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Serviced an Illinois 100 Year Old 21 J Pocket Watch

jdrichard
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jdrichard Distinguished Member

jdrichard

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Had purchased a seized up 100ish old Illinois Pocket Watch. Looked like this282618144bd977470f27153bd24dfd55.jpg

It was not running at all, so I took Vin's advice and removed the balance and the palate fork to see if the gear train would run. Of course I first let down the mainspring. The wheel train would not run freely so a disassembled the complete watch:c404a1cfc95a186b755037835b66abb6.jpge49607cf925ff62f9fca825240d8cd3a.jpg45ced4c0deb22c69e3b383e4b3631e34.jpgfe2443e27b2bb76abebbbe337b337683.jpg

I then cleaned the movement plates, gears and wheels in lighter fluid. I also cleaned the jewels with a tooth pick (sharpened). I did not remove the keyless springs as they were fine, but they did go into the lighter fluid and I did wipe everything with a fine paint brush. Following the cleaning, I 9010 and D5 oiled the jewels etc. And used the thick stuff on the keyless work.241b65ab497d8dbb92da0472bd42d822.jpg

Then I built the watch up from the mainspring, 2nd, 3rd gear plates: to the 4th gear and escapement. Then I checked the free run of the gear train (after oiling ). It worked like a charm.632414bde5998e4753a8548538060c46.jpg

Finally I put back the cleaned palate fork and lowered the balance cock into place.

I still had a hard time moving so I removed the cap jewel from the balance and cleaned and oiled the balance jewel. Wow, what a difference. The balance amplified was 310 and the watch was frictionless. I put back the cap jewel (fires adding a very small amount of 9010 on the inside flat part of the cap jewel). The watch is now running really well. Next job is to find good hands and the current hands and completely rusted.9a8cf633d1541c85a032c59557dbf81a.jpg

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      By Waggy · Posted

      Murks, The rate and amplitude look OK, and the amplitude should improve once the oils you have used get a chance to move bed-in, also I notice that you are using default 52 degrees for the lift angle, if you get the real lift angle (assuming it's not actually 52) this will change your amplitude - maybe higher, maybe lower. I notice that the beat error is a little high, but not crazy high. At the risk of upsetting the purists, if the balance has an adjustment arm I would go ahead and try and get this <0.3 ms, but if it does not have an adjustable arm then I would probably leave well alone. Just my opinion.
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