First project: Digging into a 4992b… a couple of newbie questions…

[Whyyy]

So one of my first projects out of the gate is a cool Hamilton GCT pocket watch (4992b) from the 40’s that I was given by my grandfather before he died about fifteen years ago.  It would run briefly, then stop, so I thankfully had the presence of mind to stick it in a drawer and forget about it.

Cut to today, I’ve taken an internet course, pulled apart and put my 6397 back together a few times (totally a pro now ), so I decide to take a crack at this thing, hoping it just needs a good servicing.  Getting into it initially, I notice there’s a case screw missing, so someone’s obviously been in here before, quite a lot of the screws didn’t seem properly tightened.  I was able to get the watch torn down sufficiently, with a couple of questions left over at the end…

Question 1:  What Is going on with the crown wheel on this thing?  I’ve tried left-handed, then right-handed unscrewing, but it really seems like it doesn’t want to detach itself from the gear on the bottom of the barrel bridge, and I’m really not wanting to snap off any screw heads.

Question 2: My first look at pulling the barrel arbor out made me do a double-take, since I really haven’t practiced this before, I may have a totally wrong impression of how the whole winding thing is supposed to work, but the way this main spring is in the barrel, it appears the hole in the spring would simply slide past the hook in the arbor, i.e., did someone reinstall the spring upside down?  It really looks that way to me…

Last Question (for now):  A couple of the cap jewels, and the pallet jewels, were transparent, rather than the ruby color I’m used to seeing.  Is that normal for an older watch?

Thanks very much in advance for any input. 

Jeremy

 

[ifibrin]

When you try and unscrew the screw of the crown wheel, goes the gear at the bottom of the barrel bridge also turn? I’m not sure what the purpose of the gear at the bottom of the barrel bridge is for though... Did you take any other disassembly pictures?

[ifibrin]

From our friends at NAWCC

[ifibrin]

Looks like you will need to hold the bottom gear steady, perhaps with a brass pin in the hole of the gear, and unscrew from the top.

[Whyyy]

Thanks @ifibrin, I will give that a shot later today.  Much appreciated.

Regarding the mainspring, after further investigation, it does look like it was installed correctly, I think I was just backwards on which face of the barrel arbor is engaging the hole in the spring.

More pics to follow when the project is complete…