Mechanical WW Question about ETA 2452 Hanging Date

[Paul Raposo]

I have this 1960s large diver with an ETA 2452 25 jewel movement listed for sale.

The date clicks over as it should, but it's not centered in the date window.

I was asked by an interested party why the date is doing this and I don't know why.

I assumed the date wheel may be worn, but there's evidence of the watch being serviced, (a mark on the dial where the hands were removed,) so I'm wondering if it may be another issue.

The pawl spring not set right? No oil/grease where there should be some?

 

[Chris Radek]

The stem of this watch is in an unusual place, not at 3:00 and not at 4:00. This means the correct date disc would probably be unusual too, perhaps specific to this watch. If it's working entirely correctly and the offset is consistent, the most likely explanation is the wrong date disc is installed.

If someone was untalented enough to damage the dial when servicing it, perhaps they just swapped the movement to repair a problem, not even knowing to swap the date discs too.

 

[Chris Radek]

Looks like your crown is at the 18.5 minute mark. If this date disc is for a regular "crown at 3, date at 3" watch, it would have a date at 18.5 and also every 1/31th of the circle from there. You will have a date mark at 18.5 - 2(60/31) = 14.63 minutes, instead of 15 minutes.

I think it's pretty clear that's the deal here. I would not buy the watch unless I could first locate the correct date disc. It might be hard or impossible to find.

 

[Paul Raposo]

Thank you for your replies Chris.

It seems that this may be more than simply an issue with teeth wear.