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Hi all, Brian Young here. I am not a watch or clock repairer. I came to this website to hopefully gain some insight to watches and watch repair. I recently inherited a pocket watch from my mother; it was her father's Illinois pocket watch made in 1911. I no sooner got it home when I dropped it onto the tile kitchen floor. As you might expect, it no longer works. It lasted 108 years before me and one week after me. I hope you all don't mind if I glom on to your site and pick your brains for info. In the last month, I have purchased two early 1900's Illinois pocket watches, both running, and can't bring myself to cannibalize them in order to get Grandpa's watch running again. So, now I own three pocket watches, two from 1905, running, and one from 1911, needing a balance stem. Hope I haven't broken protocol by talking about the reason why I am here in the introduction post. If so, sorry. I'm not really a rebel. I'm just clueless. Thank you for having me.

It is quite easy when you know how. You can use this method for most wheels, on smaller lathes. Similar to how I was trained.

The Rollimat is a wonderful tool and more than pays for itself in a few months in a professional situation. It uses the same carbide burnishing wheel as industrial machines that finishes clock (and watch) pivots in the factory. Totally an "auto jacot" tool. That guy has a good technique there, and agree with OH it can be done with simpler tools. I know a number of clock and watchmakers though who have the "tool bug" and enjoy finding and using machines most regular shops would find overkill. In some cases they do save time but not necessarily do a better job; part of the fun is just using them.

Mine was a boys Ingersoll wrist watch. I haven't a clue how old I would have been.

Hi Old hippy I once did one using a bench drill stepped down using a pinchuck and a sewing needle for the pivot when all tidied up and fitted worked ok and is still going years on, a bit more sophisticated now though

A nice clean example. Worth the money I would suggest.

I'd suggest cousinsUK.com (England). I live in Sweden myself and being a tiny country it's almost impossible to get any spare parts locally. So far Cousins has never failed and their customer service is just brilliant. Good luck with your project!

Great thought. To prevent any marks from a tool such as a metal screwdriver, I could fashion a plastic pixie stick or a piece of peg-wood to a flat end and give that a slight twist for control. Thanks Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Most likely, most of us are like yourself, it's like a dance. I try to brace my hand and use a twisting motion with the tool rather than a push to move in very tiny increments. Also I recommend restarting the timegrapher after an adjustment and allowing a few seconds for the amplitude to settle.

Hi Brian and welcome to the asylum, I am sure you will fit in well firstly you cannot have enough watches! Secondly, if you hadn't thrown grandpa's watch on the floor you wouldn't have found this brilliant forum. Thirdly, every thing can be fixed, and this forum has some very knowledgeable guy's and girl's who are happy to give you advice without making you feel stupid for asking, (I am most definitely not one of those knowledgeable people) the only good advice I give people is to look both ways when crossing the road. Anyway enjoy the forum and I wish you every success in repairing grandpa's pocket watch.

Fero ??? Have just bought this because I like the face ! Never heard of this watch and it is a none runner. Any information would be much appreciated. Cost £28.54 Inc postage so wasn't too painful. Not sure if it's franken or worth its price?

37.5mm Swiss-made Stuag, wears very flat and runs on a 17j ETA 900. Probably late ‘40s. Attributed to one of the few female (is that term still allowed these days?) -led watch manufacturers, Mlle Mireille Grebler (later Mme Mireille Franz-Grebler) who also came to control Cauny, before that particular brand became Spanish owned sometime in the 1970s. Regards.

I see it says "T Swiss - LIC ATO" The ATO patented movement is about as simple as these things get. At its most basic, it only uses one transistor. This may not make for the most stable oscillator, design but in this use case, they are actually relatively good, since they rely on a fairly conventional mechanical balance to control the oscillator frequency, rather than an R/C circuit, which would typically be less stable over the working temperature range. (schematic shamelessly stolen from https://www.bmumford.com/tmp/ATOschematic.gif ) This AC125 germanium transistor version is probably the most simplified schematic, but often in reality there are current limiting resistors and other little tweaks. Since they have no mechanical switched contacts, they don't suffer from burn through or oxidation failures of the contact.

It's a helium release valve for mixed gas diving. A feature that most people will never use. Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk