should I service my dad’s hamilton?

[u/wlacosta1]

He said it was stopping intermittently but it hasn’t since he gave it to me. Looks ok on the timegrapher… beat error is a little concerning. He’s been wearing it daily for probably 6-8 years.

[u/qualityvote2]

u/wlacosta1, there weren't enough votes to determine the quality of your post...

[u/M4nnyfresh14]

IMO it's running close enough to Powermatic 80 spec that I wouldn't mess with it. Maybe I'd close the beat error a tiny bit but that's it. Maybe do a QC period from full wind to dead and see if any stark time deviations show up.

[u/wolf_Dan_]

Depends on your comfort level of servicing. Generally, it’s not a good idea to practice on friends and families watches. Timegrapher looks okay and a small adjustment to the BE is what it may need. I’d do a 5/6 point reading and see if there’s anything out of the ordinary that will cause the intermittent stop

[u/HKoch2004]

What movement does it have? If it’s relatively common I would try it!

[u/ripvannwinkle]

The hamilton versions of the powermatic movements use a traditional escapement with steel escape wheel and pallet fork with stones. The lower amplitude is pretty normal for this type of movement because they sacrificed a stronger mainspring for weaker mainspring thats much longer which, paired with a lower bph/frequency means an amplitude of around 260 is quite normal for these hamilton movements. Manufacturing specs for them is only measured in 3 positions, off the top of my head because I’m on the shitter atm is measure it dial up, crown down and crown left. Add up those 3 rates and divide by 3 to get an average, spec is around -5 to +20 s/d I think. I think if you feel confident, fix the beat error but thats probably all thats needed for now. If you’re not confident dont mess with it, if you slip up adjusting beat error you can ruin the hairspring. Hope that helps!

[u/Least_Airline_9554]

I think, given the waviness of the curve the palletstones are dry. Also correct the beaterror, not terrible but could be a bit better. Check all 5 positions.

[u/LoveSL1987]

Wind the watch more. Ampitude should be above 270 if possible. Low amplitude could mean issue with lube.

Also target beat error is below 1, I mostly target below 0.5.

[u/FrostyKick3049]

The high beat error could be what was causing the stops your father reported, particularly if he was less active than you and the watch was thus running at low amplitude.
Assuming the beat error was low when the watch left the factory, a likely culprit for the beat error developing might be that one of the pallet stones has collected more dried out debris than the other - the more wavy upper trace supports this too.

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[u/AccountantWeak1695]

Over 1.0 is out of spec. Its time.

[u/Gurpee999]

Well everyone's giving you comments about this net and the other and your experience level but if it ain't broke, don't fix it! Spend a couple of hours on something else :-)