Mercury cells for Bulova Accutron

[PG]

I recently bought a Bulova Accutron w/o the appropriate mercury
cell/battery. Are these fairly common - and where can I buy one?

Regards,
Philippe

[Clive Turnbull]

On March 21 1999, you wrote:

> I recently bought a Bulova Accutron w/o the appropriate mercury
> cell/battery. Are these fairly common - and where can I buy one?

I think this depends on where you live,I think they are unobtainable in
some parts of USA but we are OK in UK Good Luck
Clive
Cheshire
UK

--
- Clive Turnbull cstur...@msn.com

[Mark Petry]

Ask your watchmaker for a 387S battery with plastic adapter.

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Mark Petry Page/Voicemail: 800.401.3451
Beautiful Bainbridge Island, WA
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mailto:mpe...@bainbridgeisland.net
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"Play the Ball from where the Monkey Drops It"

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>I recently bought a Bulova Accutron w/o the appropriate mercury
>cell/battery. Are these fairly common - and where can I buy one?
>

>Regards,
>Philippe
>

[Michael Ker]

Please add what country you are in to queries like this.

In the UK these are still fairly easily obtained. In the US you need an
adapter as already explained.

Michael Ker UK

PG wrote in message <36F4A658...@os.telia.no>...

[JackH35785]

The original battery, a "400" became illegal to produce in the USA
because it was mercury based device so most of us had to find a
new battery. While I have not used a 387A I have used a "Energizer"
394 w/adapter successfully for about 7 or 8 years.

Now, the thing that concerned me was the fact that the original
"400" battery was rated at 1.3 volts whereas the 394 is 1.5 volts.
As a EE I was wondering what effect this might have if the
electronics were subjected to this higher voltage but after the
years of using the 394 I have had no problems, no change in
the time accuracy.

Regards,
Jack

[Robert S. Oehler]

I will try to answer this a quickly as I can to clear up a few other
questions that have come up along this thread.

First what cells in what caliber.

cal merc cell silver cell
214 378 387S or a 394 using the old
plastic ring
218, 219 343 344
221 388 ??? i have had to use a small
silver and make a nylon ring to adapt.

Second part.

Most accutrons run ok on the higher voltage, some gain. All calibers
can be rephrased to run on the silver cells. On the 218, 219, 221 etc.
I have never had a rephrase fail on me, excluding when the watch was
dirty and also needed a cleaning. On the 214 I have had a 98% rate
where the watch ran OK. Some of the early 214's I ended up putting in a
new coil which solved the problem. I do not know if they changed
something during production or what but some of the early ones just do
not want to "phase up" to 1.5VDC.

The reason that the watches run fast with the higher voltage is to put
it very simply the index jewel has more motion due to the greater
excitement of the tuning fork due to the higher voltage. Basically
rephasing the watch to a higher voltage is just making sure that the
index is only grabbing one tooth per vibration. I usually call this a
secondary phasing or fine phasing. Basically the watch is phased per
bulova specs. Then the voltage is increased to 1.65 and the pawl jewel
is fine adjusted so the train is traveling at the proper speed. This
is done by watching the wheels away from the index wheel.

Third part

THIS IS INFORMATION THAT WAS READ AND TOLD TO ME BY PEOPLE WHO WORKED AT
BULOVA. IT IS NOT FROM BULOVA. I AM PUTTING IT HERE JUST AS INFO.

It was said to me, and later read, that bulova tested each movement up
to1.7 to make sure that there was not a mismarriage between the coil and
fork. Before the watch could leave the factory it had to run at 1.7VDC
and keep time. This of course was on a new clean movement. It has also
been told to me that the electronics can take upwardly voltages to
1.9VDC.

I hope that this is of help to all you people who love the Humm :-)
If you have any more questions on this subject, or getting your accutron
repaired just give me a shout.

Take care
Bob Oehler, Prop.
Like Clockwork
http://www.likeclockwork.com
r...@likeclockwork.com

[UHRENSAMLR]

Bob, I think there was a typo in your post -- the mercury cell for the 214 IS
387, the silver cell is 387S.

Thanks for the information. All us hummer fans need anything and everything we
can find.

Vic

[Robert S. Oehler]

OOPS
I am a terrible proofreader.
Repost of the info with corrected cell number for folks who want to print this out

I will try to answer this a quickly as I can to clear up a few other
questions that have come up along this thread.

First what cells in what caliber.

cal merc cell silver cell

214 387 387S or a 394 using the oldplastic ring

Second part.

Third part

[JackH35785]

Hmm, very interesting, Bob. I want to toss out another thing, like,
I have taken a PZM Radio Shack mike and fed it to a scope and
looked at the signal. You can actually see the truncated square
wave and as the battery ages you can see the difference in the
amplitude of the waveform.

I would imagine you could actually "tune" the watch
mechanically using this technique.

Regards,
Jack

[Al Bolton]

If you are interested in Bulova Accutrons why not join the Bulova
Accutron Collector's Discussion List?

Not as pompous as it sounds, there are about 50 of us who are fans of
these watches. To join, point your web Browser to:

http://accutrons.listbot.com

And follow the simple instructions to get on the list. Virtually
anything goes and you are sure to find lots of useful advice on most
asects of these "Hummers".

Regards,

Al Bolton
Founder of the Bulova Accutron list and owner of quite a few, some of
which even work!

[Robert S. Oehler]

That is a good point. I have used my scope in the past to check the
freq. of the watch for timing check where the watch just would not keep
time. I can check the freq. against the book value to see if the fork
is close. There is only a small amount of adj. on the regulators and if
the indexing mech. is functioning properly I go to the scope to the the
actual freq. of the fork.

Now the reason checking the scope would not work it such.
When you "phase" and "fine phase" the watch you are not changing the
amplitude of the fork but adjusting the pawl jewel, that engages the
index wheel, preventing it from turning backward during the return
stroke of the tuning fork/index jewel. When you "fine phase" you adjust
the pawl jewel so there is a slight amount of "backlash" in the index
wheel. This helps the overexcited fork to only grab one tooth of the
index wheel with each stroke.

On a side note I use my scope for all sorts of things in watch repair.
It come in real handy when you want to see what's going on in a
mechanical watch escapement.

take care
Bob Oehler

[Robert S. Oehler]

Hi Al:
Do you think it would be good to post my phasing, fine phasing post
there too.

I am a member of the groupe and if you like accutrons you should be on
the list.

Take care
Bob Oehler

[Al Bolton]

Yes-post it-that's what it's for!

Cheers,
Al

[Pinman1]

>I recently bought a Bulova Accutron w/o the appropriate mercury
>cell/battery. Are these fairly common - and where can I buy one?

HI-
In answer to your question. I have mercury batteries for both 214 and 218.
Price is $6 ea.
Bob Kizer