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Agree with nickelsilver through the front is how to movement is taken out of the case. It also looks like the bezel can be removed as well.

Looks like the bezel should come off, then the movement goes out the front.

Oh yes its a complete mess. The seller knew I was paying an interest in it the other day he offered it to me for £450. I declined I wouldn't want it if he gave it to me.

On a solid rim balance like this, you would lay the balance with cock on the bench upside down, grab the rim with sturdy tweezers and bring the balance edge where you want to remove weight over to sit on a low bench block, then with a fine drill, remove a but from the underside. Having a bench block that is only 5 or 6 millimeters thick helps. Remove less than you think you should- you can't put it back, haha!

aluminium foil works well - just fold it a couple of times as necessary.

I decided to try some dynamic poising, using the results I obtained at 150deg amplitude. However, while I did manage to find the heavy spot by the dynamic poising method, I did not want a permanent solution, so I added a small amount of weight opposite the heavy spot instead, using a small amount of rodico. Astoundingly, the results were impressive, again timing at low amplitude: Crown up -122s, 149deg, 0.7ms Crown up-right -121s, 151deg, 0.5ms Crown right -114s, 155deg, 0.2ms Crown right-down -127s, 158deg, 0.1ms Crown down -126s, 152deg, 0.3ms Crown down-left -121s, 154deg, 0.6ms Crown left -139s, 151deg, 0.9ms Crown left-up -130s, 149deg, 0.9ms However, since I think the balance is out of dynamic poise because of mishandling of the hairspring, I don’t want to make permanent alterations to the balance wheel by removing weight for now.

So in Harrogate with my gorgeous wife, walked into an antique shop and ten minutes later and 60 quid less walked out with this. A silver cased fully working Elgin pocket watch. Just needs a subdial hand

As others have said, given that this if genuine would be on a 10 grand plus watch I would expect perfection, the lume pips are all over the place in both size and position, they just look like they have been done by hand, the Rolex pips would be added mechanically so would all be even in size and position relating to the hour markers. One common ply I have seen is someone has a bag of old junkers and throws in a fake Rolex, but never mentions it in the description so some poor fool thinks the seller has missed it so bids accordingly, the trouble is poor fools rearly act alone and they seem to congregate around the same auctions thus push the price of the bag of junk up to silly levels, which encourages the seller to do it again. Seen it happen in the Pen world as well, in one case 10 Chines pens which cost a couple of pounds each are bundled with a fake Montblanc and the description says I know nothing about these pens, I found them when clearing a dead relatives house. They then sit back and watch £20 worth of low quality pens sell for a couple of hundred to one of the affor mentioned poor fools.

Hiya Rich . There are a lot of fake watches on ebay. I found a tag dial that was really badly done. Examine very closely. Any thing that doesn't indicate quality then it's a fake. The lettering does look a little off level and a bit pants . The calender 13 doesn't look quality at all, and look a the lume pip at 9. And the indices at 6 the lume pip is covering the Swiss lettering. These standout to my untrained eye. This would be from what a ten grand watch? I would expect much more for my money tbh. I nearly bought myself a Tudor this weekend that was reduced to 2 grand, it looked near perfect. Sorry mate there are loads of them. Its a trick that the seller uses, discreetly hiding something that looks valuable to bump up the bidding. Crafty barstuards

What a difference a photo makes!!!! I almost went for 1856 too as I couldn't see that downward diagonal stroke but it's now quite clear. Also the shape of the ground is much clearer. I would agree, 1856. Hope this helps with the maker ID.

Hi LWS you will find it invaluable working on the 400 day clocks.

OK OK...I ordered the 10th edition from Timesavers. That was the best price.

Not really, but that's easy to check (with the balance in).

Yes I do.

The escapement looks great from the pics (to really know it has to be checked with balance in, under microscope etc.). What was the thickness of the weaker mainspring you used? I wouldn't hesitate to pull the entry stone out perhaps 0.01mm; that should drop it enough it's not rebanking anymore. You could also move the entry banking a tiny bit to increase the lock. Both are totally reversible and won't hurt anything to try; I suggest the entry as it has quite a small total lock now, and moving that stone has a greater effect than the exit. GR lists a spring 1.30 x 0.135 x 360, ref 3348, but that doesn't mean they are available.

Oh heck I missed this one. It is definitely English and as you know its a fusee and it also has maintaining power which means when you wind it up the power is not lost. It also is quite late as the pillars are very plain, early ones had very fine piercing which made them most decorative. The hall marks on the case will date it very closely to when the movement was made. Instead of having the makers name all you have are the initials which I have circled in red. So if you can work that out you will have what you want. I'm hopeless at that sort of thing so don't ask me.

They are fascinating. If you watch those videos all the way through, you should get a good feel for their construction and how they operate. Pocket watches are generally a bit larger than modern watches, so they are arguably easier to deal with, but you do need to be careful letting down the power, careful with the fusee chain, and careful reassembling the winding works.

It’s been discussed here before regarding how different spring metallurgy affects force - I had an issue with finding a suitable spring for an Omega bumper one which was a bit overenthusiastic. Can you maybe try a 1.35 spring as a compromise? I can look through my spares if Cousins don’t stock them.

You have to be a little careful servicing a fusee watch. It is pretty easy to damage stuff. They tend to all be a little bit different, but there is some general advice here. I'm no expert, but if you run into problems or need advice, post here and someone will no doubt assist. Parts are difficult to get and you may end up having to adapt or make bits.

The hands are definitely not right, they are too long and don't suit the style. Plus the dial plate looks too new and not the right size. The movement looks ok but sawdust in the bottom of the case is certainly a red flag.

Nope. I think you are confidential me with @jdm (clue in the name). I'm not sure which of us should be more offended!

New ones might not be available, but plenty of questionable ones from India are. So you could get a bunch of them to practice on first before working on your original one.

Excellent detective work! Do you want to show us the hairspring, or are you going to leave it alone now? (Only for a while, obviously, until that itching in your fingers becomes unbearable).

New Seiko 7019 barrel complete with mainsprint (common to, at least, to 7005,7009, 7025) are no longer available, and in case you could find one it would also have to be serviced, as the grease inside would be dried too. So I think your options are: Do not service it. Service your MS and get it into the barrel manually. It's easy to ruin it, and you might even not notice you've damaged it. Service your MS, and use a MS winder to get it into the barrel again. The Bergeon #6 left handed winder works fine for Seiko 7 series barrels. Buy a new compatible MS to install into your barrel. It will come already lubed in a holder to be transferred directly into the barrel. I've done this path, from 1 to 3, and now I'm very comfortable using the #6 winder. I don't have a handle for it but it's perfectly usable without it (I know with the handle it must by twice as pleasant an experience)

I wanted to get back to all on this. I finally got the tools and pieces ( Presto tool, table jewels, table warmer, hairspring, etc.) I need for dealing with the whole escapement (still need the Timegrapher). But I wanted to try it on a teaching watch first which I have. I got a copy of Henry Frieds book "The Watch Repairers Manual" it has an excellent section on this and sizing the table jewel. I have another watch I was using as a teaching tool also needs a hairspring and table jewel. I was able to remove the old spring, take off the table, and I am about to replace the roller jewel. Its in place, just have to shellac it in. Hardest part of all this so far was just picking up the roller jewel and getting it in place. I tried for an hour with tweezers, no luck (i realize how impartant tweezer skills are). I lucked out with the Presto tool designed for this. Will see how it goes with the shellac and hairspring.

Seiko mainsprings have an incredibly stiff bridle which makes it really difficult to get into the barrel of the winder. As you can see from the video, the bridle got broken off. I've broken off Seiko bridles using different winders and also by hand. But I always ended up doing it by hand. It is incredibly painful but maybe it's because I don't have joiner hands. If you have never done one by hand before, you might want to standby a replacement just in case. And a tip is, when getting the last bit of the bridle into the barrel, do not press on the mainspring as it can kink and break it.

Gouging or raising a dot on the mainplate, very much frowned upon. I have done it and it worked, but I don't think I will do it again. Watch paper or tin foil.

I will need to see the whole case and the back plate of the movement.

Thank you for your introduction and welcome to this friendly forum. We all look forward to your contributions and continued involvement.

If This truely a screw down back try the super glue method. Glue a lange nut on the back and let it dry then take a spanner and turn the back off. The nut is easilly removed using acetone (nail varnish remover) and leaves no marks.

Welcome Andy! I also just completed Mark's Level 2 course. At the moment I have two old pocket watch movements torn apart. I was involved in mechanical CAD with Intergraph and Autodesk for 25 years. Enjoy WRT!

Hello Andy, welcome to WRT forum.

Hello Andy and welcome to the forum enjoy

NEW yes thanks It's really good for the price and I also have my USB for images if I need them all set up.

JLC wants even the ratchet wheel being oiled!

I oil the teeth on the clutch, but I've never oiled the winding pinion. But, as they're winding with a a relatively high load at 90 deg, I guess it makes sense to oil, or grease.

I Must admit to oiling them as a matter of course during assembly.

Or you could just buy click spring wire... https://www.cousinsuk.com/sku/details/clicks-click-springs/c32033

Got the endcurve formed and centered the hairspring. Now to check the poise of the balance wheel.... if I can find my piosing tool....

The eBay translator is well known for getting it wrong, especially when translating Indian (South Asian as they seem to be called nowadays) to English. When the seller writes 'Its a rusty Brocken scratched to hell wreck the translator converts it to never been worn mint condition

Guitar strings are often recommended. Or buy a selection - they're cheap https://www.cousinsuk.com/category/springs

Well, when testing the staff in the watch, I discovered that one of the pivots was a little too big, so I had to chuck it up and turn it down a tad bit. Now the balance is fully assembled and running in the watch. Have not put it on the timer because I want to enjoy this victory before taking any hits for erratic behavior. As noted earlier, the roller is not in great shape. I tweaked it as best I could. If there is an issue, I will blame it on the roller and not my staff!!!

I just wanted to share this technique that gave me a great result and is very quick. Using the tip of a cocktail stick with a small divot in the end made with a 1mm dia drill. Dip the stick in a bit of Molykote 111 and then push the pointed end of the stick into the o ring. Using brass tweezers push the o ring half way along the stick. Pick up the pusher between finger and thumb of left hand and hold the stick against the end of the pusher ( with end of pusher in the 1mm divot). Slide the o ring along the stick with the tweezers and it just goes into place very easily. Hope this makes sense. How do you guys do this? Is there a specific tool that you should use? Steve.

Welcome. My Dad ran a watch shop for 40 years and he hated them with a passion. Lots of them were traded in for Longines, Bulova, or Hamiltons that he carried. I ended up with these and have restored a few of the electrics. I love the e petitions and have bought and restored a few for almost nothing. Great watch when on the tractor, splitting wood, or canoeing in the BWCAW. So there is a place for them in this wide world.

A good thing about Timex is that one can't get it to run worse. Welcome to WRT forum pal.

So I was on youtube and this came up. I thought it was amazing so I thought I would share. I love watching stuff like this amazing hope you enjoy

The bankings pretty certainly didn't leave the factory like that. The escapement would need to be checked to find out why the entry banking is so bent. A guess from afar: the exit stone has been replaced with a stone too long or moved out for some reason, which means the escapement wouldn't fully escape from the exit side as the fork was against the banking on the entry side. Moving the entry banking pin will allow it to escape, but now in addition to the extra lock on the exit side from the jewel being out too far, there is additional drop and total lock on the entry side. The watch probably runs, but amplitude will suffer very much. I've been trying to find a clear description of the steps to checking and adjusting the lever escapement to share, but so far it's been old confusing texts or nothing. It's not that hard to understand or carry out the adjustments, but without a clear description very daunting. I actually know trained watchmakers from good schools who don't really understand it, so it's not just new/hobby folks who are in the dark. If I have time one of these days maybe I'll put something together. In the repair work I do I probably retouch the escapement on a third of the watches I see- it's an important thing to check and correct.

One of my other hobbies is furniture making, and it's supposed to be all fine furniture, as in no compromises on quality and the "look". I have now completed the desktop extension that is at the heart of this thread and I can state that it is probably the most utilitarian, aka, ugly, piece of furniture I've ever built, as you can see in the attached photo, with nary a dovetail joint anywhere. But, at least so far, it works, though whether it will survive the test of time remains to be seen. The height seems right, and I can comfortably rest my elbows on it, and I can spread them out also. The 2 drawers will accumulate lots of junk in short order as they're roomy. And I do have a gas lift chair so should I need to adjust my height for some reason, it'll be easy. Thanks to you all for the great advice you gave me. Now I need to do something constructive with it I suppose! Like fix watches perhaps?

if you don't see the advertisement does the advertisement company know that? If Mark has gone to all the trouble to try to get advertisement to keep the message board afloat does blocking the advertisements caused a problem?