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Elgin Pocket Watch Mystery Screw.

Keitharoo
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Keitharoo Member

Keitharoo

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I am new to watch repair, but have successfully repaired, cleaned and oiled several pocket watches.  This picture is from an Elgin pocket watch that I am currently working on.  The piece indicated by the arrow, obviously assists in toggling between winding and setting via the clutch pinion but, as you can see, there is no screw in the hub to hold it in place.  However, in the bridge, above the piece indicated, is a small screw in a threaded through-hole that is not retaining any other pieces and, at first glance, appeared to be doing nothing.  I assume it is there to somehow retain the piece shown, and possibly adjust the resistance/tension of that piece.  I've haven't seen one like this yet.  What exactly is the mystery screw supposed to be doing, and how do I adjust it to do so?     post-1801-0-20526400-1457103006_thumb.jp

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Keitharoo Member

Keitharoo

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Using a little tiny bit of oil to hold the piece in place worked great!  Thanks for the wonderful advice.  Also, I think I solved the mystery of the real purpose of that screw that appears to be doing nothing.  It seems to be there to hold that piece locked so that there is no tension on the tail piece in order to allow the stem to be inserted without spring pressure on it.  After I screwed the bridge into place, I rotated the wind/set mechanism to take tension off the stem, then snugged the mystery screw down just enough so that nothing moved.  After the stem was in, I backed the mystery screw off, the tail piece engaged, and the wind/set mechanism snapped itself into place.  Wow, a screw that seems to be doing nothing sure was confusing for a beginner.

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lakeradio6 Member

lakeradio6

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On 3/4/2016 at 9:52 AM, Keitharoo said:

I am new to watch repair, but have successfully repaired, cleaned and oiled several pocket watches.  This picture is from an Elgin pocket watch that I am currently working on.  The piece indicated by the arrow, obviously assists in toggling between winding and setting via the clutch pinion but, as you can see, there is no screw in the hub to hold it in place.  However, in the bridge, above the piece indicated, is a small screw in a threaded through-hole that is not retaining any other pieces and, at first glance, appeared to be doing nothing.  I assume it is there to somehow retain the piece shown, and possibly adjust the resistance/tension of that piece.  I've haven't seen one like this yet.  What exactly is the mystery screw supposed to be doing, and how do I adjust it to do so?     post-1801-0-20526400-1457103006_thumb.jp

I put one of these together today. A 1907  elgin. The bridge above holds this part in.

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