Job Number 170159

This is an Illinois Watch Co 18 size, 17 jewels, grade 65-E, with Ball regulator modification. It's lever-set, with a two-tone finish. It is also a private label "H.M. Jacobson & Son, Philadelphia", made about 1903.





Top it all off with a display back "salesman's" case!

Job Number 170169

This is an Elgin grade 303, 12 size, 7 jewels, made about 1933. The grade 303 was on of the most popular watches Elgin produced, and a lot of them are still ticking today.

Here are several other examples.
This project includes a couple of lathe operations. It needed a balance staff, and one of the balance jewels.

The old staff is removed by cutting away the back hub in the lathe.
When needed, as in this case, a special jewel chuck can hole a bezeled jewel while cutting down the thickness of the bezel.



Job Number 170147

This Elgin is a grade 104, 16 size, 7 jewels, made about 1893.



Job Number 170122

Here's a few "before" images. 

This is what greeted me under the dial. There was so much green... stuff, that the minute wheel, hour wheel and cannon pinion left right off as one. It wasn't a problem to get them appear though, it's just really gummy. See the whole album for this project here.
Much better cleaned...

This movement was made about 1895. It's is a grade 103 Elgin, 18 size, 15 jewels. 





Job Number 190007

Here's the parts of the Waltham motor barrel from this little 6 size. It's a little different from Elgin's "safety barrel" design.
The Waltham "shipper" keyless works, for winding setting. They used this on almost everything. It's a good design, but it does have a lot of parts. And many a watchmaker, I'm guess, has accidentally sent that little spring flying across the room. I can tell by the number of people that email me wondering if I can sell them one.

Here is the keyless works assembled on the base plate.


The pins on the regulator where missing, or broken off more specifically. I had to push out the broken off ends from the holes, then replace the pins with newly made tapered brass.

The pins fit into the holes from above, snug (hence the taper). Then the tops are trimmed and finished in the staking set.   
Here's the new pins, before trimming off the the bottoms.
It took two tries. The first time I made the new pins too short. They have to be just right because this watch has an overcoil spring. If they are too long they will interfere. So I did it again and made they plenty long enough. I’ll trim them shorter as needed.
The new pins (tops, finished off flat) are just to the side of the balance cock in the upper part of this image.
This is a hunter style movement, which is to say that the train is layed out so that the seconds dial (the 4th wheel) is at 90 degrees from the stem. On an open face movement, the 4th wheel is 180 degrees opposite the stem. This watch has a conversion dial. It’s markings are rotated so that it looks right in an open face case - the stem lines up with 12:00. This of course rotates the seconds, placing it at 3:00 rather than the usual 6:00.
After running for awhile, one of the pallet stones came loose. I’ll have to re-seat it with melted shellac. It didn’t move very much so adjustments shouldn’t be needed.

It took a lot to get this going OK. It had a persistent issue of the guard pin not working on one side, in spite of being perfectly straight up and down and centered. I suspect that the roller table is actually slightly out of round for some reason. In addition, there is a little too much end-shake in the balance. Usually this is due to divots being place and filed away and place aging, etc, under the balance cock by old repairs. Not so in this case. It’s clean. Yet the balance cock does not sit nice and flat. It’s got a very tiny rock to it. It’s just enough, of course, to cause a little trouble, especially dial-up.

This movement is in a "stretch case". Notice that the movement, 6 size, is much smaller than the diameter of the case, which is more like 12 size.

This gives the watch a larger size, with a thinner profile, with a less expensive movement.

The stem is extra long to reach.
Project link (all the posts):
https://pluspora.com/tags/190007_et

Follow all the projects in detail here:
https://pluspora.com/tags/elgintime

And the album for this project is here:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/wsxZH6sHArnx39Rm6

New Arrival, Job Number 190040


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