Takes the Cake

From The American Horologist magazine, November 1938, in Do You Know by W. H. Samelius...

"Here is a watchmaker that is entitled to a large cake. Among some junk watches I found what I think is the worst case of botch work ever peretrated. It was an American watch, key winder and in place of the balance hole and cap jewels, a lead slug had been inserted and a hole drilled into the lead to support the balance pivots. The roller jewel was made of a piece of copper wire and soft soldered to the roller table. The workman evidently thought the balance was broken so he soldered both ends of the balance wheel. For balance bridge screw he used a machine screw about 5 times larger than necessary. The banking pins were cut off entirely and the center pinion was soft soldered fast to the center arbor. A small piece of brass served as a pallet stone. Instead of closing the train holes in the proper manner, he used a center punch, punching 5 0r 6 marks around each hole. Naturally, the watch did not run."