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I don't see many of these on forum posts, compared to the first generation accutron astronauts. But I do see quite a few on ebay for sale. Anybody on here collect the Mark II's? Show pics if you have any. :thumbup1:
Accutron Astronaut Mark II.
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Yet another one on my 'want' list.
One day, one day....
One day, one day....
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Nice Skypilot.:thumbup1: Quite a variation in dials there. I need alittle Mark II 101 schooling for sure. I know nothing about them.
Here are some of mine. The first is NOS. Rather than talking about Accutron Mark II it is better to refer to calibre 2185 as the watches using them have a number of different other names, such as Traveller Mark II, Railroad Mark IV and sometimes just Accutron.
I also have a couple of dial and hand sets in the hope I can sometime get cases for them. The final picture of the watch with the blue dial is at the top of my wish list. Tickswift has or had two of these. Its very unlikely I could get one at an affordable price. I keep putting 2185s on my watch list but they nearly always reach unaffordable prices.
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Wonderful collection vim203 and some very useful 101 facts on them. :thumbup1:
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Love the watches gentlemen. I'm confused here about the 2185 variants though. It seems I'm aware of several distinct differences with them. Some have a window where a second time display shows, others have a 4th hand that can be set for a different time zone, and yet another has neither the window or 4th hand, but rather merely allows the hour hand to be advanced or reversed in one hour segments without upsetting the minute or second hands. Is this correct or am I missing something?
Vim203, a wonderful collection of pieces and pics. Am I correct that the RR 2185 and the Traveller have the versions that the 2nd crown simply serves to move the hour hand w/o changing the other hands? Your first one (the NOS) I could've sworn I've seen a pic of that elsewhere with a small 4th hand for the 2nd time zone. No? Also, I've seen where that hand can be hidden behind the hour hand and appear as if it's not present.
An interesting thread subject and one I'm very interested in as well. Plenty of learning to do here.
Eric
Vim203, a wonderful collection of pieces and pics. Am I correct that the RR 2185 and the Traveller have the versions that the 2nd crown simply serves to move the hour hand w/o changing the other hands? Your first one (the NOS) I could've sworn I've seen a pic of that elsewhere with a small 4th hand for the 2nd time zone. No? Also, I've seen where that hand can be hidden behind the hour hand and appear as if it's not present.
An interesting thread subject and one I'm very interested in as well. Plenty of learning to do here.
Eric
Archie, I won't be much help but I can tell you that the little white hand shown in my black faced Mark II can be hidden behind the hour hand.
I have seen a Dutch publication in which they suggest that the one with the extra window should be called a 2186 but I see no merit in that.
I have seen a Dutch publication in which they suggest that the one with the extra window should be called a 2186 but I see no merit in that.
You have raised an interesting point about fourth hands. My gold NOS (no name) and Traveller have fourth hands (hidden). The RR Mark IV, and the ss Mark II do not. I have observed many RR mark IVs on eBay and found that some have fourth hands and some do not. I suppose this may mean that some of the fourth hands have been lost during the watches' careers as the mounting for the fourth hand is present in mine. On the other hand it does not appear that a fourth hand could be fitted to my ss Mark II. Although I have been on the lookout for a fourth hand for my RR Mark IV for more than a year, none have cone up for sale. I hope we get more discussion on this issue.
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I have a few but this one may be a favorite since it's 14k.
But I really like this one too.
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I just won the "E" iteration on an auction last night. Had been looking for a good example for a while.
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Very Nice!!!!:thumbup1:
I read somewhere that the 4th hands were often removed as they did not meet some railroads' spec, which I suppose makes sense as railroads were pretty strict about timepieces.
Below is my Astronaut Mk II (matching case and pillar plate!), it's a work in progress. It had an old Accucell 218 West Germany battery in it, but did not hum when replaced. The gasket had turned to stone and there was tarnish everywhere on the casing. It cleaned up quite nicely after a good 45 minutes of scrubbing and scraping. Turns out the cell coil was open (visible white spot of deterioration), but the component coil assembly was fine. The hour set function worked, sorta. It was rough and a little gritty, I assumed the tarnish was at fault.
Upon re-assembly I discovered that the hour set plate was missing a small stud that's used to keep the hour setting stem in place. After closer inspection of the hour setting stem itself, I found aforementioned stud to be wedged into the stem so strongly that it couldn't be removed, and the teeth on the stem itself seemed to be severely worn. I should have inspected this out of the gate and definitely prior to re-assembly, or at least dialing and re-casing. Live and learn, but I'll have to partially disassemble it again. I was able to find a replacement stem in my stash, but it had a -2 after the part number and looked different from the original. I found another one for sale (or what I think is the proper replacement) on a famous auction site. A stripped 2185 mainplate in my stash had an existing bridge with the stud intact, so it became a donor. There are some very subtle differences in the 2185 design that accommodate the second hour hand, discovering those really made this piece a joy to work on.
I really like these Astronaut MkIIs, they have a fasntastic round-ish 60s sputnik satellite look to them.
Before cleaning and disassembly:
After cleaning, notice the missing stud on the hour set plate:
There's the hour set stem and missing stud jammed in there! It should stick out the side of the hour set plate:
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Thank you. As always this one is going to Chris Radek for maintenance.
I'd leave it to the professional who's repairing your piece to source the parts, they know what they're doing!
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Works for me
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I'll post pictures as soon as Chris is done servicing the watch.
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