Missing roller jewel

[JohnR725]

I have a variation to Mark’s procedure to put a watch in beat. I’ve attached some images and a reminder. As this is an American pocket watch with movable banking pins make sure there where they are supposed to be if you’re going to use them for alignment purposes. The unfortunate consequence of movable banking pins are they may not be where they are supposed to be.

Deviations from marks video I usually leave the pallet fork in. As you’re watching marks video he rotates the balance wheel talks about how the alignment should be. This is where I snipped out an image. I’ve added in a couple of lines one of which shows the alignment of the roller/impulse jewel exactly as he talks about. The deviation from procedure is the next line drawn from the center of the balance jewel extending through the stud outward. This is so that you can put a mark on the balance wheel which will correspond to where the stud should be. I’ve find a felt pen works nicely for making the mark with its liquid ink. Then removing the balance wheel from the bridge rotate the collet until the stud is in alignment with your mark. Then you can put the balance back in the watch and verify that it is correct.

 A minor problem of using the pallet fork to determine beat is there is play between the roller jewel and the fork slot so if it’s resting on the side of the slot rather than dead center you’ll be off on really tiny amount for beat.

Then the tool I use for rotating the collet is not a screwdriver. It has a very long taper and literally will drop into the slot. The problem with using screwdrivers they are usually too big people force them in and the collet will become loose. Or worst-case the collet will be cracked. Of course putting the collet on an incorrect sized staff will do the same things.