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Job Number 170080

This is an Elgin grade 124 pocketwatch, 18 size, 15 jewels, made about 1893. 

This movement has all its blued plate screws, likely originals. One of the screw has a head that it not only not blued, but not even polished. This one goes in a recessed hole, it is not visible when the watch is assembled.

This movement also had a broken off roller jewel. I found the broken off piece inside the watch. That doesn't usually happen.

The secondary serial number stamps use a non-numeric prefix symbol for the tens of millions digits.

See the whole album for this watch here.

Find more content about vintage watches here.

Rate and Accuracy in Vintage Watches

I often go to a fair amount of effort to get even what were originally inexpensive antique watches to keep time well. I think I may stop doing this, or at least not as much. And this post is about the reasons... But before going further a few points about mechanical watches in general, and vintage mechanical watches in particular, are in order. A few points about mechanical watches...

Hands

The hands on a mechanical watch are geared together. They can not, if everything is functioning correctly, move independently. Their movement relative to each other is mechanically dictated by gear ratios. For example, the minute hand must advance one minute each time the seconds hand completes one trip around. Likewise the hour hand must advance one minute each time then minute hand completes one trip around the dial. It can not be otherwise as the hands are mechanically joined by gears.

Rate

We expect the minute hand to complete one trip around the dial in one minute, as read by some external reference. However, the hands actually do not move in a smooth motion. All the hands jump forward several times a second. Between these jumps, all the hands are still. How many of these jumps occur in one obsolete, correct minute is what dictates how well the watch reads time. How fast the hands move, the speed of the tip of the hand, when the the hand is actually moving, is almost always irrelevant.

One can see these jumps in the movement of the seconds hand on a mechanical watch. The other hands are also jumping, all at the same instant.

Escapement

Mechanical timekeeping is possible because of an escapement. The escapement "escapes" power into the gear train many times a second. At each beat of the escapement, the gears turn. Then they go still again in between. The escapement controls the frequency of the hands advancing, and thus the accuracy of the watch over time.

What is time keeping?

The "accuracy" of a watch boils down to how fast the hands move around the dial according to some reference time source. But all mechanical watches (really, all, even new ones) have certain issues that impact this.

Mainsprings impart more power when first wound than when almost run down. So the rate of a watch wound in the morning varies as the day passes. Watches may have some means of compensating for this. Most older ones do not.

Gravity effects the hairspring. The hairspring and the balance wheel dictate the frequency of the escapement, and so alter the reading of time on the hands. A wristwatch is in many different orientations as it is worn, so the rate varies over the day, moment to moment. Again, some watches have the means to reduce this variation.

These are just two examples. There are more many factors that also alter the watch escapement from moment to moment under normal operating conditions, on a watch that is functioning correctly. Because these issues exist, watchmakers of old did not even bother to measure a watches rate moment to moment. They were only interested in a watch that read good time after running for some period without being reset (a day, or several days). Sometimes during the run interval the rate may gain, and sometimes lose. Watch "adjustment" is setting up everything so that plus and minus errors (the ones we can do nothing about) cancel each other out over time.

Age

In vintage watches there is another factor; simply the passage of time. Old style, steel hairsprings change their metallurgic properties with the passage of decades. Simply put, a spring just isn't as springy anymore. As a result, the frequency of the escapement is impacted. The solution would be the installation of a newly manufactured spring. But this is not usually possible as they do not exist.

In these cases, there are several adjustments that can be made. One can adjust the mass of the balance wheel. The balance screws provide this mass. They can be replaced, in opposite pairs, with lighter or heavier screws.

This is time consuming work. Once the screws are disturbed, the rate will usually be way off, out of the ballpark. Pulling it back in takes a lot of basically trial and error.

The Regulator

All of the above applies to watches that have been correctly serviced and repaired and are functioning correctly. Watch designers selected mainspring strength, gears, hairspring strength and balance mass to result in a watch that would be in the ballpark of the correct time after the passage of an interval (say 24 hours). Was a watch, assembled at the factory, ready to go and accurate? No. Manufacturing was not that good. It was close though. So what did they consider "in the ballpark"?

We actually have a pretty good idea. Mechanical watches feature a regulator that can be adjusted by a watchmaker, or the end-user if they like, to effectively lengthen or shorten the installed hairspring, and thus alter the frequency of the beat, and thus the rate of the watch. On vintage pocketwatches, the range of the regulator is about +/- 5 minutes per 24 hours (this does vary from design to design, it can be as much as 10 minutes) over the end to end sweep of its setting.

So, we know that watch designers knew that between variation in manufacturing precision, and variation in real world conditions, an error of +/- 5 minutes was to be expected.

A Proposition...

Within the range of error provided for by the regulator, a fully serviced watch is functioning correctly.

The people that designed the watch did their job as well as they could, with the tools and technologies of their time, and within their business requirements. If they could be assured that each watch would leave the factory more accurate than they did, they would have reduced the range available on the regulator. Or perhaps left the regulator off altogether. In short, the range of the regulator represents the expected range of error in a perfectly working watch.

Antiques

All of the above points that impact the rate of a mechanical watch are general. I'd like to add one more that is specific to antiques; history.

Whether a watch was an economy 7 jewel model, or a high end 23 jewel watch that originally cost 15 times as much, after 100 years they are all individuals. It doesn't matter what sort of watch it is if it's been through two loads of laundry, a fire, and stored in a damp and dirty junk drawer in the garage with the oily rags for 30 years. Watches are not magical. They are constructed (mostly) of machined pieces of relatively soft metal. Countless damages can happen to these parts over the decades that can not be undone.

What's more, a 100 year old watch has likely been serviced and repaired dozens of times, with varying levels of appropriateness. It is extremely common to see parts in a watch that have been replaced with the best thing available at the time - an incorrect or handmade part, and the rest of the watch permanently altered to make an incorrect part work.

From time to time I get an objection from a watch owner that their once high-end railroad watch should keep better time because of what is was when it left the factory. In a few of these cases over the years, I confess I had to laugh (fortunately my communication with watch owners is almost never face to face) because the watch was in such horrendous condition that I was pretty pleased with myself for getting it to even tick. They would have been hard pressed to find another watchmaker that would have even taken on the challenge.

In short, it doesn't matter what the watch once was. It matters what has happened to it since it left the factory.

Adjustment

Now we come to the heart of the matter. Just how accurate should we make an antique watch? I'll  make several points about this.

1) It doesn't matter.
What's important is that an antique is in good condition, functioning correctly, rust-free, correctly lubricated, stored in a clean, dry manner, and preserved for future generations. Even setting aside family heirlooms, how well a watch keeps time (once it is functioning correctly), among serious collectors, is not even a secondary concern. A watch that keeps time to +/- 30 seconds a day is not automatically "better" that a different instance of the same watch that runs +/- 1 minute a day, In fact, the opposite may well be true as so many other factors are more important.

2) Diminishing returns for the effort
If someone wants to pay me for the 40 hours (or more) that it might take to bring a hypothetical watch from +/- 10 seconds a day to +/-  6 seconds a day, in multiple positions, reliably, let me know. They did that sort of thing at the factory, but on dozens of brand new, mint watches, all at the same time.

3) Why?
Why worry about time keeping at all? With basic effort, and service by appropriate procedures, many (no, not all) watches fall with a minute or two of error fresh off the bench before I even touch the regulator. How much time and effort should be devoted to fine tuning?

Well, before answering, keep in mind that the watch doesn't "care", at all. Once it it operating correctly, there is no difference at all, for the watch, if the error is two minutes or 10 seconds a day. So the only reasons to do adjustment, are for time keeping, or for fun. As for the former, if you want to know what time it is accurately, and that is important, get a cheap quartz watch or use your mobile phone. These are a 1000 times more accurate than any mechanical watch will ever be, new or old.

So how much effort? I try to strike a reasonable balance. Almost all get to less than 10 seconds a day of error in at least dial up position, and many less than +/- 5 seconds. I consider that excellent. These watches come from a time when it was not unusual for people to be walking around with watches that read +/- 10 minutes a day.

I spend more effort reducing the beat error than the rate though, since beat error is actually a fault causing inefficiency, regardless of the rate. But it does take quite a bit of time to work on the rate, especially if the balance has to be adjusted in anyway. I think perhaps time might be better spent getting more watches to run well, rather than seeing how good each one can possibly keep time.

What do you think?

More about watch accuracy here...

New Arrivals

And the watches keep coming...

Watch Accuracy in 1950

The following articles appeared in the Journal of Horology in 1950. They provide insight into what watchmakers were telling their customers about accuracy at that time.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ggKQ4dA7-7td6bvGy5033roDCsYauwJCHtWu4e6CXdNko0MRxe95pZ3Q91FT

And...

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1DpA0n-AUUMC6OECsSnPBtu8-m5vX_yakeXPNMnbY82vOkFB6QVr5_vvVrKiy

New Arrival

I'm create these posts when I write up the estimates. I'm way behind...

New Arrival

A nice Elgin in for service...

Job Number 170080

This is a Hamilton 992, 16 size, 21 jewels, made about 1921.

See the whole album for this project here.

Find more content about vintage watches here.

Job Number 170079

Rust is a funny thing. Sometimes, it comes right off, leaving a pretty good surface - if you're careful.

See the whole album for this project here.

Here are the secondary serial number stamps under the balance cock.

This Hampden has an interesting keyless works, for winding/setting. It works well, and is also pretty closely related to a lever-setting relative.

Dial patch... This one was pushing what you can get away with using this technique.

Job Number 170078

These are two screws for the setting lever part of the winding/setting mechanism for this Hamilton. It looks like some early watchmaker lost one of the screws and fashioned a replacement. The upper screw is original. It has a nice flat head, polished, and smooth, even features.

The other one has a filed down head, and the tapper has been hand cut. It's made out of a larger screw. Nothing wrong with this, it works, although they could have done a nicer job.

These are a little harder to assemble than similar Elgins. It's hard to get the barrel in place because of the way the ratchet wheel works.

This is an 18 size movement, 21 jewels, grade 940 made about 1905.

Job Number 170076

I actually serviced this watch a few years ago. It now has a different owner, who was surprised to see the watch come up on my website when it needed a new mainspring.

This is an Elgin grade 130, 0 size, 15 jewels, made about 1897. 

See the entire album here.

Another problem with this watch is that the crown would not stay snapped in. This is a really common problem with early American wristwatches, for very good reason. I warn people when I am sent a watch with this problem that this issue is, shall we say, problematic.

First, I should point out that American watch companies did not make cases. Customers bought cases separately. Thus it is fair to say that all the early movements were pocketwatch movements. Some people bought wristwatch cases for them. And the small movements were all just scaled down versions of the larger designs.

In vintage American watches, the "snap" function and the winding stem and crown are part of the case, not the watch. This is called "negative setting". Negative setting uses a 2-position fingered spring sleeve in the neck of the case to put the watch in wind or set position.  The "snap" in/out of the crown is thus fully a function of the case. The advantage of the American negative setting system was that it allowed movements to be more mix and match with cases (again the watch companies didn't make cases).  The stem (part of the case, often hand made to work with a given movement) is a square post that sticks out from the case and into the watch movement. On a negative setting watch, the "default" position is setting - the spring pushes it that way. So out of the case, it is in setting mode.

A shoulder in the stem snaps over the fingers of the sleeve, in the neck of the case, pushes the stem in, and holds it in winding mode, against that spring.

Positive setting is the setting system you find in modern watches, and vintage Swiss movements.  On a positive set watch, the "default" position is winding and the snap action is built into the watch movement. The stem just passes though a hole, effectively, in the side of the case and the case has no part in winding/setting.

All that said... Pocketwatch cases have a long neck to support this design. Shrinking down the snap mechanism to fit in the edge of a wristwatch case is simply not practical. They don't work well. And if the sleeve breaks, which is very common on either case type, replacements are getting rare.

This watch luckily did not have a broken sleeve. It's sleeve is a tiny "wrap" of steel with a split. I squeezed it closed a little, and it will work. For awhile...

Is it "fixed"? Not really... This is as good as it was when it was new, and it will spread again, and again fail to stay snapped in. Or it will break. The design just isn't workable.

It's an antique. They don't 'em like this anymore (and there's good reasons for that).

Find more content about vintage watches here.

Job Number 170074

This one was a smooth, routine service, with nothing much special going.

The watch is a grade 314, 12 size, 15 jewels, made about 1923. 

See the entire album for this project here.

Find more content about vintage watches here.