New hobbyist with a question about Agassiz movement

[intruder58]

Hi all.  I'm a newbie to watch repair but really enjoy this forum.  After retiring 3 times, i decided to take up watch repair.  I'm in the process of making all the mistakes I'm sure everyone else has made, but I enjoy the challenge.  I recently acquired an AGASSIZ movement SER 122815.  Engraved with Tiffany & company on the movement and a very handsome dial with Tiffany & Co. on the face.  I'm trying to figure out how to service the main spring barrel, but have never seen one like this.  Any thoughts on how to proceed?  And OBTW, I need a winding stem as well.   Any thoughts would her appreciated

 

[watchweasol]

Hi  And welcome to the forum,  It is a handsome watch  indeed.  The barrel has attached a "stackfred" in the old parlance, what this does is limits the wind to the center part of the spring therfore maintaining the same tension on the train. There is no full pressure on a full wind and conversley as the normal spring winds down the pressure diminmishes. . so by that the use of the "Maltese cross work" ( another name for it) the watch uses the even pressure from the center of the spring.  From memory I believe it takes six winds of the Key/crown

[RichardHarris123]

Hello and welcome.  I haven't come across one of these barrels either, so I will be interested in the answers you get. 

As for stems if the correct one cannot be found, watch spare supplies sell generic ones. 

[intruder58]

very interesting.  I'm thinking it's too complicated for me to disassemble and clean..spring seems fine.  I should probably just put it back in and hope for the best.  Thanks so much for your reply!

[oldhippy]

2 hours ago, watchweasol said:

Hi  And welcome to the forum,  It is a handsome watch  indeed.  The barrel has attached a "stackfred" in the old parlance, what this does is limits the wind to the center part of the spring therfore maintaining the same tension on the train. There is no full pressure on a full wind and conversley as the normal spring winds down the pressure diminmishes. . so by that the use of the "Maltese cross work" ( another name for it) the watch uses the even pressure from the center of the spring.  From memory I believe it takes six winds of the Key/crown

It also prevents the arbor from slipping off the mainspring. 

[nickelsilver]

This is a rather high grade movement, I wouldn't recommend it for learning on. Parts will be unavailable, I would imagine the stem would need to be made.

 

But if you want to proceed, the ratchet wheel should pull off the barrel arbor, it's held by the square, and kept from coming off by the barrel bridge. it could be a bit of a fight getting it off though, as it's been in place probably for decades. You would then grip the square in a small watchmaker's vice, and turn the barrel so that there is no pressure on the stop finger, remove the finger, then let the barrel unwind, noting how much pre-tension was applied. Most mainsprings will develop 6 turns of wind, and this stopwork allows 4 turns, so it would be typical to have one turn of pre-wind and then the stopwork will stop before the last turn, leaving one turn that doesn't get used.

[intruder58]

Thanks Nickelsilver. I might put it aside until i become more proficient.  

[Michael1962]

Welcome to the forum @intruder58