Accutron watches on the weishi  timegrapher 1000 - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / beginners

author: boughtaload
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: May 17, 2014, 05:14:29 pm
content: I got it down pat on balance wheel watches but how do you check timing on a 1960s accutron using the weishi multifunction timegrapher No 1000?

author: Wimberleytech
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 09, 2025, 07:42:00 pm
content: OK...old post but I will answer for the next curious passer by. Use a Vibrograf B200A.

author: watchmaker
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: October 10, 2025, 01:41:02 pm
content: Or Vibrograph MU700 (which easily displays Amplitude and beat error of levers) or Witschi (which is falling fast because of parts accounts being closed). The Weishi is very limted. The Geriner Micromat and B200 are essentially the same; but paper and inks are an issue. If you can find the impact paper you do not need the ink.

author: Doctorandus_P
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 11, 2025, 10:10:39 pm
content: Paper? Ink? In what century are you living?Looking at it from an electronics point of view, these things are quite simple. You need a "pretty good" frequency standard (although GPSDO is probably overkil. I guess a decent TCXO is good enough. And you need a pretty simple uC program that compares the frequencies. The most difficult part may be the ticks pickup from the watch, but that appears to be some (contact?) microphone pickup.In one of the video's I saw I did notice the watch frequency changing when the watch was rotated. So a mechanical jig to hold the watch in different orientations does seem to be an advantage.

author: SteveThackery
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 12, 2025, 08:36:03 am
content: You can do what I did and connect the watch contact microphone to a USB "sound card" via a simple gain stage, then analyse the tick sound in software running on the PC. Very simple and you have all the computing and user interface advantages a PC offers.This method uses the sound card sampling clock as the frequency reference, the frequency of which is highly stable but not sufficiently accurate for watch timing. I fix that by having a calibration function in the software which compares the sampling clock to a 1-second reference clock from (for example) a GPS source. This is a once only process - after that, the timing remains spot on indefinitely.

author: watchmaker
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: October 13, 2025, 01:17:34 pm
content: Quote from: Doctorandus_P on October 11, 2025, 10:10:39 pmI was responding to the use of the B200A. For the 30 years I have recommended the MU 700 rather than supplies based machines. I reviewed the Weishi when it first came out and concludedit was too limited for pro use. I did have the Witschi until I gave up my parts accounts (because of increased requirements to buy $10K case testing instruments and clean room standards). Hence, used Witschiss are falling in price to less than 1/2 retail.The brands are doing these things in order to drive the work back to their service centers which are now profit centers. Back in the 90s I could send in an Omega Constellation to Secaucus and get a service exchange movt for $75. The brands saw service as a cost center. But then they realized they could vertically integrate.I never relied on brand work because I paid attention to the Rolex antitrust suit brought by the FTC in 1995. I focused on restoration work where I made my own parts and the "parts changers" could not compete. Even though I have been doing this for 40 years now, and we only work during the snow months, I STILL have an 8 month backlog sitting on my shelves.At least some "kids" realize the earning potential in an AI age.As for what century I live in: For work that has to be perfectly concentric, I sitll use a dead center lathe operated with a hand wheel. It is the only way to get a "perfect" finish and is still a required skill in the Swiss schools.