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Showing content with the highest reputation on 09/01/18 in all areas

  1. IWC in New York is offering "at no cost" to give you an estimate? Does that include return shipping with insurance if you decline the service quote? If the watch sets, winds and runs, then there aren't likely to be any broken parts--there may be worn parts however. Setting aside the precautions needed for mailing a vintage gold pocket watch across the U.S. I would not do it for the following reasons: 1) Once IWC has the watch, the will quote you for a vintage restoration, not a standard overhaul. Looking at their prices list for wristwatches (its downloadable), I see that the least expensive is $490 for mechanical movement without complications, and goes all the way up tp $2,490. I would imagine that they will charge you a premium price for the restoration of a 105 year old pocket watch. Your guess is as good as mine on this one! 2) I would get clarification on what the procedures are for declining an overhaul. I don't think they can provide you with an estimate without doing some preliminary disassembly, and it seems unlikely to me that this will NOT incur a cost if you then say "no thanks" to moving forward with service after the quote--and they WILL charge you for sending it back. J
    2 points
  2. I know nothing about timegraphers but I do know that Califomia doesn't exist [emoji1]
    1 point
  3. Have you downloaded the Sternkreuz catalogue on Cousins site? Loads of obscure crystals in there.
    1 point
  4. I've seen cutouts on train jewels with caps that were pressed in. To facilitate cleaning. Never on an Incabloc though. In this case I imagine it was to allow cleaning assembled, which became sort of accepted by some out of desperation in the late 70s to 80s.
    1 point
  5. Have you check cousinsuk. Have a check on tiptopcrystal also.
    1 point
  6. Strange aren't they ! Maybe so that you can oil without removing the jewel ?
    1 point
  7. It's a looker ,...so good luck getting it all working....
    1 point
  8. See this vid of some really amazing historic watch tools enjoy:
    1 point
  9. The ETA 2840 - made exclusively for Swatch watches - is a simplified version of the ETA 2824-2. So, yes, if you follow any advice on the 2824 and apply it to your 2840 you can't go far wrong.
    1 point
  10. No one seems to be sure what the star and S trademark signify's but it appeared around the time that Williamson started using the word "Astral" for their movements a name later to become synonymous with Smiths who kept the trademark when they bought Williamson "There's a pocket for every Astral and a Astral for every pocket"
    1 point
  11. No offence taken by any of us Nost, You are quite right with regards to your explanation of OVERWOUND !!.
    1 point
  12. The case may be original but the movement is certainly not, the Eta 2824-2 used by Tudor was top notch as far as finish went with highly decorated bridges and a rotor marked Tudor, so this one is either totally bogus or had a complete movement replacement. If the case is original it would have to be considered a "Franken"
    1 point
  13. Lovely job Roland. You may have figured this out, but what you have there appears to be a Kasper cal 200 https://17jewels.info/movements-en/movements-k-en/movements-k-kasper-en/879-kasper-200-neu.html Amazingly, if you’d had any problems with any parts, then Cousins has a pretty good selection!! Hopefully you’ll find someone to appreciate it as it has many years life left!
    1 point
  14. OK - I will see what I can do over the Labor Day weekend. The gentleman I mentioned - he had a small jewelry and watch repair shop in a small town in Maryland for decades - his prices were really fair. He was around 80 and probably would never have retired - but unfortunately his illness forced him to. Yes - I guess losing case screws is not the hallmark of a reputable watch repair shop. I am actually pretty handy - I even do some welding and auto repair on my own old car - but I think I failed to recognize my own limitations on this one. (What better motivation to join this site and learn something, however...)
    1 point
  15. Great having a new enthusiastic member. Welcome
    1 point
  16. The movement in your watch was manufactured by H.Williamson in Coventry the S in a star is a know trademark of Williamsons, it was produced in various grades starting with a 7 jewel version, so would have been bought in by Dent and supplied to Spikins jewellers who had nine retail jewellery shops in the London area, Williamson also supplied Thomas Russel and H.Samuels with movements they also founded the Buren factories in Switzerland in 1898. They fell foul of the law in 1899 by claiming their watches where English warranted when in fact they had been producing the parts in Switzerland at the Buren factories, they then expanded their factories in England to manufacture fully movements to comply with the law, they where eventually bought out by Smiths.
    1 point
  17. Through the night I left most parts submerged in Zippo lighter-fluid. This should give the decades old oil a chance to dissolve. All the pivot holes and jewels were separately cleaned with peg-wood. All the pivots, teeth and balance cylinder were inspected with a 10x eye-loupe. Remarkably, after 70 years in storage, everything was 100% ! First up was to re-wind the main-spring back in the barrel, oil the spring, grease the arbor and assemble the barrel. I always hand-wind the main-springs. The top of the balance had some surface discoloring (see picture at the beginning). I remove this by gently stroking the surface with a glass-fiber brush, while the the balance was suspended from a balance-holder. I didn't take any pictures as I didn't want to get distracted during this very delicate operation..... sorry ...... It took however only a few stroke to remove the discoloring. Next up was another delicate operation, the oiling of the balance cap-stone. Two screws on the underside of the balance cock had to be removed without damaging the hairspring nor the very delicate balance-staff pivots. On the left the already cleaned capstone, ready to be oiled. For oiling capstones I used to use a very fine dip watch-oiler, but now I'm using a 0.1mm Rotring pen. This works very well for me, very precise and controlled. With all parts cleaned, inspected and both cap-stones oiled, it was time to demagnetize. I made demagnetizing, after some hard lessons learned, a standard procedure. Of course, a German watch runs best on German oils .... Dr. Tillwich is the name; (BTW; the Swiss- and Russian-watches also seem to like this stuff ....... ) Time to assemble the ratchet wheel underneath the barrel, the wheel-train and a part of the keyless. Don't forget to insert the little screw (or sometimes a push-pin) which goes underneath the barrel-bridge: see the arrow. Won't be the fist time that you line everything nicely up only to discover that you have to undo your hard work again ..... Barrel-, and in this case also the wheel-train bridge back in place, all pivots engaged and lubricated. Here a close up of the back-side of the yoke including the setting wheel; Assembled the keyless works and ratchet "click". Tested functionality ..... Time to install the more delicate parts; the escape wheel and the balance ........ Lo and behold, after a little tension on the main-spring the movement started to run ...... It seemed happy so I decided to go ahead with the dial and hands. There was no work to be done on the dial, so it went straight back on. Replacing the hands was no problem either. I don't expect to get a COSC certificate with this movement, but I hope that, within the next few days, I'll to get it run within a minute per 24 hrs ....... or so ...... As a side-line remark; I found it difficult to get a descent grip on this movement using the Bergeon 4039 movement holder. But it is also the first time I'm working on a tonneau shape movement of this size, so it may well be me ........ Anyway, I managed to get this little gem serviced without doing any damage. Better be, because there is nowhere on this planet a shelf full of spare-parts to be found Now, it's to hope that I can find a lady who is willing to give it wrist time and can appreciate this little 1940's "time capsule". Obviously it needs a new leather strap, but that will be to the new owners taste .... I'll hope that somebody will have some benefit of this write-up, at some point in time .....
    1 point
  18. Welcome to this friendly forum. You cannot overwind any clock or watch. If the movement is fully wound, then something is causing it to stop, it is probably dirt or wear. You can have a movement that is barrel bound. That is the spring is would but it will not unwind.
    1 point
  19. Thanks, if you are into Russian watches you need to take your misses on holiday to Rimini Italy, half way down the strip there is a roundabout on the side of the road there is a patch of grass where they hold an evening market I think it is on a Wednesday, there is a man on there and he must have about 300 Russian watches on his stand...
    1 point
  20. I use a sewn cotton flap wheel with stainless polish on it. It’s a 6” wheel on a modified bench grinder. For the chip, I had to pre grind it a bit on a fine wheel, then bear-tex and finally polishing.
    1 point
  21. Oohh well, for €30 you can't go wrong no matter the history or the authenticity. It looks splendid and it runs, as you said, splendid ..... what else do you want !?? My advice was only if you were thinking about spending serious amounts of money into these watches. Regardless what, for €30 your watch it's a true bargain, better: it's a steal !!
    1 point
  22. My little contribution to this page.........
    1 point
  23. Wearing this old thing today. Its probably from the early-mid 80s and its survived! The pushers are a bit weak in that you need to press them a few times. Anyone else have an old digital? Anilv
    1 point
  24. a little late for tips. hope you get it back in good running order. vin
    0 points
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