ESA 963.126

Description

From the 1980s dates the quartz caliber ESA 963.126, from the so-called “Free-Line” caliber series 963.

It has the large size of 11 1/2 lignes and was produced as one of the last movements by FHF, but under the roof of the Ebauches AG. That way, it was labelled as an “ESA” caliber.

The base plate shows already modern features, so you won’t find bearing jewels for example, and the setting mechanism is located on the movement side, too.

The gear train is typical for a contemporary quartz movement: It starts with the rotor of the stepper motor, followed by an intermediate wheel, the center seconds wheel and finally the third wheel, which drives the hands on the dial side.

Since the movement was made in the 1980s, due to the progress in electronics and the production of mechanical components, it was already pretty flat.

The gear train bridge is a just a stamped part with simple bearings, only the visible bearing of the center seconds wheel got the only jewel of the whole movement.

The electronics is contemporarily small, the chip is bonded as a black blob onto the PCB, the quartz has got a tiny diameter, but we still have a trimmer capacitor to adjust the accurancy.

The stepper coil, whose fragile wires are soldered onto the PCB, is fix attached to the electonics plate.

It’s notable, how few space the coil uses of the available space.

To protect the fragile coil, the ESA 963.126 has got a metal cover.

On the yet empty dial side, you see the recessings for the different calendar mechanisms of the “Free Line” caliber series.

At position 7 o’clock near the center, the pinion of the third wheel is visible, which drives the hands works.

With the large minute wheel, on which the cannon pinion is attached to with a slipping clutch, the hands works are similar to those of the familiar mechanical ETA calibers.

The date wheel has a movable cam that realizes the instant day and date switches at midnight by building up power over the day and instantly releasing it at 12am.

On the top of the date wheel the double executed gear levers can be seen. Its bottom part engages with the date ring, its upper part with the weekday disc.

At position 4 o’clock, you can seen the flying beared correcting wheel for the date ring.

The calendar mechanism is covered with a plate, under which the two gears of the correcting mechanism are beared.

On the upper side of the cover, you can see the spring, which holds the weekday disc in position.

The weekday disc is made in a way, that the weekday is written in full on the outside of the date ring. It has got a star wheel on its lower side, which is used for advancing and holding it in position.

The yellow color of the calender indicators are remarkable. If there also existed other colors, and if yes, if for the a different caliber number was used, is unknown.

Technical data

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