Watch related Part 1 (too many photos for 1 posting)

[Geoff Quickfall]

Some of you may know that I also collect and restore watches. Well everyone needs a watch tester and I was lucky enough to pick up a grail of a tester branded Omega but made by Witschi.

It has LEDs and is circa 1986! Enjoy!

Also known as a WITSCHI Q TEST 4100.

Got this off Ebay for $400 with the displays working but in untested condition. No guarantees on accuracy or if fully functional. Well I love a puzzle and knowing the displays were okay I thought my chances of getting this fully functional would be 50/50.

So it arrived well packaged and shipped from Europe.

I noticed they writing in places on the main bezel for the supply voltage test section was corroded and missing. Case was very dirty along with the wood case. The wiring was for 220 volts but is switchable to 120 volts and with a European to American plug converter.

Plugged it in and noticed the on off switch was hooked up backwards, that is the off was on and the on was off! This told me that someone had been inside the tester other then the makers.

When opened I noticed some wires were broken from their soldered positions. The timing display function for 18000 and 26600 mechanical, 32kHz and Accutron tuning fork was displaying correct daily and monthly errors, more on that later. The voltage testing and internal voltage supply for testing were non functional (the side with broken wires).

The mirror was loose and foam for the mirror was decomposed and also the white collar was completely missing on the test side of the checker. The white collar reflects light illuminating the under side (display side) of the module under test.

Both LED red filters were loose and came off when the case was disassembled.

So problem when I received it:

1) wires not connected internally.
2) loose ICs (they are all plug into sockets, amazing).
3) mirror on testing side loose
4) foam underlay for mirror which pushes up and into the large PCA decomposed.
5) collar which surrounds the internal mirrored testing side missing.
6) on off switch hooked up backwards.
7) whether correct or not the electrolytic are all 33 years of age so they may be suspect.
8) NO MANUAL or INSTRUCTIONS (any help here would be appreciated).
9) wood cover stained and finish deteriorated.
10) metal bezel had corrosion on surface as though acid had been leaked onto it.
11) supply voltage writing missing due to the corrosion.
12) red led filters both loose or separated from the upper face plate.
13) missing probes for the test side of the checker.

What I did:

Electronics

1) disassembled components.
2) replaced all capacitors with like capacitance and 5% tolerance.
3) resoldered broken wires to correct probe locations.
4) upper PCA which contains the LED modules.
- Removed LED blocks and cleaned all push button contacts as well as battery knob pot and PCA.
5) main PCA cleaned and all ICs reseated after being treated with detox-it electronic preserver.
6) cleaned the sensor pads being REALLY careful about the wiring under the detector PCA.

Case:

1) lightly sanded wood and lacquered with satin finish.
2) cleaned corrosion off the aluminum bezel and cleaned up the engraved supply voltage writing.
- Then filled in the writing.
- lacquered the metal bezel upper and lower in satin lacquer.
3) polished and reattached the LED red lenses.
4) cleaned mirror and mounted on new foam.
5) found a spray paint cap of the perfect size and colour to replace the missing collar around the mirror.
- Cut to size and mounted it.
6) added rubber feet to base.
7) will remake the probes for the test side and already secured test probes.

So the BEFORE pictures:

As it arrived EXTERNAL:



Upper right closeup:



Upper center closeup:



Upper left closeup:



Over view: note the white collar on the right side surrounding the mirror on the testing side is missing.



Damage to the aluminum bezel at the supply voltage side of the checker (yellow box):



Wood with damaged finish:



As it arrived INTERNAL:

Capacitor on main PCA (replaced).



Other parts of the main PCA with capacitors and dirt on PCA.



Continued in part 2