Job Number 180055

This watch is a is a grade 478, 16 size, 21 jewels, made about 1925
It's hard to guess what happened to this watch but this is the 4th wheel I found in there. In addition the escape wheel had a broken pivot (lower) and the lower escape jewel was badly cracked.

It took a while to get an escape wheel. They are hard to find for a B. W. Raymond like this. When I did get one the first thing I found was that the upper pivot was too snug. It "fit", but did not turn smoothly. It needed reducing, but hardly more than a polish. This is very often true of replacement parts.

What I did not notice at first about the replacement escape was that the wheel was mounted significantly higher on the staff than the old one. The wheel interfered with the tails on the pallet fork, and failed to face the pallet stones in the centers.

The staff is friction fit, but is also tapered. Lowering it caused it to come right off.

The center of the wheel is a little donut of a bearing of either brass of gold, I'm not sure which. I pressed it a little in the stacking set to close the hole. The wheel could then be pressed to the correct height.

I can not stress enough the light touches with the hammer that these changes called for.


Ticking.

The beat sounds way off, but I am going to leave it to run the mainspring down for awhile before continuing.


No comments:

Blog Archive