The motor barrel arbor bearings are jeweled on this movement. Normally, I would not have the jewel in place at this point in assembly. The jewel bezel sits in a recess in the barrel top. Nothing really holds it until the barrel clamp, with its three screws, is in place. Now and then though I run into one of these where the jewel seems somehow stuck to the barrel. As far as I know they did not do anything to fix these in place, but a few of them just don't want to come off. There's no harm in servicing the parts this way, so it's fine. It just takes a little extra care. It hate to damage, or lose, one of these parts.
This is the pallet fork. Note all the chamfered and polished edges... All that extra finish work of course does not have a direct impact on the performance of the watch. But it is meant as an indication of the care and attention to detail in the design and production of the timepiece.
Also, all these polished surfaces are easily damaged with scratches and tool marks. Their condition in a vintage watch says a lot about the skills of the watchmakers that have serviced the movement over its life.
Here is the motor barrel in place and secured.
More about the motor barrel here.
Find out more about Lord Elgin watches here.
See the complete album for this project here:
https://goo.gl/photos/iCDPe98QJDytbtXn9
This is a 23 jewel, 16 size Lord Elgin grade 351, made about 1907.
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