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Just completed a cleaning of a watchcase & a Waltham 15j Pocket watch movement. Then I put them together to make a whole watch. Neither came to me as a whole timepiece. I have been looking for an unusual case to put the movement in & I found it at Dave's watch parts. The movement was very dirty and very sluggish & the case was very tarnished with dings and scratches. The crystal was not bad with a lot of small scratches (fixed with cerium oxide) So here are the before & after shots

My watch collection is slowly growing: 1960s Tissot Seastar 7 Mens, 1960s Roamer Anfibio Mens, and 1970s Ernest Borel Ladies - all in fine condition and running great. A non-woking Elgin pocket watch is on its way to me, for learning purposes. I will dissemble and clean, and hopefully get it running. I'm down to one gun: a Smith & Wesson .22 Single Shot Competition "Perfected Model" Pistol with custom mahogany grips. This model was used for years in U.S. Revolver Association matches and by American Olympic teams abroad. This is the third model arising from model 1891, and was adapted from the double-action .38 Perfected Model revolver. It's beautiful.

Inspiration to "good watches and guns" Uberti Colt 1860 and my recently renovated Genre Roskopf railway pocket watch. Luckily here in Hungary one can have muzzleloaders without any licence (Admin, please delete if violating forum laws)

First, sorry for the many post recently but we went on a wedding of my brother-in-law for the weekend and killing time on the forum instead in my workshop drilling or turning something :/ To the topic, relatives (including the new ones) 2of 10 were wearing those, i dont know, bluetooth bracelets.... and a quartz watch on the other arm.... on a wedding... even the groom... crazy i think. Only i had a mechanical watch. One can say that i am also crazy looking for watches on a wedding party but where is this world going? I am not old, at least with 36 i think i am not I like technical inventions and use them... no like mine boss who has no mobile phone but those bracelets... completely useless....

Hi all I have put together a couple of pics of a recent project. This was my first pocket watch. This is my first post in this section of the forum, so I feel slightly intimated by all the knowledge around me! Limit was a British company, established in Lancashire in 1912. The 15 jewels movement in this watch was swiss made, and from my research I gathered that it was probably supplied by Thommen in Switzerland, and cased in the UK by Limit. It turned out to be very easy to work on. My previous projects have all been wristwatches (mostly Seikos!), so the slightly larger diameter here definitely helped. It also turned out easy to put it back together. Here is a summary of what I did with this watch, I hope you enjoy reading this! First the “before” picture – I bought the watch on an ebay auction for spares or repairs, not really knowing what to expect. Upon receipt of the watch, the first good surprise was that the watch was running after my first attempt at winding it. The mineral glass dial was very cloudy, so this needed to be addressed. I also wanted to completely strip, clean and lubricate the movement. Upon opening the case of the watch, the movement looked very grubby, with traces of heat having been applied to some parts of the movement in the past. I am not too sure why this would have been done, perhaps to heat up Shellac for a repair of the balance jewel? Or to burn dust residue in the watch. I was quite puzzled by this because the marks are definitely not localised to one area of the movement. I proceeded to strip the movement, no snags were encountered during disassembly. After a bit of manual cleaning, all the parts went in the ultrasonic machine for a good clean. I was not quite happy with the look of the visible parts of the movement after the Ultrasonic clean, so I gave some of them a polish, and back into the machine. I did not want to achieve a perfect result, but just wanted to make the movement look a bit more presentable. The superficial heat marks came out. Note I did not polish the balance cock as I did not want to interfere with anything there! I put the movement back together, and lubricated it. By that point, I had received a new crystal from our favourite supplier. I would normally use my crystal press to push out the old crystal, but I did not have a suitable die for this diameter, so had to do this manually. With a bit of persuasion, the old crystal came out, but not without a minor injury (cut on my thumb from the bezel edge, it was quite **BLEEP**!) so I will definitely wear gloves next time! And here it is, the watch completely re-assembled. I did not do anything to the case as I like a bit of patina, I think it gives this watch character. I put it on my timing machine, and with an accuracy of approx. 10sec/ day I am very happy with this, so will not do anything else to this one. I hope you found this interesting, comments welcome (positive, negative, or advice!)

I said at the price I wouldn't have one of these as they have no "Hack" and don't have a manual wind facility . I thought for the money I could get something better. Well now I have to "EAT MY WORDS" A certain retailer was selling these with a 40% discount, so thought I would have one as people seem to hold these in high regard. These watches are excellently constructed the movement particularly well made, accurate and well regulated and I firmly believe would be worth every penny of the full retail price. Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

Hi I am new to this hobby and just picked up the L&R watch cleaner that I asked advise about. While there the guy gave me what looks like a mini staking set. Not really sure of its use but it's in real nice shape with a micrometer adjustment on the pressure lever. Made by Seitz. Any info on the application for this tool is appreciated. Pictures attatched. Thank you Tom

you did a beautiful job of restoring that case and movement. stunning.

But collectors are always going to value a Waltham to be fitted to its first case because that's the original case but it is interesting Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

So I came up with some more numbers but use with caution I'm not sure how interchangeable They are because 31 and 32 still doesn't come up on the list. So bestfit has a book a very handy book actually It's two volumes there's a second volume which has additional stuff not covered in the first one. They also have a website but you still need the book as the website just has numbers. Then unfortunately you have to pay for the website access. http://www.bestfitmaterial.com/ So 49-1 claims its base model is the 31 and as I wasn't finding what I wanted for 31 or 32 I looked that up. Now we get a new part numbee and a new list of interchangeability. So at least these have the same plate thickness as the 31. 195/700 UT 231 UT 235 UT 239 UT 243 UT 249 UT 259 UT 265 UT 271 UT 277 UT 447 UT 49-1

It is interesting... Walthams were manufacturers of movement's. To my knowledge they never sold watches. They would retail to Jewellers etc. It was normal practice for a customer to pick a case and select a movement. Then the Jewellery shop would fit movement to case. So really the "watch,being the movement " was never supplied in an original case, as is the practice today. That's why you could have a Waltham in a case inscribed say 1920 but the movement could be 1916 but it is the case it was first fitted into. All you've done is something similar to original practice of 100 years ago. The point I'm making is Walthams never supplied cased movements so are any Walthams truly original by definition. Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

Right after I posted I was being bothered by why was there the 12 after the 32? Another thing bothering me was the 31 should substitute and it's not on the list? So looking at the book as I was looking someplace else for these numbers they're not the same.

That's a really beautiful job. A watch to be proud of Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

A Little Tech today... Citizen Eco-Drive Titanium Satellite Wave F-100 ~~~ [ satellite controlled ]~~~

I thought I would start off with image from the bestfit book so everyone knows what were looking at. So bestfit reference book is interesting in that it has the fingerprint identification method in case you don't actually know which watch you have. So you go to the relevant page with the size of the watch you have compare your setting parts and the images are the exact size or very close to what you actually have. Here unfortunately we have a minor problem in that several watches have the same setting parts there's a different height of the movement. So I'm still trying to figure out which watch you actually have? So in the front section of the book the watch companies are listed with all the various calibers and if there's a base model will tell you that. So for instance the 34 the base model is the 33. Then you thought it might be a 29 which is a base model for 30. Then 231 is the base model for a whole bunch of the other 200 series. But it looks like they're all different heights which means the arbors aren't going to fit. Then the left-handed right-handed setting parts have nothing to do with the barrel arbor. Whether the gear train wraps around the center wheel in one direction or the other doesn't change anything just the physical layout. So we still have to figure out which one you have? So you have a 29 arbor which is too long measure that and the one from your watch. Also measure the thickness between the plates of the watch I'm not sure where they actually get the height specification from. If we know the 29 is too long we may be able to guess which one you actually have.

Could You make a drawing with the dimensions? I can look around in my stock.

Yes, the world is going crazy with all those "dumb" phone-watches or whatever they are called! The real watch is not being recognized anymore and traded for a false sense of technology....Ahhhh! too wordy! All I want to say is: "Why the *%$& are people wearing those?! But we know better! BTW, you can post all you want, szbalogh. No apologies needed, as a matter of fact we are happy you do! Cheers, Bob

The screw seems to be a little bit out...I can't be sure but that's how it shows on my screen. There is a "thread loosening" fluid you can immerse the arbor in after cutting a slot in the protruding part of the screw (for your screwdriver to grab) as szbalogh said. After a couple of hours try and unscrew it. Some people use Vissin but I have no experience using it...and there is always the Alum method but I don't think it will work here. Cheers, Bob

good show, keep your powder dry. vin

Its a clasic , strong solid case ,good behavior in water(not diving) , cheap and many movement parts, automatic so no need to turn the crown winding everyday. i agree with you will, the only thing i dont like its that the accuracy its not like quartz watches and never can be , beside that its a must have mechanical watch everyone can afford.

Here's my good old Seiko 5 - bought on a whim from eBay a year or three ago. Good, sturdy, no-nonsense construction. Everyone should have at least one!

I would try to save the arbor first. You can lose nothing with the attempt. First, simply tap a bit on the screw with a same sized flat punch, this can loosen the threads. Then mount the piece in a lathe and turn it slowly backwards and try to grab the screw with a graver, hopefully it could be twisted out. It should have a normal thread. Next, try to cut a slot in the rest of the screw or through the end of the arbor with a sharp graver and try to screw it out. Finally, one can drill the screw (size is preferably 80% of the thread). With this the thread in the arbor leaves untouched and the reast of the screw could be scratched out. Or just drill the whole screw out and cut a new thread.

First you have to figure out what you're looking for? The link below has both the 362 and 34 caliber noticed there different thicknesses? http://www.ranfft.de/cgi-bin/bidfun-db.cgi?10&ranfft&0&2uswk&Unitas_34

Ahhhh; the swap meets. get there early and get all the good watches and guns. cleaning : start with deturgent soap and elbow grease. the old carb. cleaners would etch the metal. that WAS good. crc is o.k.,but smells. in the mean time (finding the right chemical) :soap and alcohol, certain parts should NOT be soaked in alcohol. there some good books on this subject. cheers vinn

Has this guy got anything else for sale i'll buy it if he's throwing a jewelng tool in for free.

Thanks Don, yeah, good point... 'long time beginner' that's it for sure. LOL! I have an older friend who bought his first pocket watch in 1942. A Westclox Scotty. Back when Westclox could actually make a decent dollar watch. Anyway he said that it would run for a few years then it would stop so he'd soak it in stove oil over night and then wipe it off and it would run for another few years. If only it was all that simple hey? LOL! Back when 'about time' was okay. Ha! Best wishes to you Don and thanks for the message.

Oh yeah, for us, ball pen haters it is a great sport: hunt those pens and disembowel them! I did to get the little ball to fix the diver bezel in a Seiko...and it works great!!! PS. Where are the lovable fountain pens nowadays!! Those I collect!

Some of you already know that I bought myself as a birthday present, and to celebrate the birth of my first daughter, a Landeron 248 based Chronograph to restore / fix, and that I thought that it was a redial. Here the thread about it: Apparently it is not only the case ot a simple redial (albeit with a wrong dial which was adapted) but what I would define as "watchmaker's botchery", since the dial itself was fixed to the case with 2 screws (and from the front side...):

It would be difficult i think to purchase a Seiko from any price bracket and be disappointed tbh, but you made a good choice they are very reliable timepieces