How to service a Tourbillon (ST8000)

[Logixa]

So..

Ever since I started the watchmaking hobby, I’ve been honing on my skills and trying new things in order to develop and learn. What started with simple movements quickly grew into complex chronographs but there was 1 thing that was still a holy grail.. the tourbillon!

I bought this Sugess watch in order to learn how to service a tourbillon. Try to find anything on google about how to service them and you will notice its impossible to find any information related to tourbillons and servicing at all!

So I decided to learn it myself and make, perhaps, the first ever tutorial on how to service a tourbillon ever on the internet.

The subject watch comes from Sugess. A Chinese brand that takes Seagull tourbillon movements (in this case the ST8000) and supplies it with everything else.

The ST8000 is great tourbillon with a track record of being very reliable. Even thou seagull sells these tourbillons with their own brand name on it for 5000+ bucks, Sugess does not.
There are basically 2 types of tourbillon (other than multi axles ones)

1. The Brequet carrousel type
2. The Blancpain flying tourbillon

This is the flying tourbillon. Check out the pictures below for a tutorial on how to service these.

 

[Logixa]

Conclusion:
The tourbillon case is the most difficult part of it all. It’s quite small and hard to get all the parts in place. The whole method of assembling it upside down instead of directly on the main plate was also weird. Current timegraphers are no good for timing these watches as the balance is moving all around the place and this results in lines on the timegrapher going up and down all the time.

Perhaps someone will send me a carousel type one day. I’m wondering how the construction of those are compared to the flying version.

 

[Rolars]

R E S P E C T and thanks for sharing!

 

[Futzorr]

Very interesting read for someone looking to jump into trying to service his first watch! Definitely not going to try a tourbillion, but something more simple

 

[Ex-ki]

Masterpiece!

 

[Muskandar]

Nice read, thanks for this


Sent from my iPhone using RWI

 

[Stuvetjee]

Wow, what a absolute great read! Thanks alot! This is a sticky worthy!

 

[bc1221]

That’s crazy. You lost me at “remove the crystal and the bezel to get the movement out. lol.

Very interesting for sure. No way in hell I would even attempt to take that thing apart.

Amazing work.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Dr Fun Socks]

Thats some great work man, thanks for taking the time to document and write it up! Great resource for the forum.

 

[altaylar1]

This is a very interesting work, thanks for sharing mate!
So what I understand is, you are not working in the field, but you are servicing your own watches, as a part of your hobby, is that correct?
If so, could you let us know a little about how you started? I also want to do the same, maybe start with a2824 movements at the first step and slowly go up, but I have no idea where to begin

 

[Ex-ki]

This is a very interesting work, thanks for sharing mate!
So what I understand is, you are not working in the field, but you are servicing your own watches, as a part of your hobby, is that correct?
If so, could you let us know a little about how you started? I also want to do the same, maybe start with a2824 movements at the first step and slowly go up, but I have no idea where to begin

Start by servicing a Seagull ST36 movement (Unitas/ETA 6497 clone) rather than servicing an A2824.
It's a bigger movement with fewer parts. Very good to start learning watchmaking.

 

[Logixa]

What Ex-ki said check out his topic, he and oascom have a couple of topics about the tools needed and guides to start the hobby.

I'm now about 3 years further in the hobby and work mainly on reps and occasionally Gens like Rolex

 

[domiffm]

Impressive. Love this kind of threads, it‘s pure entertainment. Thanks for sharing!

 

[JJCW]

Great thread! Thanks for your efforts and sharing.
I'm starting in these days with my first st36 for a watchmaking project and I'm really excited.

Inviato dal mio LLD-L31 utilizzando Tapatalk

 

[ScarletT]

You made it looks so simple, but I would be so scared to mess with it myself haha, better to leave it to the pros

 

[Plaasbaas]

R E S P E C T ! I just started this hobby by servicing a simple 6498 clone movement following Mark Lovick's course and was quite proud when it was all put together and up and running again

 

[JLFast]

Incredible thread! Great photos and detail. Thank you for sharing.

 

[KJ2020]

Great work bro and thanks for sharing. Subscribed for when I get the urge. Appreciate your trail blazing, congrats on the success!

 

[rolexlover79]

Awesome thread!!! Not that I would ever attempt this myself but I really love detailed technical posts like this! Thank you Logixa

 

[majwilliams0308]

Thank you Logixa. I recently had to service the BBR Roger Dubuis Tourby, and didn't document nearly as well as you did here.

That one was tough as it had a faux regulator arm that was glued to the top of the tourbillon.