Jump to content

Recommended Posts

Posted

Hi everyone!

I recently discovered some pocket watches while going through my grandparents old house. One is an Elgin that seems to have never (or rarely) been used (here’s a link to the movement lookup: https://pocketwatchdatabase.com/search/result/elgin/1171878). 

I serviced the watch and it is running wonderfully, however it is missing what I believe to be the case sleeve, and I’m not sure what to buy or where. I’ve scoured manuals and part sites, even reaching out to a few vendors, but with no luck. The crown is loose, but given the short screw in the case and threads in the crown, it seems a piece is missing.

I have attached pictures of where the piece should go, but am not sure what additional information would help. The case serial is 255129. 

Does anyone know what part this is, and where I might be able to find it? I don’t have a lathe and have not yet learned how to make parts on my own, so I’m on a hunt for the exact piece. 
 

Many thanks,

Dave

ECBB9341-5E4C-4BED-8F10-B039C5BEBF01.jpeg

3C9EEDAC-D5AF-4DD8-B3A9-C17F65BD2692.jpeg

6D96DC2C-9997-4741-A901-44F23AEA22BD.jpeg

Posted

This is the normal pocket watch sleeve/ crown assembly.

 

AE6740D5-20BC-4362-B6DF-9B07E51C7494.jpeg.703a19819dd3c62206a25cf1099278fa.jpeg

They do come loose and a sleeve wrench is used to tighten. However this watch seems to have another style of crown assembly such this. Someone with more experience might be able to help.

8DAF3C9B-E020-4B72-BD46-EAB8C2AD91FD.thumb.jpeg.71c9d53aac04a61b06acb13fef3004c9.jpeg

Found this pic of an Elgin.

9F094AE9-CB23-47F7-885C-0C12E68D1021.jpeg.7ba8cc3ace6cf56b8b31db9034512df9.jpeg

 

 

Posted

Thanks @clockboy - that's helpful information.  Someone did suggest I modify the stem to have a notch with a lathe (making it similar to the one below), then use a longer screw.

However, the existence of the threads on the stem made me figure that can't be the right way to do it, as at some point this configuration worked in the past...here's hoping someone knows what it was!

Posted (edited)

With a lot of the watches I've worked on that had stems held in by a screw through the pendant, and it was a lever-set movement (which I'll bet yours is) that was the only thing holding them in.  And years upon years of winding and setting would wear the screw shorter.

A longer screw of the same diameter and thread pitch will work, but you'll need to cut it a little long, then file it down until you get a perfect fit.  

I more often see sleeves on crown-wind, crown set movements, where the stem must slide in and out, and yet remain retained.

Edited by KarlvonKoln
Posted

You need to look at the specifications in the pocket watch database. I doubt that you had a sleeve as it's a lever set.

4 hours ago, DavidADav said:

The crown is loose, but given the short screw in the case and threads in the crown, it seems a piece is missing.

On these older watches as others have mentioned the only thing holding the crown in is a small screw that goes into the notch into the stem part that's attached to the crown.

Sometimes what happens to the's is somebody will try to pull the crown out not realizing that it's lever set and break the screw, or damage the screw. Then with nothing to hold the crown in it got lost. You may have a replacement part somebody found and realized it doesn't quite work. As it's missing the Recess in the steel part.

 

Posted

I found an example of an Elgin 17 size watch using the same arrangement. Then if you have a hunting case like this that's where the lid opens up the slot has to be big enough to allow you to Be able to push in and do that. Otherwise you get by with a much smaller slot.

before sleeves 3.JPG

before sleeves 2.JPG

before sleeves 1.JPG

  • Recently Browsing

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Topics

  • Posts

    • Hello and welcome to the forum, the best path to take is to get some medium priced tools , look at Cousins UK . They are a material house and are open to all. There medium priced screwdrivers are middle of the road and wil if looked fore serve you well into the foture I have added a little reading for you to help.  TZIllustratedGlossary.pdf Watch_tools_tipps.pdf
    • After another long hiatus (while waiting for truing calipers to arrive), I’ve made some more progress. TRUING IN THE FLAT I was able to use the calipers I purchased to true the wheel in the flat. There’s still a very slight eccentricity in the round, but I’m going to leave it as is. It doesn’t wobble any more and I’m happy with that. Thanks for the tool recommendation @mbwatch. It worked well, though I must say it takes a delicate touch to get the balance between the calipers. Also, my calipers effectively have four different variations based on the orientation of the arms (2 sides, 2 orientations each). Some are more tapered than others, though to what end, I can’t quite tell. My first thought was that flipping them over yields arms that can be used for poising. They are K&D horizontal calipers, btw. OSCILLATION TEST @nevenbekriev @JohnR725 After truing the wheel in the flat, I carefully remounted the hairspring and did your oscillation test. Balance wheel mounted to balance cock, no pallet fork, rotate balance wheel 180 degrees, let it go, and time+count the oscillations. Results as follows for dial down orientation: Duration: 1m 15sec (to full stop) # of oscillations: About 125, though the amplitude of the oscillations decreased significantly, as one might expect I should redo the test in at least two other orientations…Forgot to do that. 🙂  In general, it’s safe to say this watch has a pretty low amplitude, likely for a variety of reasons. I haven’t oiled the balance jewels FWIW…I should probably do that, but I really don’t want to keep disassembling and reassembling the balance. Is it possible to oil those jewels (top and bottom) by just removing the capstones and putting in a tiny amount of oil, with balance in place? I can see how having the pivot in the jewel hole could change how capillary action works, and thus might pull more oil in than desired. However, those capillary forces will be in effect anyway once the balance is inserted. PRACTICE MOVEMENTS @JohnR725 I agree with your sentiment about using practice movements wholeheartedly, and I’ve done that to some degree. The watch I’m currently repairing is for a friend, and she was willing to have me treat it as a “learn-by-doing experience.” With that said,, I probably should have purchased a few more “beaters” before getting to something where I don’t want to muck things up. I’ve still got a couple of those on the bench that I used as donors, and I’ll try to rehabilitate them.
    • Hi, this is the first place I found when looking for advice so I hope someone could advise me.  Im completely new to touching watches but I’ve always wondered how they work.  I’ve bought a cheap movement, an ETA replica to take apart and rebuild.  Im thinking I’ll need some screwdrivers, tweezers, movement holder and a loop? My goal is just to have a go first and see if I enjoy it enough before buying more tools.  Do I buy cheap tools for now and get better quality tools later if I enjoy it like I think I will? or will the cheap tools be a pain and take some of the fun out of it?  With quality tools being relatively expensive I’m unsure what to buy.    Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
    • Yeah I have seen 44-56 documented for Elgin 18 size elsewhere. I have the style of gauge that's like a set of feeler gauges and I never noticed before today it is faintly stamped "Elgin". Pictured is the way I have been measuring. I am going to go to a larger jewel than the 42 that had been in there. I recently won an auction on a big set of Fitrite jewels all in the little bottles, to discover that the what's actually in the bottles bears no relation to the chart of sizes printed on the box. In most cases it seems to be all mixed so in fact I have about 24 little bottles and thousands of assorted jewels of all diameters and lengths, which is better than nothing. But since I don't have a micrometer with a table, measuring for the exact diameter will be a big job. Instead I will test a lot of them in the fork slot the same way I measure with the gauge. But this is still the next thing. I have to get the escapement to unlock first.
    • it would be nice to have the exact model of the watch the or a picture so we can see exactly what you're talking about. this is because the definition of Swiss watch could be a variety of things and it be helpful if we could see exactly the watch your dealing with then in professional watch repair at least some professionals they do pre-cleaned watches. In other words the hands and dial come off and the entire movement assembled goes through a cleaning machine sometimes I think a shorter bath perhaps so everything is nice and clean for disassembly makes it easier to look for problems. Then other professionals don't like pre-cleaning because it basically obliterates the scene of the crime. Especially when dealing with vintage watches where you're looking for metal filings and problems that may visually go away with cleaning. Then usually super sticky lubrication isn't really a problem for disassembly and typically shouldn't be a problem on a pallet fork bridge because there shouldn't be any lubrication on the bridge at all as you typically do not oil the pallet fork pivots.  
×
×
  • Create New...