Post by spunkymonkey on Sept 16, 2013 20:43:51 GMT
I've been holding off posting about this one until I new what the outcome would be. If you look at the first couple of photos you might understand why!
Anyway, about 4 or 5 weeks back, a couple came in and asked if i could do anything with this:
My immediate reaction was "I can melt it down for scrap" but, fortunately, I didn't get a chance to say that before they explained the back story. The watch had belonged to her father, as a retirement present from British Rail, and he was wearing it when he was run over and, sadly, died. Suggestions of melting down promptly put out of my mind.
Over the years they'd tried a few places to see if anything could be done and been told "sorry, no chance" so, being a sucker for a sob story (and getting a bit of kick out of doing stuff others have said not viable) I asked them to leave it with me to look at.
Ignoring the small problem of the missing bezel to begin with, I started the movement and found it wasn't exactly good:
The front pivot of the center wheel had rusted off the wheel, complete with cannon pinion and hour wheel which were now a single, solid, assembly.
The 4th wheel had a ball of rust in place of its pinion, the escape wheel had one tooth completely rusted off, and one balance pivot was badly pitted. That's without going near the keyless work, the smashed lower balance jewel and so on.
But fortune sent me, via EBay, a complete (though not totally healthy) spare movement, complete with a spare dial (branded "Pontiac") which meant there was a possibility of making something that looked presentable without permanently changing the original.
That meant the chance to try something I'd been meaning to for some time. You can get "waterslide" transfer paper for inkjet printers, which produce a very thin transparent transfer that works like the old temporary tatoos - soak in water, slide the film off the backing onto where you want it.
The owners agreed that they'd be happy with that if it worked (and kept the original unaltered) and also that a gold plated brass bezel would be fine - they could always get a gold one made in the future if they really wanted to.
With them happy at the suggestions, a little experimentation with the transfer paper and a bit of lathe work got things to this stage:
With the bezel plated and fitted with a new crystal, the effect didn't seem too bad at all. It's not a great colour match between the 9kt case and plated bezel, but they should mellow down given a little time.
Moving on to the mechanical side, there was a decision to be made about the balance. As mentioned, the original didn't have the best pivots in the world, and the one from the spare movement only had half a hairspring.
I could have swapped the hairspring from the original, but I had a new balance complete available so decided to use that in the hope that I'd get half decent timekeeping at the end of it:
To be honest, I suspect the owners would be happy with a 5 or 10 minute a day error if the thing was just up and running, but "keeps good time for an old watch" is one of my pet hates on Ebay listings - a watch either keeps good time or it doesn't - so didn't want to go there if it could be avoided.
At this point, all that was left was effectively a good overhaul, starting with cleaning both movements and choosing the best parts from each for reassembly - with the provisio that it had to be the Tudor train bridge for obvious reasons:
With the dial side assembled, and a pair of new hands matched to the rust outline of the originals, it was time for testing and timing:
Timing machine results showed a <i>fairly</i> steady gain of between 10 and 15 seconds per day in 3 positions - the trace was wandering a little at about 4th wheel frequency but, having made my comment about timekeeping above, a variation of about 5 sec / day because of a worn jewel or pivot on a non-chronometer 15 jewel movement of this vintage is (I think) acceptable in the circumstances!
So, with all the broken bits packed up for return and the customer called to say it's ready, I'll let you know their reaction in the next few days
Anyway, about 4 or 5 weeks back, a couple came in and asked if i could do anything with this:
My immediate reaction was "I can melt it down for scrap" but, fortunately, I didn't get a chance to say that before they explained the back story. The watch had belonged to her father, as a retirement present from British Rail, and he was wearing it when he was run over and, sadly, died. Suggestions of melting down promptly put out of my mind.
Over the years they'd tried a few places to see if anything could be done and been told "sorry, no chance" so, being a sucker for a sob story (and getting a bit of kick out of doing stuff others have said not viable) I asked them to leave it with me to look at.
Ignoring the small problem of the missing bezel to begin with, I started the movement and found it wasn't exactly good:
The front pivot of the center wheel had rusted off the wheel, complete with cannon pinion and hour wheel which were now a single, solid, assembly.
The 4th wheel had a ball of rust in place of its pinion, the escape wheel had one tooth completely rusted off, and one balance pivot was badly pitted. That's without going near the keyless work, the smashed lower balance jewel and so on.
But fortune sent me, via EBay, a complete (though not totally healthy) spare movement, complete with a spare dial (branded "Pontiac") which meant there was a possibility of making something that looked presentable without permanently changing the original.
That meant the chance to try something I'd been meaning to for some time. You can get "waterslide" transfer paper for inkjet printers, which produce a very thin transparent transfer that works like the old temporary tatoos - soak in water, slide the film off the backing onto where you want it.
The owners agreed that they'd be happy with that if it worked (and kept the original unaltered) and also that a gold plated brass bezel would be fine - they could always get a gold one made in the future if they really wanted to.
With them happy at the suggestions, a little experimentation with the transfer paper and a bit of lathe work got things to this stage:
With the bezel plated and fitted with a new crystal, the effect didn't seem too bad at all. It's not a great colour match between the 9kt case and plated bezel, but they should mellow down given a little time.
Moving on to the mechanical side, there was a decision to be made about the balance. As mentioned, the original didn't have the best pivots in the world, and the one from the spare movement only had half a hairspring.
I could have swapped the hairspring from the original, but I had a new balance complete available so decided to use that in the hope that I'd get half decent timekeeping at the end of it:
To be honest, I suspect the owners would be happy with a 5 or 10 minute a day error if the thing was just up and running, but "keeps good time for an old watch" is one of my pet hates on Ebay listings - a watch either keeps good time or it doesn't - so didn't want to go there if it could be avoided.
At this point, all that was left was effectively a good overhaul, starting with cleaning both movements and choosing the best parts from each for reassembly - with the provisio that it had to be the Tudor train bridge for obvious reasons:
With the dial side assembled, and a pair of new hands matched to the rust outline of the originals, it was time for testing and timing:
Timing machine results showed a <i>fairly</i> steady gain of between 10 and 15 seconds per day in 3 positions - the trace was wandering a little at about 4th wheel frequency but, having made my comment about timekeeping above, a variation of about 5 sec / day because of a worn jewel or pivot on a non-chronometer 15 jewel movement of this vintage is (I think) acceptable in the circumstances!
So, with all the broken bits packed up for return and the customer called to say it's ready, I'll let you know their reaction in the next few days
