wls1971

The list was compiled on the 4/2011 and has sincere lathe collets on so is probably up to date as they are a recent maker, If you buy a used lathe you are better getting the most complete set up you can as buying collets and accessories separate is very expensive the collets on my lathe are 0.625mm pitch so are among the most common you can find Boley 8mm , Lorch , star, Marshall Peerless are among the ones that will fit my lathe. Bergeon collets are not WW but will fit most WW lathes.

I bought my Chinese one from redrooster on ebay and it has been fine if not I would have sent it back the Begeon one I have is good but the jaws do not open up wide enough for pocket watches so is limited in use to me.

This page will be useful to you it as a chart listing the different sizes so you can compare makers Bergeon are listed along with many others, http://www.lathes.co.uk/collets/

Practice makes perfect and a friends watch is not the best thing to practice on so for this watch I would say dont even try Roger there has been a thread on this forum before about pivot drilling do a search for it. Hardened steel can be cut with carbide pivot drills. The English lever you have will either have a push fit or screw in pallet shaft if its push fit you could try and turn up a new one on the lathe a screw fit one would be very difficult to make but not impossible.

They where made by Sindaco Ltd so do a search for that company and you will find information on them, The watch will have a pin pallet movement which could be anywhere between 1 to 17 jewels but probably one jewel.

More than twice - it's got £20 postage!! "You are more than welcome to personally collect any item free of charge" how very kind of them to allow no charge for personally collecting, but I personally find this next statement in the description truly unbelievable, "This is a perfect investment clock and a beautiful display piece and a stunning brass, ormolu & champleve enamel clock which i am sure you would agree. Looks absolutely fantastic wherever it is displayed" Everything in that statement is incorrect

Well where to start, "This clock is a rare exceptional french original brass and champleve style enamel 4 glass regulator mantel clock, it has its absolutely amazing look to it all in great condition for age, the case has a superb original finish to it with only minimal age wear as can be expected" The clock is certainly not of french origin the diamond trade mark was used by a Chinese manufacturer making both clock's and watches in Shanghai, the use of the word regulator is wrong it would depend on what definition of a regulator you would use but this clock could only be wrongly described as a regulator, its certainly not champaleve but he does say style so I will give him that. As for it striking as it should I cant see it doing that at the moment with it set as it is. The movement has a Brocot escapement and the quality of it could only be described as plain "Nasty" a true horror of the horological world made from cheaply pressed out parts and finished by sweat shop workers on a dollar a day. The description reads like a turd polishers dream but at the end of the day its still a turd. It has however attracted a bid for twice what its worth.

If the watch is a divers watch then you will have to remove the movement and maybe also the bezel and remove the crystal and insert a new one with a crystal press the crystal may have or may not have a gasket to form a water proof seal depending on the depth rating of the watch.

It all depends what type of crystal it is if its a non armoured type then most are held in place with no glue at all they are slightly compressed around the edge when fitting or removing with a tool called a crystal lifter such as the following, http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Watch-Glass-Fitting-Tool-Dome-Acrylic-Crystal-Plastic-Lifter-Fitter-Lift-Remover-/271265794833?hash=item3f28b38b11:g:pLAAAMXQHeBSG~Qs I have both a Bergeon lifter and a cheap chinese one off ebay the chinese one is actually more useful as it opens out further and can be used to fit larger crystals on pocket watches the only time I have had to use crystal cement was when I could not find a crystal of the exact size I needed so had to secure it.

Yes I think that is definitely the case after doing a bit of research I believe this clock was made by Drocourt and retailed by J.W.Benson

I have a number of questions to ask before bidding. Apart from accuracy being better in a lever escapement what disadvantage would a cylinder escapement have over a lever escapement, I could live with it not being completely original purely because I find it so nice to look at anyway I shall ask the relevant questions and hope you are right about price.

Yes the screw is an obvious replacement and I would have expected a regulator hanging down from the escapement so possibly it has a replacement one fitted but I am tempted to put a serious bid in I doubt I would see another its the sort of thing I could imagine would have been sold in Liberty's in the late Victorian period the case is exceptional and the mix of wood and metal I find very pleasing I shall be watching it closely I have a price in mind and hopefully if the bidding wont go crazy, I shall see.

Well you dont have to look far on Ebay to find some real tosh, but there are some real beauties on as well this little clock is floating my boat at the moment it just looks to my rather uneducated eye as a thing of real beauty and craftmanship I would describe this as being from the aesthetic period and think it would date between 1880 and 1900. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VERY-UNUSUAL-SMALL-ANTIQUE-STRIKING-ON-THE-HOURS-CARRIAGE-CLOCK-CIRCA-1900s-/201990568907?hash=item2f07937bcb:g:~GUAAOSwn~ZZbeo7 Realising that beauty is in the eye of the beholder I think there would be an equal amount of people that would think this is truly hideous but my heart is ruling my head and I am already having visions of this on my mantle piece but I think this will go beyond my budget even switching the cats to Aldi own brand cat food and living on bread and water for a month is not going to enable me to buy this as I think this will fetch a very good price, It has its problems and needs to be properly restored but I would love to own this.

The first clock is a Franz Hermle and is a total reproduction of a earlier french boulle clock there is nothing old about the clock at all or anything french about it either but the listing only says it's in the style of, its the sort of thing that would have been very expensive to buy new my guess is sometime in the 1970's or 1980's but would have no value to a collector other than someone who collects Hermle clocks, what would I pay for it nothing, but one is always surprised at what others would pay my guess £300 to £500 tops it is not a marriage but of total Hermle production.

I dont think you could know for sure what the original case would have been unless records exist for William Frodsham, the case making would have been contracted out to a case maker and produced to suit how much the original owner would have been prepared to pay so could have been silver, silver gilt or gold