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Waltham CDIA Aircraft clock


Tmuir

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Today I volunteered to attend my local watch associations stand at an antique fair which we do to promote the association and watch school.

The one nice perk is as a stall holder we can trawl all other stalls before the hoards descend and this is the biggest antique fair where I live.

Looking at the other stalls I came across a Waltham CDIA clock which is very unusual to find in Perth Western Australia, although the seller didn't let it go cheap I got it for a reasonable price.

The seller told me he had serviced it, and although the clock runs it sounds like an old man walking with crutches so I will be servicing it again soon.

I have yet to open it up, but I can see it is missing 2 of the 3 movement mounting screws to hold the movement to the case. Going by my book the part number is 2'679, not that I expect anyone has some NOS screws lying around, but if anyone has a couple of mounting screws from a parts movement they are happy to pass on please let me know.

Anyhow enjoy the photo.

These clocks were made from September 1941 to October 1944 and a total of 134,000 were made.

It is a size 37, 8 day, 24 hour, 15 jewels movement, it is essentially Waltham's 37 size 8 day double barrel automobile clock form 1910 with some minor variations.

I now own 4 WWII aircraft clocks and I'm betting in the future I will add to that number.

 

CDIA1.jpg

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    Good show!  if you have a machinest's hand book,  you can find the S A E ( standard American engineers - for our UK cousins) - you can get a tap and die of that thread.   also;  there is a US - GOV -  MANUAL  "instrament shop repair" you can download free.  its Veterans Day here in the U S ;  free breakfast this morning.  "thanks for serving" -  if it applys.  vin

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Yes worst case I will work out what thread it is and make my own screws.

I have a large selection of taps and dies in metric, BSW, BSF, BA, BSB, but no SAE ones yet as I have nver had the need to make one before.

On Sunday its Remembrance Day in Australia and I will be attending a ceremony by our local RSL to remember and commemorate 100 years since the end of the First World War.

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I couldn't resist just opening up the case to give the movement a quick once over and its as I expected, despite been 'Serviced' if I ran the clock the way it is it wouldn't be long before some serious damage is done to it.

The movement is reasonable clean, but a long way from perfect, can still see some large fluff on the balance and other wheels.

The pivots look to of been oiled, but the pallets are dry as a bone, so wear would happen there pretty quickly if it was run.

There is also a flat spot on the hairspring that causes the hairspring to not sit correctly between the regulator pins, the hairspring is half in, half out between the two pins, so I think when I get to that I will speak nicely to the master watchmaker at my school for help as I don't trust myself to fix that.

Also note the broken screw in the top of the picture on the winding plate, that is going to be a pain to resolve.

CDIA2.thumb.jpg.6489038f1c5b1777af42378ed30e8b0a.jpg

 

Although the clock does tick at the moment I suspect when I strip it down I will find more nasties inside.

I also suspect that at some point the mains springs have been replaced with incorrect sized mainsprings.

Look at the photo below, the blue band you can see below the teeth on the barrel is the mainspring.

I've never come across a barrel that leaves the spring exposed like that so I am guessing a spring too high has been used, but I will confirm that when I actually strip the clock down. The other barrel is also like this as this is a double barrel clock.CDIA3.jpg.a8477b29cd3ac2e5f2147d0a2f233e67.jpg

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  • 2 years later...

I have had one for years

Mine came out of a B-26 that was scrapped after WWII in West Palm Beach FL Airport Morrison Field as it was known in 1947

It runs but could stand a service also the date button doesn't seem to work. My guess is a broken spring in side but as I am not a clock fixer, just a user, I can't say for sure that is the problem. 

If any body down under can recommend a reliable clock fixer in the USA I would be grateful to hear from someone.

[email protected] or C-1 561 644 4128

Good on'ya

George Reid Rust

 

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