Reader Believes In Airing Gripes - And Does!

From The American Horologist magazine, May 1946

Reader Believes In Airing Gripes - And Does! 

Editor, The American Horologist:

The type of case requiring a two piece stem, that Mr. Samuel Bitkower attempts to defend in the March issue of the American Horologist, page 56, ranks with such horological wonders as the left-hand ratchet wheel screws on pre-war Schild movements, and the LeOoultre and Kurth 300 movements, that must be completely disassembled to replace a mainspring. Did the Swiss Horological Society approve them, too?

As concrete points against the case:

(1) Difficulty in obtaining materials -some have the male coupling on the lower stem, others on the upper. (2) How to get the movement out when the upper part of the stem has rusted in the "sleeve."  (3) Difficulty in getting the bezel down over the crystal. (4) In rectangular models, the Chinese puzzle nature of the uncasing job is about as complex as a Travalarm clock.

If Mr. Bitkower will "donate his time" to seeing that all varieties of two-piece stems are widely distributed among wholesalers, then nobody will have to drill holes in the cases, or slightly better, install the movement in a standard waterproof case.

If more watchmakers would air their gripes at similar brainstorms in watch design, perhaps in time it would make our work a little easier. Offhand, I could name a half a dozen such instances that would show the designer (or perhaps I) had bedbugs in his hairspring.

William M. Schopp, 

121 North 33rd Street, 

Philadelphia 4, Penn.