I finally fixed my Lucerne

I cleaned my Lucerne a few months ago. I tried not to fiddle with the movement, but somehow, I still managed to put it out of order. It beat with low amplitude. Oiling the pivots with the movement still intact didn't work. Oiling the shock-setting jewel didn't help either. The only option left was a full teardown, which I was reluctant to do, so the watch sat in the drawer of doom for four months.

For four months I mourned and worried about servicing it. I didn't trust myself enough to work on my own things. My usual attitude to servicing is, "I have this junk watch sitting in a plastic bag that was headed to the landfill; let me try and fix it." If I succeed, I put it alongside my other watches in an evermore crowded plastic box. If not, I put it back in the drawer of doom and then continue to do other things. Up until then, I had never serviced one of my own watches. The pressure was on; no donor movement, no cheat codes and not very much info (compared to the 866 at least) on the BFG 582 movement. I had also never worked on a jump hour module before, which I almost swore to never do again during this service.

Taking apart the movement was fairly easy. Those who have disassembled jump hours or those "parking meter" watches know that those friction-fit discs are a little intimidating. You don't want to bend a metal one, and they always feel like they're about to bend right before they come loose. Worse than that is snapping a plastic disc. Thankfully, the friction-fit minutes disc was metal and the plastic hours wheel was just sandwiched between some plates. The jump hour module of these Lucerne watches seems to be universal, with a handy tutorial I watched showing it attached to a BFG 866 movement. It makes sense, because I swear there are about a hundred and fifty eighty nine holes in some of those parts. I have more experience than I should with the BFG 866 movement, (I'd go so far as to say I actually enjoy servicing them) so I might one day pick up a jump hour with that movement on the inside.

Servicing the 582 was my bread and butter. I'm going to start advertising my watchmaking services online soon, and I'll be able to say that I "specialise" in these old, disposable pin-pallet movements. It's like I've found a rhythm where a nasty BFG piece of work doesn't make me sweat or intimidate me as it did before. The kicker with this service was the spring inside the jump hour module.

The offending article.

I have never prayed so many times while servicing a watch before. I lost that spring easily over four times and bent it out of shape at least thrice. If I ever see a jump hour that needs a service, I'm not opening that module unless it's absolutely necessary. I'm pleased to report that the hours tick over correctly, so the spring is still doing its job.

When the balance went on, amplitude was excellent. I didn't touch the mainspring (I try not to touch too many things that don't need work on my own watches) and it hasn't given me any problems. It was probably serviced with the watch's last service and will likely hold out for quite long. Healthy amplitude, decent timekeeping and a 100% clean and serviced watch. I felt rather proud of myself. I had a smug face. Six hours of work and even more hours of stress condensed into something I actually wear and have worn before. I also promised myself that, if I got it running, I'd engrave something into the inside (or maybe even outside) of the caseback. I'm not going to sell it, so I might as well engrave dirty jokes or a long string of slurs.

It may not sound like much, but this Lucerne was a massive stepping stone for me. It's the reason I want to start selling my services, or at least make use of them more by buying old broken watches, because it was proof that I might actually be doing something. I'm no longer screwing in random screws or haphazardly throwing movements together. I am actually doing things. Needless to say, a sort of honeymoon phase is on the horizon with my Lucerne again. I much prefer it on the leather strap compared to the expansion bracelet I used to have on it.