Pocket watch spare parts?

[railwaymaniac]

I have inherited a silver-cased hunter pocket watch, the case is dated 1890, and I believe that it belonged either to my grandfather or my great grandfather. I've been looking at getting it running again, but I'm not even sure where to start..

As I mentioned, the case is dated 1890 and I assume later in that year as there is no 'duty' mark. The movement is inscribed 'G Arronsome' and 'Manchester', and is powered by the barrel spring as there is no fusee in sight. I cannot see any other identifying marks on the movement at this stage.

I am sure that I am not the first person to delve into this movement as the dial was loose because all of it's fixing pins were missing when I first looked in there. As you can see from the photo (arrow) there is a gear wheel missing from under the dial.

So I have several questions, please..

Firstly, is there a specific name for this movement?

Secondly, can someone please tell me the manufacturer for this movement?

And thirdly, can I buy spares for this movement at all?

Many thanks

 

 

 

[grsnovi]

According to a 6 year old post (talking about a fusee watch) on the NAWCC forum:

"Aaronson was a Manchester retailer rather than a maker. The watch itself is a 15 jewel fusee driven movement of quite good quality which, by todays definition is not actually a chronograph but a hacking stop watch. A chronograph records the time whilst the watch continues to run whereas the application of the stop button here will stop the watch completely. Judging by the position of the regulator it is in need of a little TLC and would benefit from a clean and service.

I can't see the hallmarks clearly, or the maker's stamp, but it looks very much as if the case was assayed in London and I think that the watch was probably made in Coventry by Rotherham & Sons."

It would be helpful if you could get a better/closer shot of the markings under the red arrow on your dial side shot as well as what appears to be a marking between the spring anchor and the right-angle tab secured by the two screws on the same side.

I looked for Rotherham and have only found 1 example on Ranfft which isn't your movement.

An uneducated guess suggests that it is highly unlikely that you'll be able to purchase spare parts. You might find somebody who will make parts for you.

Edited July 6, 2022 by grsnovi

[railwaymaniac]

Thanks for getting back to me grsnovi

My movement is NOT fusee, the winding key (and barrel) are above the balance support in picture 1. I have seen photos and videos of the fusee version of this movement and the winding key on those movements would be below the balance support. In fact I've seen a Youtube video of the disassembly of such a fusee movement.

Attached is a better view as you requested (I hope..) 

And I am disappointed but not surprised that spares may be composed of Unobtanium ..  

 

Edited July 6, 2022 by railwaymaniac
added information

[grsnovi]

What I thought could have been a maker's mark actually seems to be strikes onto the circumference of a pin through the plate. 

[JohnR725]

On 7/6/2022 at 7:22 AM, railwaymaniac said:

As you can see from the photo (arrow) there is a gear wheel missing from under the dial.

you're missing the minute wheel. Your options are to find an assortment and see if something will work that would be the easiest and cheapest probably. Otherwise you can make a new one or have someone else look through their assortment and/or make a new one.

On 7/6/2022 at 7:22 AM, railwaymaniac said:

And thirdly, can I buy spares for this movement at all?

I don't suppose you have access to a time machine? If you can find somebody who stocks vintage movements for parts and other was a material house specializes in vintage watches may be. Otherwise know there were never spare parts stocked for this watch or basically any other watch in this time frame. It can only get spare parts if they're made in sufficient quantity and later in life. So some company was mass-producing a watch there might have been spare parts but these are almost not quite handmade more than likely hand finished.

You probably need a mainspring when you get the old one out we can figure out what you might build put in the area probably have to modify the end may be depends on what they had on the end for the mainspring.

If you're lucky the balance staff isn't broken otherwise it's going to be a lathe's project.

Basically watches like this are restoration projects they're not your simple clean lubricate toss a few new parts in an offer and running plus the other problem of 100 years of your watchmakers or someone who thought this was a toy problems can happen from that alone.

[railwaymaniac]

Again, thanks for the replies. 

The balance staff is fine I think, it did rotate when power was applied. The mainspring, well, I'll think about that later. And the missing minute wheel is causing me to put this watch onto the 'queen shelf' - it may be there for a long time to come.

Ian