Chronograph Pocket Watch 1898

[StuartBaker104]

Hi all

 

A friend recently asked me to service a chronograph pocket watch.

 

The watch has an inscription dating it to no later than 1898, and the movement and case are marked in multiple places with the same serial number so it should all be original. It has a silver case with a swiss 3 bears 0.935 hallmark and the maker's mark "ON".  The movement has no maker's identification.

 

Anyway, the intersting bit for me was the escape lever.  Has anyone seen anything like that before?  Most of my experience is with wristwatches - are those horns normal?  What do they do?  I thought the ideal lever was a light one, not one with additional mass?  Also, the "horns" make that end of the lever heavier than the other rather than put it in balance.

 

Thoughts welcome!

 

Stuart

 

 

[clockboy]

A new one for me for a watch but the escape action is much the same as you find in many clocks.  Normally the issue is wear either with the pivot or the actual face of the levers.

Hopefully yours is OK because the repair of a worn/scored one is very difficult. The angles are critical that create the draw & locking.

The horns although look nice are actually there to create a balance

[Geo]

Hi Stuart, that's an interesting old watch and well worth the TLC it's about to receive. I agree with CB, regarding the horns on the escape lever. There is a good chance that you may find identification marks hidden either on the dial side of the movement, or hidden under some of the bridges. Please keep us informed.

[clockboy]

After looking through my "complete price guide to watches" book and looking at many,many,many pocket watches I found some info but not conclusive.

It looks like the watch is a split seconds chronograph. The escapement is based on a variant of a lever style invented by a guy named Thomas Mudge or another called a Pouzait lever. 

 

The interesting part that might help with the ID is the dial. The outer edge is graduated up too 300 which will have been used to measure something specific i.e. some pocket watches had a graduation for physicians to count pulse beats some artillery officers (first world war) had graduations to measure distance by means of sound.

 

Someone with greater knowledge than me might be able to help but it is a very rare watch & could be quite valuable. I found a Rolex pocket watch with split seconds & it,s value was approx. $1000

[StuartBaker104]

Hi CB and Geo,

Thanks for your thoughts. You've prompted me to search for a few other things...

I have already almost finished the service - it's been running fine for about a week, and timekeeping is acceptable, but it occasionally stops when the chrono is running, just as the finger tries to turn the minute register wheel. I can see what is happening, just trying to work out the most sensitive way to adjust it.

The escape lever pallets are actually jewelled and were in pretty good condition. The photo only just shows it, but they fit into horizontal rather than vertical slots. I still don't get the balance thing with the lever horns, as they way over compensate and put the lever out of balance the other way. I'm sure there is a logical explanation though.

The only other marking on the watch was the dial maker's mark - I had assumed that it was just an artisan's initials, but as far as I can find out, ZJ were a pretty prolific swiss dial maker and used by many watch manufacturers, so no clues there. They were later bought by Patek Philippe.

0-300 dials seemed to be pretty common on early chronographs. I assume the only significance is that on an 18000 beat movement, the smallest division of measurement is 1/5 second and there are 300 of those in a minute. I'm sure someone will correct me though.

Thanks

Stuart

[Geo]

I just checked mine and it also has a 0-300 dial.

[clockboy]

I just checked mine and it also has a 0-300 dial.

image.jpeg

Now that is a real nice watch Geo.