Job Number 190141

When this watch arrived, nothing was broken, but it was not running, The escapement was in “over-banked” state. This is a mechanical state where the roller jewel on the balance wheel has gotten outside the pallet fork. The balance wheel can then only turn to one side and not the other because the roller jewel just hits the outside of the fork on one side rather than passing into it (and then moving the fork, and releasing the escape wheel). The mechanism has a guard pin on the pallet that normally gets in the way of the roller getting out of sync in this way. But if things are out of adjustment, that doesn’t work and a jolt at the right moment will jog the balance out of rhythm and get it to over-bank.

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.

The winding/setting mechanism, or "keyless works", on early Elgin ladies movements is problematic to say the least. There's a spring pushing one way on the topside of the base plate and one underneath pushing the other way. They both have to be in good condition for winding/setting to work.

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.

The album for this Hamilton project is here.

Job Number 190043

We see a lot of pocketwatches with discolored plastic crystals. They can appear tinted blue or green but yellow is the most common. Sometimes it appears that the color is the dial, but it's not.

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.

Broken mainspring...

 The train...

The Hamilton pallet fork and pallet bridge...

Hamilton hairspring stud clamps, which are pretty small, have two small screws, one for each side of the stud. It always takes a little holding of breath to get these placed with the balance bouncing around, but there are a few tricks that make it easier.

Follow all my watch repair projects in detail here.

And the album for this Hamilton project is here.

Job Number 170126

This is an Illinois Watch Company 18 size, 17 jewel, grade 61, model 6. Lever-set.

These first photos show the lever mechanism under the dial. It's a little different... And a little crudely finished. But it works fine.

There's some pretty bad dial damage. There's no way this is going to disappear, but we do what we can.

See the album for this project here.

Job Number 170147

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

Job Number 160275

This one is a is a grade 452 Elgin, 12 size, 17 jewels, made about 1926.

 Replacement balance staff...

Job Number 170002

Although this watch is in pretty good condition, there were a couple red flags. One was a piece of folded up tissue paper under the balance cock, placed to raise the balance cock up and increase the end-shake of the balance. This is something similar to the usual making of divots in the place under the piece, using a graver, but less permanent obviously.

The second red flag was a drop of glue on the top and side of the balance cock. It was not holding anything, just sitting there on the top edge and part of the side. It must have been left there accidentally from doing something else (which I did not find).

I went ahead and fully assembled it. And it ran just fine, dial side down. It stops dial side up because there is too much end-shake (strange considering that fold of tissue paper I removed) in the balance wheel, and it slips down with gravity and touches the underside of the balance cock in that orientation.

The problem is extensive wear to the upper balance pivot. It's not broken, but it's worn down to the point where it is short and will have to be replaced. This can happen either because the jewels have a crack or chip and they cut away at the steel pivot with each motion, or when I watch is not cleaned, dirt in there can also grind away. Or perhaps other reasons... Hard to say what happened here. The jewel is fine (at this time anyway), and only the upper pivot is badly worn, not both upper and lower.

When I was cutting the hub off in the lathe, to remove the old staff, there occurred a thankfully rare mini-disaster. I guess I pressed the cutter at a bad angle and the staff in the chuck side broke. Bad. That meant I had to reverse the balance and chuck up the side I had been working on, then cut away the rivet instead. This takes a lot longer as it has to be done with extreme precision to avoid damaging the arms of the balance wheel. Turned out OK though, and the new staff is a great fit... This photo shows riveting the new staff.

View the whole album for this project here.

This is one of those watches that the timing machine won't read correctly because of sounds the hairspring makes. The escapement is good, no extra clanking there (which would be bad), but the hairspring rings, which is usually good if anything, so long as it's not doing it because it's touching something. I went ahead and put the hands on and cased it for time tests over several days. It turned out fine.

This watch is an Elgin grade 180, 18 size, 17 jewels, made about 1904.

Job Number 180108

This is a grade 169, 18 size, 15 jewels, made about 1897.

It's a nice watch but the really interesting thing is the case.

The case is marked "Invisible Joint Case Company". These are scarce.

The case is designed so that the hinged parts fit very snug, making the joint "invisible". The hinge is cleverly internal so it does not show at all.

It is not known exactly who made these cases. There is evidence of them coming from more than one existing case factory.