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Elgin balance staff

JPRink

By JPRink
in Watch Repairs Help & Advice

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JPRink New Member

JPRink

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Dear experts

I have a Elgin pocket watch with serial nr. 34270315
From the database https://pocketwatchdatabase.com/search/result/elgin/34270315/movement

it says my Elgin is Model nr. 4 

can you tell me exactly what type of Balance staff i need 
bear in mind I am a novice 
just took my Elgin to the watchmaker in Iceland and he showed me my broken staff.

so I am trying to get a new/used one.

Best regards.

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WatchMaker Super WRT Addict

WatchMaker

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Balance staffs are usually identified by 'Ronda number' and it is this number you ideally need. Probably like your watch repairer I've had trouble tracking down a parts list for your calibre that includes this but let's see if we can do a bit of detective work ... B) 

My recommendation is for your watch repairer to confirm dimensions tie up with your movement before ordering. If these dimensions don't pan out for some reason then your watch repairer should be able to identify a correctly dimensioned staff and order by appropriate Ronda number from their usual supplier. imho they should have really gone this route to start with rather than getting you, the customer, to try and find things out. <_<

It's probably worth waiting first for any replies from other forum members who may be more familiar with Elgin movements in case they can come straight up with a specific Ronda number for you. 

 

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JohnR725 Distinguished Member

JohnR725

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usually with American pocket watches even if you have a part number you absolutely still have to measure the staff to verify its dimensions match the one that the part number has. For instance I'm attaching an image you'll notice that even if you have a part number for some staffs they have a lot of variations. Variations lead to frustrations for people that don't grasp that there are variations. Fortunately it appears to be your staff doesn't have variations. Although the parts book I looked in listed the number is 5317 and the image I'm attaching ads the C which conceivably means there's a variation even though it's not shown in the listing.

than the eBay listing above has staff number 4191C which is an entirely different staff than the one that I came up with by looking in the Elgin parts catalog of the 50s. I'm also attaching it the images from the 50s catalog. They can see your serial number range comes up with a number. Then with that number you can look up the part number.

Elgin 495 balance staff.JPG

Elgin 1950 parts catalog 495 staff.JPG

Elgin serial number lookup.JPG

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JPRink New Member

JPRink

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On 11/26/2019 at 8:58 PM, JohnR725 said:

usually with American pocket watches even if you have a part number you absolutely still have to measure the staff to verify its dimensions match the one that the part number has. For instance I'm attaching an image you'll notice that even if you have a part number for some staffs they have a lot of variations. Variations lead to frustrations for people that don't grasp that there are variations. Fortunately it appears to be your staff doesn't have variations. Although the parts book I looked in listed the number is 5317 and the image I'm attaching ads the C which conceivably means there's a variation even though it's not shown in the listing.

than the eBay listing above has staff number 4191C which is an entirely different staff than the one that I came up with by looking in the Elgin parts catalog of the 50s. I'm also attaching it the images from the 50s catalog. They can see your serial number range comes up with a number. Then with that number you can look up the part number.

Elgin 495 balance staff.JPG

Elgin 1950 parts catalog 495 staff.JPG

Elgin serial number lookup.JPG

Thank you for this information 

i found this in Ebay https://www.ebay.com/itm/12s-Elgin-5317C-Balance-Staff/183921896851?hash=item2ad2996d93:g:rKMAAOSw9GRdVzpd

do you think this is the right one?

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JohnR725 Distinguished Member

JohnR725

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numerically it looks right but you still have to measure the original and the new staff to make sure all the dimensions are indeed the same. Then one other minor irritation? the problem with visually looking at a new old stock staff is there is no way to tell where it came from. So some of the aftermarket manufacturers will make the staff over size on the grounds that the watchmaker can reduce everything to fit.  

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vinn3 Distinguished Member

vinn3

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On ‎11‎/‎26‎/‎2019 at 3:40 PM, jdrichard said:

This is why I make my own balance shafts...too much risk and cost in ordering one.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

   "yea but"  how long would it take to learn make parts with a lathe?   vin

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