Defender 17 Jewel - Practice Watch

[Jonno65]

Hi All

I purchased a few 'cheap-ish' watches on eBay - more to start on the refurbishment journey.  To date I have been stripping and rebuilding movements some new some older.  This one arrived today and I stripped and cleaned it (still some stubborn grease) but I also started to clean the dial with water on a swab - only to discover that the writing and minute marks are water transfer decals - ho hum.

But the watch 'was' called a Defender (until i rubbed it off), and the barrel bridge is marked Heritage Watch Co.

Curiously, and new for me in a watch is that it has a pin-pallet pallet fork not a jewelled pallet fork...  I am trying to identify the actual movement.

The main plate has 530/535 on it and an 'A'.  Under the balance is a '7'.  On the case on one side it is stamped '3'

See the images below - if anyone has any advice it would once again be appreciated.

Jon

[Marc]

It's an Amida, either a 530 or a 535, the base plate is common to both as I believe that one is a variation of the other.

I don't know what the differences are between the two.

[JohnR725]

6 hours ago, Jonno65 said:

started to clean the dial with water on a swab - only to discover that the writing and minute marks are water transfer decals - ho hum.

dial cleaning is always a bit problematic. Basically they really weren't meant to be cleaned and cleaning them can be extremely risky. Some dials are its even meant to be touched at all. Very shiny dials trying to get the fingerprints back off is basically impossible. Frosty dials if you touch them the frosting finished changes and then you're really in trouble.

6 hours ago, Jonno65 said:

But the watch 'was' called a Defender (until i rubbed it off), and the barrel bridge is marked Heritage Watch Co.

watches are always confusing when you're starting out in that the name on the watch probably didn't actually make the movement. So in other words there are basically an OEM company who makes movements. They'll sell them to a company that would case them up and a lot of times they will put their name on the dial sometimes up with the name on the plates. If they're big enough company they might actually buy the movements with other company and only have their name on them and then modify and change them a little bit than getting parts can be quite interesting depending upon the degree of modification. So basically unless it's a name you recognize like Seiko the movement will probably be made by somebody else. or in the case of some companies that are moments will be made by lots of companies so there's no guarantee of what's going to be in the case until you open the case.

Oh and then there's another mystery here did you notice the letters on the balance bridge? Those are US import codes. When watches were imported into the US for tax purposes they were marked with a import code indicating who imported the watch the import codes can be found here.  But as you can see for identification of parts it's not always helpful because that's not necessarily who manufactured the movement SON Defender Watch Co.

http://www.ranfft.de/uhr/info-uscode-e.html

 

6 hours ago, Jonno65 said:

pin-pallet pallet fork not a jewelled pallet fork

that's interesting because the dial claims to be 17 jewel and the watch looks like a jeweled movement. Usually the pin pallet movements have limited quantity of jewels basically almost none because are usually very inexpensive.

looking at their other movements that they make this one is definitely an upgrade by quite a bit as the other ones are definitely low cost

5 hours ago, Marc said:

Amida, either a 530 or a 535, the base plate is common to both as I believe that one is a variation of the other.

I don't know what the differences are between the two.

snipped out some images from the bestfit book. You see the difference is the main plate size basically all the parts should be identical except the main plate it would depend upon which case they put it into. Then if you're not familiar with the bestfit book it also has a fingerprint system to help you identify movements which is why there's a page number and what's interesting is they referred this as a pin lever watch but typically as I said I think I said pin lever watches typically don't have a lot of jewels. Conceivably they may have zero jewels which makes this one weirded 17 jewels?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Jonno65]

That's a great help thanks!  I will look up some more details.  I was aware of the different manufaturers of movements compared to the actual brand of the watch but was still stumped as to who the movement belonged to in the first instance.  Some interesting information there however.

This is the pallet fork from the movement:

 

[JohnR725]

1 hour ago, Jonno65 said:

pallet fork from the movement:

it's really weird is that definitely looks like a pin lever, lever versus the jeweled lever. Yet your watch looks like it says is a 17 jewel watch and unless those pins are made out of sapphire which doesn't look like they are it's a bit of a mystery here.

oh can you get a picture of the escape wheel you don't need a picture of all that I just want to see what the shape of the teeth look like.

[Jonno65]

I almost put up a pic of the escape wheel!  Almost 'conventional' looking...

Edited May 3, 2023 by Jonno65

[JohnR725]

that's definitely an interesting looking escape wheel. I can't tell if the dark colors surface rust or whether it's made out of brass?

[Jonno65]

22 minutes ago, JohnR725 said:

that's definitely an interesting looking escape wheel. I can't tell if the dark colors surface rust or whether it's made out of brass?

It's not rust, although I did forget to rinse in IPA so the screws went a bit rusty in the dryer.  I'm putting it all through again.

Edited May 3, 2023 by Jonno65