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With all the talk of Long Arm Microscopes to add in watch repairing, I too have been looking into optical solutions to use. I find after many hours using a standard loupe my dominant eye gets a little strained ... not to mention having lack of depth perception whilst working. I was at my Dentist the other day, and she was using a pair of Carl Zeiss Stereo Optics to aid her, and I asked if I could have a look through them .... WOW OH WOW!! Simply stunning vision!! So clear, and with a huge "exit pupil" things were nice and bright to boot. The only issue was the focus length ... as they were set for dental work @ 500mm (19.68inches). But I definitely wanted to know more!! So I called Zeiss in Australia, and explained my needs. They were incredibly helpful and supportive to my inquires ... it's truly a shock to receive old style customer service these days, but that's what I got from Zeiss. So much so that they sent a rep to my house with a demo pair for me to loan for a week or two: like I said old style customer service at it's BEST! Here they are ... the Carl Zeiss EyeMag Pro F. These ones are 4x power, with a focal length (FL) of 300mm (11.81 inches), which is not from the end of lens, but from your forehead ... so you can take the length of the lens out of the equation. These are a little bit too far away from the work I think; and I mentioned this to their rep. He suggested to keep them for a week, and if he found a set with a close FL he would contact me. Not 2 hours later he called and said they had a pair of 5x with an FL of 235mm (9.25 inches). That sounds about perfect to me. They will be shipping them out to me, free of charge, to test for a few weeks. Just amazing service!! So I'll keep you all updated on the outcome.

Here is a lovely Regulator Clock with stunning photos of the movement. If you have wondered why these clocks fetch high prices, you can see all the little intercut pieces that make up the movement right down to highly polished screws. You can see the maintaining power, and how the oil sinkholes are covered and have screws to take up end shake, this is so the gears rotate on the same and even line and helps with keeping such precision time. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/16-DIAL-STUNNING-JEWELLERS-REGULATOR-LONGCASE-CLOCK-fusee-mantle-bracket/254008841663?hash=item3b241b55bf:g:6tkAAOSwNqRcBAyu

Made a balance staff today using one of my new lathes. I cut the pivot on the hairspring side a bit too short so I left the other side a tiny bit bigger. Stakes in the balance and roller table and there was way too much of a gap. So I did the unthinkable. I actually did an S bend in the balance cock to lower it a bit and it worked. But the jewel I shellacked in was at an angle to the watch would stall and start from time to time, and the watch will not work when I flip it over. Probably the pivot on the hairspring side needs to be burnished down a bit. Pivots were .11 mm. The pocket watch is a 7 jewel Elgin so I’m not too concerned and I did have some fun. Will disassemble it tomorrow and burnish the upper pivot. And I will also adjust the jewel...it’s a bit small for the hole : didn’t want to buy one. So ends my adventure today. Lathe was an original Webster Whitcomb WW Hard. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Around a month ago a good friend of mine, Bernard, who’s a watchmaker, gave me a, circa 1800, verge watch to have a go at restoring; he figured I had the patience for it The case is a much younger brass one, and it was missing hands and a crystal. I’ve since made a pair of brass hands to tide it over, make it look more complete, and to see how it’s going in regards time keeping. Yeah… about that It would seem that sometime in it’s past a healthy chunk of the hair spring got broken off, and it was gaining 1/4hr per hour. I’ve reduced a length of music wire to approx the width of the original, by about .0015” thick, and hope to wind up a 4 coil test replacement (the current one has 3 coils, which some of the old watches made do with, but I’m going to give myself a bit of room to move). But that’s a story, and experiment, for another day. The verge has had problems with getting enough depth, sometimes going into ‘palpitations’ and running double speed, and the ‘scape wheel has no spare end-shake to increase pallet depth. I remembered that the verge’s top bush (in the balance cock), apart from being quite worn (making a suitable sized drill bit was one of my, unsuccessful, excursions today ) was drilled a little off centre, whether by design or sloppy workmanship I don’t know. Double checking it’s placement showed that it was about an hour’s rotation off being in line with the ‘scape pivot and closest approach. The drawings roughly show where things were before adjusting. I carefully scribed a faint reference line across the top surface of the bush, going ‘North-South’ in relation to the balance cock foot, whittled a bamboo press pin and tapped out the bush into a little hollow in a block of wood, re-aligned the bush and pressed it home. The end result is that the watch is running again (seems not quite as fast as earlier), and in all positions; recently it had stopped working in ‘pendent up’ position, kind of the most important position for a pocket watch So, did a new thing today and it’s not as scary a prospect making a new bush for it in the near future (once I’ve successfully made a suitable drill bit), a bush that I think I might put a screwdriver slot in the top of to help with adjustments. I would like to make, at some stage, a two part bush with a ‘dead hard’ steel ‘end stone’, similar to some they did back then. Anyway, hope you enjoyed my little discoveries today. Cheers Duncan

I find old oil that has dried on the cap stones for balance jewels requires manual cleaning. For these I remove the jewels and drop them in a small container of acetone and let them sit there for about 5 minutes and then remove them and hold them with tweezers and carefully using some sharpened peg wood I scrape off the old oil, it may take 2 soaks in acetone to completely clean if they are really bad. For everything else The ultrasonic cleaner does a good enough job. For my ultrasonic I just bought a cheap Chinese one. I fill it with water and put in the basket and use that to hold small jars of cleaning fluid to clean the parts. I cant remember if mine was 2 or 3 Litre, model, but buy the biggest you can afford in case you ever need to clean clocks. This is very similar to mine. https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/CO-Z-3L-Professional-Ultrasonic-Cleaner-with-Digital-Timer-Heater-for-Cleaning/113382988397?hash=item1a66271a6d:g:AeIAAOSwBJVb8n7I:rk:25:pf:0

The French Marble Clock by Nicolas M. Thorpe Early French Pendulum Clocks, 1658 - 1700 known as Pendules Religieuses This is about early clockmaking in France. Carriage Clocks: Their History and Development by Charles Allix This is the bible on such clocks. Expensive so look around for best price. It covers Carriage Clocks from around the world not just French Repairing French Pendulum Clocks by Steven Conover Here is a small pdf you might like about The French Clock Dean-french.pdf

Swatch produces eta in Asia. All inferior to swiss made:, but not neccassrily junk. Posting a HD close up of your piece, helps, may answer your question. Also posting on RWG forum, thery are good with repls, you are likely to get a better assessment there. Regards joe

Hi J If you didn,t enjoy it, you wouldn,t have got this far with it. I don,t think I ever try lathe work, but do regularely check your posting, keep on the good work , thanks for sharing and letting us enjoy watching your work. Cheers

Cousins appears to have a balance here https://www.cousinsuk.com/category/filter/msr-revue-gt-nirvada-vertex-thommen-wittnauer-movement-parts Hard to tell from the picture, but it looks like you have a flat balance, not the Breguet variant. Obviously you don’t want the incabloc version. Can’t be 100% certain, but looks like the MSR N1 is an alternate of which they have 4 in stock. They also have the staff if you are up for that.

Looks great marg, I stll think you are putting us on with that dys plastic six pack tic bolognie. Cheers joe

Welcome to the forum @NickA .

When I first started in this hobby I used standard Bausch & Lomb loupes of varying power (4,10,20). I never got used to the wire strap and just held the loupe in place with my eye. It was never an issue. Now, however, I wear eyeglasses so things have changed. I have tried all types of clip on loupes, but I just don't like them. These days I use a visor that I can easily flip up or down and I like them quite a lot. They cover my eyeglasses and have a good working distance so I can get comfortable. For really tough spots, like jewel inspection or even oiling, I find it easier to use my stereo microscope. It takes quite a bit of practice to get used to working through a scope, but once you get it down it's very handy!

Here is my cheapo solution: 6x magnification 370mm working disatance - $275 plus shipping. Flip Up Prismatic Loupes 6.0X Titanium Frames. Ref. Nº F-T-6.0X From CareOptical (China) http://www.optical-world.com/optical-loupes-flip-up-prismatic-loupes_c8 The optics are excellent but I would have liked a shorter WD. I am buying these more comfortable eye glasses to replace the supplied Ti frames. UVEX I-VO 9160-120 Safety Glasses / Spectacles - Clear Lens + Head Band