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Update on Elgin

watchweasol
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watchweasol Distinguished Member

watchweasol

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 Just an update on the Elgin, What a bag of worms, balance cock has been punched, the cock seat has been punched  the lower balance jewel endcap setting is missing, upper jewel endcap end stone is loose, balance staff upper pivot tip is broken,  So far Its been cleaned and I have turned a solid brass end cap for the lower setting, Fitted a new staff to the balance. Now got to sort out the upper jewel end cap and adjust the end shake. Then the brown stuff hit the fan  No1 Lathe broke its belt,  so switched to No2  It did the same, then the bench light head broke  so I have had to stop for a while. An interesting day all told.

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JohnR725 Distinguished Member

JohnR725

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A problem with American pocket watches and not unique to American is that their old. Typically at least 100 years old this means that for the last hundred years they've either had a nice life or they been serviced a lot by people who may or may not of actually known what a watch was. This means that you will get challenges even on a watch that appears to be in beautiful condition and appears to only need cleaning there will probably be a challenge or two.

Or in other words welcome to my world. In the shop where I work I handle all the vintage pocket just and continuously they want to know when the watch is going to be done and the answer it's done when it's done doesn't always come across properly. Like in your case even when you fix all of those problems you may have weird timekeeping issues which you won't know about until the watch is running.

 

 

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watchweasol Distinguished Member

watchweasol

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Exactly so John, If you are working day after day on these you must be challenged on a daily basis by both the watch and the ,client who only sees it as “it’s just a watch” with no regard to what is inside the case.I always read your posts with interest, you must be a patient man.   Regards

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