Missing jewel after cleaning

[arron]

Hey guys,

This is a frustrating one.  I was reassembling this elgin 12s pw and discovered that the burnished-in jewel for the bottom plate palate fork was missing.  This, after cleaning the movement in the watch cleaning machine and again in the US (because it got dirty again) and after buying a replacement dial and balance hole jewel.  It must have just shattered as i can't find it anywhere and, of course, it was burnished in.  I now have two PWs that need burnished in jewels.  I could probably justify now getting the proper tools to fix them, but i'm going to set it aside to better develop my basic skills before tackling these repairs.  I don't know if i was negligent in handling the cleaning or it was just old and bound to happen.  Anyways, another lesson learned.   Arron.

[JohnR725]

3 hours ago, arron said:

was missing

Depending upon the age of the watch a lot of the stones may be natural. They tend to have all sorts of in trouble flaws anyway and some places where people are enthusiastic when assembling they can break the stone. You probably have grit in the bottom of the cleaning machine were of course it came out in pieces.

3 hours ago, arron said:

burnished in jewels

Burnished in jewels can be an issue to replace. At one time there was a assortment of burnished in jewels. Pick the right one if you're lucky and burnished a new one in but you do need the tools to open up the setting and close setting again. Or you can modify a modern jewel to the shape suitable the burnished in. Or just ream it out and put a modern jewel in but that will have issues for other reasons like sometimes end up having to open up quite a bit to get a modern jewel in. Plus of course modern jewels are distinctive red color versus the pale stones the past which may have been garnets or something else not necessarily sapphire.

[arron]

John, i had a feeling it wasn't going to be easy, but maybe by the time i get to doing it, it won't seem quite so daunting.  Take care.

[JohnR725]

20 minutes ago, arron said:

i had a feeling it wasn't going to be easy, but maybe by the time i get to doing it, it won't seem quite so daunting. 

It might not actually really be that bad. The problem becomes we want to do the repair now versus when the watch was being made. That's really the biggest challenge is trying to find stuff to fix a vintage watch.