Vintage 1963 Hamilton Dateline A-576 Watch Restoration

hi folks josh wolfe with wolf vintage watches here welcome to my shop in this video i'll be servicing this 1963 hamilton dateline a576 let's get into it [Applause] [Music] the first step in disassembly is removing the case back and pro tip it's much easier to take the case back off if your camera is out of focus so i do a quick visual inspection see if there's any major faults with the watch and then i remove the crown and stem and in this case i remove the uh the entire automatic works to to reveal the the entire movement the movement is a hamilton caliber 64-a which is based on the eta 2452 it's an automatic movement with 21 jewels a date of the three o'clock and a power reserve of about 47 hours and i can remove the movement from the case just by turning it upside down and giving it a little tap and then i remove the hands with these these hand levers and i use a little piece of plastic over the dial to protect the dial make sure i don't scratch up the dial the dial feeder is secured with these dial feet screws that are located on the side of the movement and i like to just loosen those screws a little bit and once they're loosened you can pop the dial right off beginning with the dial side i remove the hour wheel at this point i noticed a small amount of dirt or dried lubricant on the tip of the candy opinion and this will be something i will need to make sure that's completely removed during the cleaning process next i remove the minute work that is secured with two screws these are the two small screws usually on the movement and often giving me the most fits next out comes the minute wheel and again i noticed a little bit of dried lubricant on the minute wheel post that will need to be completely cleaned before reassembly and now i'm removing the setting wheel followed by the date indicator guard which is secured by a single screw the date jumper spring and the date jumper are carefully removed and the intermediate date wheel assembly is removed which can be a little tricky and the date indicator wheel can now be removed this caliber uses a canyon pinion with a driving wheel the canyon opinion is pressure fit into three small arms of the driving wheel and the entire assembly is removed to remove the calendar driving wheel assembly i first unload the spring to prevent parts from pinging across the room never to be found again it could have been so much worse fortunately it just landed right there on my on my bench and next out comes the setting lever spring removing the yoke can be a little tricky i use a piece of peg wood to secure the yoke spring while i remove the yoke and out comes the winding pinion followed by the clutch wheel in this movement the setting lever is secured by a screw on the watchmaker side i turn the movement over loosen the screw and the setting lever just falls out now that the dial side disassembly is complete and the main spring has been let down i can move on to the dial side beginning with the ratchet wheel next up is the crown wheel which is secured by a reverse threaded screw so in this case it's righty loosey and now i can remove the click and the click spring again being careful not to ping the click spring clear across the room loosening the bridge screws i can take off the barrel bridge this caliber uses an articulating arm that the crown wheel attaches to this allows the crown wheel to engage or disengage with the ratchet wheel depending on if the watch is being manually or automatically wound disassembling this articulating arm is not too big of a deal but you'll see reassembling can be a little tricky and using a bit of radical i remove the setting lever screw and now i can remove the wheel bridge being careful not to break any of the pivots these pivots are very very small and easily easily broken if you're not careful first come out is the sweep second wheel followed by the third wheel then the barrel then the intermediate wheel and finally the escape wheel to remove the top balance jewel and in stone i carefully turn the brass shock absorber to lift up one side the jewel setting and the end stone come out together and will be cleaned separately to make sure the shock absorber is not damaged i secure it back into place before cleaning i then remove the balance and the balance together making sure i don't disturb the very delicate hairspring i like to clean this assembly separately in a solvent called one dip the pelicock is removed by gently prying it off the two posts with a screwdriver again making very sure the pellet fork pivots are not damaged in this process the pellet fork is removed and given a quick visual inspection to remove the hairspring i use a small steel plate and push against the arbor until the cap pops off then using tweezers i can work the arbor free from the end of the mainspring it's always best to make sure the arbor pings out to make sure your watch repair experience is a little more exciting holding the mainstream in the barrel securely with my thumbs i can walk it free of the barrel in this case the white alloy mainspring is still in very good shape and i will be reusing it now i can disassemble the automatic works first to come off is the weighted rotor which is held in place by this single screw right in the middle the reduction gear is held in place by a rotating brace which is pulled out of the way for disassembly as with a few of the other parts the reduction gear post is fouled with dirt and or dried lubricant this was negatively affecting the performance of the watch and could over the long run cause significant damage with the reduction wheel out of the way i can remove the driving gear for the ratchet wheel on the other side of the automatic framework are the pawl winding wheels these wheels are secured with a captured screw with half a head the screw is turned out of the way to remove one of the wheels then turn further to remove the other the second pole wheel post also has dried debris that is making it difficult to remove i can remove the pressure fit acrylic crystal by pushing with my thumbs to pop it out this model has a chapter ring that is also held in by the crystal that comes out as well and now for reassembly of the watch which is largely just the reverse of the disassembly process now the parts are out of the cleaning machine i begin by lubricating the inside of the barrel with a little bit of breaking grease this not only prevents damage to the barrel of the mainspring but it also provides a little bit of grip for the for the main spring against the edges of the barrel the mainstream has to hold against the side of the barrel somewhat but if it's starts to be overwound the the mainspring will actually slip inside the barrel preventing any damage to the watch but still enough friction to get the full power reserve of the watch i have these vintage mainspring winders which are relatively simple the the handle hooks into the hole at the end of the mainspring and then you insert it into the handle and wind up the the main spring once you unscrew the cap you have a fully wound mainspring inside of the handle which fits right inside of the barrel and then you push the into the handle and it pops the mainspring into the barrel and here i'm lubricating the barrel arbor with a little bit of oil before i reinsert it into the barrel and you know this doesn't show up on camera very well but you line up a little tab on the side of the barrel with the hole on the end of the main spring as well as line it up with the hole in the bottom of the barrel and it kind of snaps right into place and i'm going to lubricate the top of the barrel arbor before i reinstall the barrel cap here i'm just using my tweezers to press down on the barrel cap make sure it's seated fully now i can begin installing the train of wheels beginning with the escape wheel before installing the center sweep second hand i lubricate the post then i make sure everything's lined up and all the pivots are in the pivot holes and i can reinstall the train bridge this is often the most tricky part of reassembling the watch you have to make sure that the four pivots are lined up with the pivot holes as well as two posts that are on the main plate need to line up with the train bridge with a little bit of fiddling here and there the train bridge will fall into place once everything is lined up the escape wheel is usually the last one to fall into place once everything's lined up i can secure the train bridge with the two screws here i'm lubricating the bottom hole for the barrel and i can install the barrel okay here i am reinstalling the articulating arm on the underside of the barrel bridge and what i do is i put it in place and then i hold it there with a bit of rotico and i flip it around to expose the top and i pre-lubricate the post and install the crown wheel and again this is a reverse threaded screw so in this case it's lefty tidy and i'm just checking the the movement of the of the crown wheel here everything looks good and i can reinstall the barrel bridge onto the movement and secure it with the three screws i should mention that all of the the posts and and parts of the watch that i noticed when i was disassembling it that had dried lubricant and debris on it that were preventing free motion of of the parts when it came out of the cleaning machine i made sure that everything was clean and shiny now i can install the click spring and the click and here you can see how the crown wheel moves depending on if it's being mounted around or automatically wound here i'm lubricating the top hole for the barrel arbor and installing the ratchet wheel here i'll use a piece of peg wood to hold the ratchet wheel in place while i further tighten down the barrel screw now i can install the pellet fork making sure that the arm is in between the banking pins and on goes the pelicok this can be tricky sometimes too you have to line up the two posts with the palette pivot make sure everything lines up really well and again those pivots are super super small and very delicate very fragile so a lot of testing a lot of moving around to make sure everything is lined up correctly and the pallet is secured with a single screw at this point i'm going to lubricate the pellet pivot a little bit because eventually they'll be blocked by the balance when i install the balance here i'm lubricating the pale stones with a specific oil that's used on pallet stones and now i can install the balance i want to make sure that the roller table is on the correct side of the pellet fork i kind of roll it in place and line the balance up with the top of the balance pivot and the balance is starting to swing a little bit which is a good sign i haven't wound this watch up very much so you're not going to see a whole lot of movement but that little bit of movement that we saw is enough to tell me that that we have already lined up and the balance is secured with a single screw and you give it a little shake and you can see a little bit of movement and now i'll reinstall the jewel and the cap jewel on the top and so i have to open the shock absorber up again this is a very delicate procedure that little brass shock that little brass shock is is very very delicate and can bend very easily so i'm very careful with that here i'm lubricating the in stone for the top balance jewel a little bit of lubricant just goes on the end stone and the jewel setting is put on top of the end stone and with capillary action it sucks the two pieces together into into one piece once that assembly is complete then that gets dropped in right on top of the balance and i can close up and re-secure the shock now i can lubricate the pivots on the watchmaker side um there's specific oils with little bit different viscosities depending on which pivot which wheel you're lubricating here and now i flip the movement over and we're on the dial side now and i'm going to go ahead and lubricate the pivots on this side as well now i can lubricate the winding pinion and the clutch wheel this is a little bit heavier of a grease these parts are generally under high pressure and so need a little bit thicker of a grease to lubricate now i can install the setting lever i get it in place on this side and the screw to secure it is located on the watchmaker side and now i can install the winding pinion and the clutch wheel i temporarily reinstall the crown and stem to keep the winding pinion and the clutch wheel in place as we continue on with the reassembly here i'm just tightening up the setting lever to make sure everything's in place now i'm going to lubricate the posts for the yoke and the groove to where the yoke is going to sit on the clutch wheel and in goes the yoke and i'm going to lubricate the friction point between the yoke and the setting lever and in goes the yoke spring and again i'm going to use a piece of peg wood to hold the spring in place while i reinstall it you know as you're loading up the spring obviously there's a danger of it flying across the room and it's no fun to be crawling around on your hands and knees with a flashlight looking for a spring that's for sure now i'm gonna put a little bit of lubricant in between the yoke and the yoke spring where those two pieces interact and at this point i can reinstall the setting lever spring lining it up with the post the screw hole and the indentations that line up with the post that's on the setting lever and i lubricate the grooves on the setting lever spring that interact with the post on the setting lever and a quick test to make sure everything's working well now i can lubricate with a with a lighter oil the center post and the minute wheel post as well as the setting wheel post this is a good look at the candy opinion in the driving wheel and i'm going to lubricate where the arms of the driving wheel interact with the canyon pinion and on goes the setting wheel and the minute wheel and now we can start working on the calendar driving wheel by first installing the spring and lubricating the post that the calendar driving wheel will rotate around and this can be a little fiddly you have to line it up with the post and then get the rest of the assembly kind of around another little post that the arms sort of fit around as well as a groove underneath the movement so it you know it takes a little bit of fiddling with a little bit of manipulation to get it set but once it's set in there and i can make sure that the spring is loaded on the arm and give it a little test and you can you can see how it works there and now on comes the date indicator wheel and if you look uh it has to fit down underneath the calendar driving wheel those teeth do that's what the calendar driving wheel interacts with uh is those teeth and those need to make sure that you need to make sure that those those teeth kind of fit underneath that wheel a little bit so it interacts correctly so again a little bit of wiggling a little bit of moving around a little bit of testing and now the date indicator is seated and now we can install the minute work and this protects all of the the minute works as well as the edge of it holds the teeth of the day indicator wheel into place and kind of holds everything everything secure keeps everything protected and holds everything in place where it should be and now i can install the datejumper and the datejumper spring and again you'll see peg wood here that holds the spring steady in case i let go of it with the tweezers to make sure everything stays in place while i get everything set now i lubricate the post for the intermediate date wheel now i install the intermediate date wheel making sure it lines up with the calendar driving wheel now i can install the date indicator guard and again this guard not only protects the the date jumper the day jumper spring but also holds down the the indicator wheel on that side and i can install the hour wheel and now i can install the dial and to secure the dial i just re-tighten down the dial screws the dial feet screws just put a little pressure on the dial feet which secures the dial to the movement so i i didn't do a good job of showing this but i advanced the time on the watch until the date just clicked over to know where midnight was on the movement and now that i know that the watch is at midnight i can install the hands i begin with the hour hand to get it lined up right with midnight and i use a hand press tool and i just press the hour hand onto the arrow wheel it's just pressure fit and then i make sure i re-line it back up exactly with midnight and i can install the minute hand in the same fashion to get it lined up as closely as possible at midnight as i can and use the hand press tool and press the minute hand on you know at this point i need to make sure that there's clearance between uh not only the hour hand but also the minute hand that go over the hour markers and once there's good clearance there then i can install the sweep second hand on the center post and i'll do the same check here i'll make sure that i got clearance between all three hands and as well as the minute hand and the hour markers and the frame around the date window once i have the hands installed i do another little test to make sure that the date is going to roll over at midnight i can use a little bit erotico to clean up any little bits of debris that may be on the hands now i can begin reassembling the automatic works beginning with the driving wheel for the ratchet wheel i'm going to lubricate these posts with a little bit of grease and reinstall the reduction gear and turning the plate over i can reinstall the pawl wheels now i can install the rotor and i lubricate the post and put the plate on top of the rotor and lubricate the and lubricate the copper washer and reinstall the screw that holds the whole assembly together it's important to make sure that you test this a little bit and spin the rotor around the the plate to make sure that the gears are all lined up and not tighten down the screw until until you're sure that all the gears are lined up otherwise you run the risk of breaking some of the teeth off at this point the movement and the automatic works reassembly is complete now we can turn our attention to the case the first thing i do is reinstall the chapter ring which has a little groove that sits right over the stem tube the crystal on this watch was cracked when i got it so i i couldn't polish it and restore it so i purchased a brand new crystal this is a ever tight i insert the new crystal part way with just finger pressure and then i use a crystal press to press it all the way home turning the watch a couple a couple of degrees making sure that there's even pressure across the entire circumference of the crystal this crystal comes with a silver compression ring on the inside of the crystal which actually pushes out against the case providing a very very tight pressure fit and actually adds to the water resistance of the watch now that the chapter ring and the crystal are installed into the case i can install the movement i line up the hole and insert the stem to make sure that everything is lined up correctly and now i can reinstall the case clamps to secure the movement into the case now that the movement is secure i give it a test wind make sure everything is working as as expected and everything looks good and i can install the automatic works this assembly is held in place by by two screws again it's important to give the rotor a couple of rotations just to make sure that all the gears and all the gear teeth line up correctly before really tightening down the screws to prevent any uh any teeth from breaking this also gives me a chance to make sure that the paul wheels and everything is is interacting correctly and it's actually winding the watch and then i make sure that the manual winding function works as well with the automatic works in place and here i can reinstall the case gasket and now i can get it on the time grapher make sure all the work that we've done actually results in a watch that keeps time and here you can see how small the adjustments really are to get the watch in time and you can see by the time grapher it's looking pretty good we're about plus three or four seconds a really good amplitude 0.2 millisecond beat error very happy with that now we can secure the screw down case back again and we have a fully serviced and complete watch hamilton introduced the dateline series of watches in 1963 with only three models the dateline a576 here was one of the first three models introduced in 1963 and it was produced through 1965. and there you have it a fully serviced 1963 hamilton dateline a576 to see other vintage watches i've restored please check out my website at wolfvintagewatches.com i'll leave a link in the description below as always i appreciate you watching and thank you for liking and commenting be sure to subscribe and click the notification bell so you don't miss any of my videos see you next time bye

Channel: Wolfe Vintage Watches

Views: 26,187

Rating: 4.8904109 out of 5

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Id: cJo7YJDh5Uk

Length: 33min 57sec (2037 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 30 2020