Homage Forum

Hi everyone, a bit of knowledge if you please,

I have a cortebert 616 that needs a new balance wheel and staff, when ive tried researching I keep coming up with a part number of "ordinary 721" for the complete balance part. Am I correct in thinking that this part is used across many Cortebert movements so will fit my 616 even if its listed against a different model say the 665 etc etc.

Any help and advice would be greatly appreciated.

[mention]Yoda[/mention] [mention]unreformed66[/mention] [mention]djolemag[/mention] will chime in and be able to help for sure.

Ordinary means "no inca" usually. I would check dimensions at balancestaffs.com.
For 616 and 618 they should be the same. 620 is thinner so staff should be shorter too... Hope it helps a bit...

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I can get a 616 balance staff, its the balance wheel i'm struggling on, if the balance wheel is the same I can just swap out the balance staff?

Everything has its own number in the Swiss system, 721 is the same whether it is a Cortebert or a Rolex, but they are all different.

Unless it says Cortebert 616, it isn't.

Yoda wrote: ↑March 25th, 2019, 2:26 pm Everything has its own number in the Swiss system, 721 is the same whether it is a Cortebert or a Rolex, but they are all different.

Unless it says Cortebert 616, it isn't.

Thanks Yoda, im struggling to find a balance wheel then, does anyone know where I could find one or if any other calibre wheels fit?

Only 616, the hairspring has been vibrated to fit the assembly.

Is the wheel beyond salvage?

I also have a lot of staffs for the C616.

Yoda wrote: ↑March 25th, 2019, 3:00 pm Only 616, the hairspring has been vibrated to fit the assembly.

Is the wheel beyond salvage?

I also have a lot of staffs for the C616.

my watch guy has said the balance staff is bent and the balance wheel is out of true so maybe the balance wheel could be trued? I could get the staff fairly easily, this is what he said - "Ive serviced yours already but it has a fault I cannot cure without a new balance wheel.
As you know positionally it is very poor, dial up and dial down are pretty good for a movement of this age, however, all other vertical positions are a complete mile out, this is mainly due to a bent balance staff and out of true balance wheel" - " its time keeping is around 140 secs a day out in vertical positions, which is a hell of a lot, too much in my opinion?."

Any thoughts? thanks for your help on this.

Your watchmaker can't cure a balance wheel out of flat and true...? It is NOT possible to determine how bad a balance wheel is as long it is running on a bad/bent staff, so..
Erhm...this is what I do all the time. It is usually a piece of cake and I welcome this more than a hairspring that looks like a birds nest. Replacing a staff, any kind of staff, is usually a walk in the park as well.

Truing a balance wheel can be a pain in the ass depending on how screwed up it really is but unless the rim is broken or something else catastrophic it should be able to be trued in both the flat and the round. That's the FIRST step in positional adjustment. Then it has to be poised. Then you can go on to regulation. I've got 616 balance staffs as well, I bought a bunch when they were readily available. I wonder if perhaps your "watch guy" just didn't want to mess with it? And if the staff is "bent" it's never going to run correctly.