Expert: Melvin Mills - 11/13/2008

Question
QUESTION: the hour and minute hands are out of alignment...when the minute hand reaches the hour, the hour hand is between two hours...any ideas?

ANSWER: Stuart,

First, take off the minute hand and put it on the 12 while the hour hand is on any hour mark.  It is possible that it was not put on correctly the last time the hands were removed, possibly for servicing.

If that does not fix the problem, the cannon pinion is loose and will need to be tightened.  You will need a cannon pinion tightener (of course).  The cannon pinion is the post that the hand is attached to.  It is friction fitted and if it is too loose, it does not move the hand around properly.  That is how the hands got out of whack.

If you need to take it to a watchmaker, he will probably charge you for a complete service because he is going to have to get into the movement to fix the cannon pinion.  If you try to do it yourself, practice on cannon pinions that you don't care about first.  It will take you a couple of tries to get it right and you don't want to ruin your Bulova.

Kind regards,

Melvin

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thanks Melvin...I should explain that I've only recently purchased the watch...since I first mailed you, I've noticed that the "out of whackness" can be cured by advancing the hands around the dial a few times, which leads me to think that the hour hand might be sticking on something, fact which appears to be confirmed as the watch runs to time between the hours of 7 and 4...but then loses time and stops, perhaps because the hour hand is rubbing against the  seconds dial? Is there an easy fix?

Answer
Take the movement out and rotate the hands by turning the crown.

You will see if they are rubbing.  If they are, Take them off and put them on with the proper spacing, which is to say, not touching.

If that is not it, you will have to use the procedure from the last post.

Kind regards,

Melvin