Job Number 190183
I’m told someone attempted to repair this watch in the '50s. It came to me in pieces. It’s 99% all there, but there’s some serious problems.
The first photo shows the base plate where the balance cock sits. It has been aggressively filed down through the nickel finish and well into the brass. The surface is smooth but it’s taken down quite a lot. You can see the step at the edge of the area, up to where the normal finish is. I guess someone thought they could do this to make the broken balance work. There is no way to repair that damage. It’s simply impossible to put removed metal back. The balance cock will never sit at exactly the right height again.
The third photo shows the underside (dial side) of the base plate. It looks like the balance jewel has been ripped out through the top - the wrong side. The lip the jewel sits on is mutilated and destroyed.
The next photo below shows the broken off pivot on the balance. This is no doubt the watch’s original problem and by itself would not have been a problem to fix.
What we’re going to do here is build up a “new” movement using as much of the original as possible, which will be a lot. It’s wasn’t in bad shape to start with, aside from the original broken balance staff.
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Job Number 190141
As a last step on this watch I expected to have to adjust the banking pins and guard pin (and hopefully nothing else) to make sure over-banking is blocked. However, it all checks out as is. The pallet can not pass by the balance out of sync.
It is possible to over-bank a watch with just the right jolt at the right instant, even when things are all correct. But such a jolt typically has to be enough to actually break something. It seems this watch got lucky.
Both these springs however are prone to breaking, or just wearing out. Old steel formulations lose their tension over decades.
I always dread working to get one of these to function properly, but this one was no trouble at all.
Job Number 190043
The crystals are not supposed to be this way, they were originally clear. Over decades these early types of plastic decayed and changed. While doing so, they gave off a corrosive gas that very commonly, as is the case on this Hamilton, severely damages the hands and often the dial too. In the worst case, the corrosion will extend to internal parts inside the movement through the center of the dial.
It's temping to think that plastic crystals are always "cheap" replacements. But this is not necessarily so. Plastic crystals were considered a technological improvement over glass as they were said to be "unbreakable".
Some people prefer to leave these crystals on as original. This may be fine. Many believe that the degassing stopped long ago. On the other hand, some say that the old plastic crystals should always be replaced to avoid the risk of further damage. I don't know. This plastic crystal was replaced with glass.
New Arrival, Job Number 190189
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https://photos.app.goo.gl/cqRwvg2x1gPwGYjU8
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