, everything looks like it's working.
18:45So now to the balance complete.
18:51This is the contact pin, which is the invention, the real invention and nemesis of the Hamilton
19:01Electric 505, so initially I'm cleaning up the balance.
19:10And again, 9010, simple lubrication there, not too much, hopefully.
19:20And the hope being that when I get this all assembled, because this thing had been doused,
19:27just covered in oil, that when I put a battery in it and get it started, that it'll run.
19:35And that would be a really great service, a nice bit.
19:41So we have the balance moving very nicely, which is great.
19:46It's not regulated properly, but a little bit of last minute 9010 in there.
19:54And everything's going well.
19:59So we're approaching a moment of truth here.
20:03Put the shunt in.
20:09Those screws screw into a magnetic plate below, not into the main plate itself.
20:17So sometimes you have to keep turning them until they catch the plate.
20:22So here we go.
20:24Battery in.
20:26Exciting moment.
20:28Okay.
20:29We have it pushed in.
20:30It's going.
20:32That's the catapult action.
20:33Is it working?
20:35Uh-oh.
20:35No, it's slowing down.
20:37And darn it.
20:40Okay.
20:41Nothing is getting it going.
20:42So as feared, we have the classic Hamilton electric problem.
20:54So here we go.
20:57That contact pin.
20:59Ah, and I'm going to zoom in on there.
21:02That contact pin is worn out.
21:06Right there is the classic issue with Hamilton 505s.
21:10That is the on-off area.
21:12And it burns out over time because it's literally sparking every time it makes a contact.
21:18Unfortunately, these parts aren't made anymore.
21:20So with every tick of the watch, the Hamilton 505 is nearing death that can't be easily replaced.
21:31At some point, these will no longer work unless someone makes an aftermarket part.
21:35So we are working with a finite supply of stock from the 1960s.
21:46So what I'm doing now is removing the contact pin, the old contact pin, which is a very touchy job.
21:55The removal, of course, is not as bad because, well, this is a disposable part right now.
22:06Originally, when these watches were made, the entire balance would be replaced.
22:10So it was a lot easier for watchmakers.
22:12They just had to change out the balance.
22:14But that's, of course, no longer.
22:16So now we go in for this specific part.
22:19And there are special tools and dedicated makers, I believe, have the tools.
22:25I don't.
22:26So I'm using the tools that I have as carefully as I can.
22:37You'll notice that that balance staff is a very unique balance staff with an upper collar,
22:45a lower collar, finger block, which prevents the watch from overbanking.
22:50A lot going on there.
22:53People use a roller removal tool this way, I have seen.
22:58However, I do not want to risk breaking that pivot.
23:02So I decided not to do it that way.
23:05So this is the way I'm doing it.
23:08We have to be very, very careful in attempting not to destroy that pivot, that contact.
23:16But remember, this contact is no good anymore.
23:18So if it does get totaled, it's not so bad.
23:21But you don't want to warp the balance wheel itself.
23:26So that's the old one.
23:29This is a new one.
23:31These things are like hen's teeth.
23:33So you want to be very careful when you reinstall these.
23:39It's a very thin wire that goes to a gold contact on the jewel there.
23:47It has to go in properly.
23:49It kind of pushes itself in the right way and it has to go to the proper depth.
23:55Okay, I actually, full disclosure, I already just did this without the camera running.
24:01But to repeat what I did, I used my jeweler, my press, and used a collar that was wide enough
24:15to go around both the pivot and the impulse jewel, the roller jewel there, like so.
24:22And then carefully pressed.
24:26Now, what I noticed was that it didn't press exactly parallel, but I was able to fix that with the
24:35tweezers.
24:35So hopefully that works.
24:39So that is how I re-pressed the pivot back onto the balance.
24:46Okay, so then this wire, and I think future work, I really, you really should be using a plastic tweezers,
24:56not metal.
24:56Because the shellac on that wire is an insulator and you have to be very, very, very careful not to
25:03rub the shellac off of there.
25:07This is a very delicate wire. It's thinner than a human hair.
25:13And you have to be very careful because it's a very fragile wire.
25:18And it also has that shellac on there that you do not want to rub.
25:23Here you'll see I am rubbing the shellac and you'll see how easily it comes off with the screwdriver.
25:27This is so that I can have a good contact with the screw when I put it back in.
25:33But that's how easy that comes off.
26:02Again, you'll see how fragile this wire is because now I'm
26:05trimming it short by just bending it back and forth a couple times and you'll see how easily it can
26:10break.
26:11So this is a very touchy, touchy bit with a part that is no longer made and quite honestly would
26:20be tricky to machine.
26:22I don't think it's impossible. I think eventually some people will have to, but for now it's not a part
26:28that exists except as old stock, new old stock.
26:36So then putting the balance back together, obviously trying to get the spring in the proper position.
26:47I did put it 180 out of sync, but you'll easily and quickly see that you did it wrong if
26:54you do that.
26:56And then putting this all back together, pretty typical work as compared to regular, you know, mechanical watches.
27:10After I put it all together, I did clean it so that there would be no chance of any kind
27:13of fingerprints.
27:14You'll see I had a bare hand finger there.
27:16So once back, we have it going and it's working the hacking, the hacking slash thrusting bit works there.
27:28And so then it's time to see what happens if I put a battery back in.
27:39And there we have it going at a nice, nice, healthy rate.
27:50Once again, it is alive.
27:56And that was without the shunt.
27:58As you can see, it works without that.
28:01Put that in.
28:05And we have a running movement.
28:08I don't show the regulation of it here or adjusting beat editor.
28:15Did some gentle cleaning of the dial, just a little bit of dirt removal and didn't go very crazy.
28:22Obviously, dial work can go badly very quickly.
28:26So you want to be very careful.
28:28I'm using a little bit of soap and distilled water and Radico and just doing some gentle work.
28:35The dial is not in horrible condition.
28:37It's pretty good.
28:52And then putting it back.
28:55At this moment, I forgot that this is actually a dial that the crown sits at about the four o
29:02'clock position, 430 position.
29:03Now I remembered.
29:05There you go.
29:06That's right.
29:07And then your typical stuff.
29:11Doing a little cleaning of the hands.
29:13They had some grime and stuff on them.
29:17And they shined up nicely.
29:19Again, just with soap and water or even saliva.
29:22Nothing stronger than that.
29:24And very gentle.
29:25Very gentle.
29:28And then setting the hands in your typical style of, you know, you can put your hour hand
29:34in and then you want to make sure that you put that to 12 and get your minute hand right
29:40above it.
29:44And there we go.
30:05Time to see it tick.
30:10Still running.
30:11That's a good thing.
30:13And there you see the classic ticking of a Hamilton Electric.
30:17It's a Katinka, Katinka, Katinka, Katinka.
30:22They're a ridiculous watch, quite honestly.
30:25But I love them to death.
30:27They represent a time when people were trying something differently.
30:31Something different.
30:32And it was that mix of mechanical and electric.
30:37And with a final band on, I think that this is a beautiful looking watch.
30:42One that I am proud to add to my Hamilton Electric collection.
30:49I also have a white gold Gemini, so now it's the complete collection of Geminis, the Gemini
30:56twins.
30:57And there it is.
31:00Hopefully you enjoyed this.
31:01Hopefully you enjoyed this.
31:01one.
31:04One.
31:05One.
31:10One.
31:11One.
31:11One.
31:12Amen.