1938 Westfield Art Deco watch project

[FLwatchguy73]

Good evening everyone, hope we are all managing quarantine fever reasonably well. Today I'm going to briefly cover my 1938 Westfield Art Deco watch I recently completed. It began with an urge to acquire a nice Deco watch. I won a handsome Hamilton, but sadly the seller had lost the watch. Thankfully they refunded my money and the hunt continued. I finally came across this Westfield powered by a Bulova 10aw. The price was perfect because it was sold without a crown. I tracked down a donor movement with a crown that didn't look too ratty and purchased it as well to serve as a parts donor, wise choice as you'll see. The parts donor arrived first. It only needed a clean and lube to get it ticking away 

Parts donor...

After a delay, the watch arrived. It looked thousand times better in hand than it did online, thankfully. It was fitted with a truly pristine Crystal that surely must be a recent replacement. The case doesn't seem to have any base metal showing through. I promptly opened the watch and lifted the dial and movement from the case.

The Westfield as it arrived...

A close-up of the barrel bridge showing the little crescent moon date code signifying the watch was made in 1938...

Looking closely, I found that the crown and stem weren't just missing, it was broken, snapped off at the winding pinion. I removed some of the keyless works to get at the stem remnant. After fishing the piece out, I pulled the crown and stem from the donor.

Winding stem switcheroo...

 

I then attempted to give the mainspring a wind and see how the watch performed. After barely 2 turns I heard a crunching noise indicative of a broken mainspring. Thankfully the donor's was perfect. I swapped out the barrels put it back together and gave it another wind. Off the balance went and the mainspring wound smoothly and stopped at the end. 

Sprung spring...

I put the dial and hands back on, gave the dial a light wash down to remove any excess grime. I put it all back together, added a new leather strap and here she is. Very excited to be wearing an 82 year old watch that looks this good!

Edited April 29, 2020 by FLwatchguy73