U.S. Shipping Board

[TimFitz]

Just completed a cleaning of a watchcase & a Waltham 15j Pocket watch movement.

Then I put them together to make a whole watch. Neither came to me as a whole timepiece. I have been looking for an unusual case to put the movement in & I found it at Dave's

watch parts.

The movement was very dirty and very sluggish & the case was very tarnished with dings and scratches. The crystal was not bad with a lot of small scratches (fixed with cerium oxide)

So here are the before & after shots

[digginstony]

That's a really beautiful job. A watch to be proud of

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[TimFitz]

I realize some people are down on re-casing, however there are tons of movements & not as many cases. I think re-casing for a personal collection & not for resale is the right thing to do. Now I have a beautiful watch to use and admire.

[digginstony]

It is interesting... Walthams were manufacturers of movement's. To my knowledge they never sold watches.
They would retail to Jewellers etc. It was normal practice for a customer to pick a case and select a movement. Then the Jewellery shop would fit movement to case. So really the "watch,being the movement " was never supplied in an original case, as is the practice today.
That's why you could have a Waltham in a case inscribed say 1920 but the movement could be 1916 but it is the case it was first fitted into.
All you've done is something similar to original practice of 100 years ago.
The point I'm making is Walthams never supplied cased movements so are any Walthams truly original by definition.


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[digginstony]

But collectors are always going to value a Waltham to be fitted to its first case because that's the original case but it is interesting

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[TimFitz]

1 hour ago, TimFitz said:

I realize some people are down on re-casing, however there are tons of movements & not as many cases. I think re-casing for a personal collection & not for resale is the right thing to do. Now I have a beautiful watch to use and admire.

I'm going to put black lacquer in the engraving, to make it show

[digginstony]

I can't see any reason if you were to sell, it wouldn't reach a high price with the work you've done. It's obviously a re-cased movement because you've fitted a hunter movement into an open face case.
I own many Walthams and due to the nature of the trade as previously mentioned, there's no way I could be certain they are in there original cases.
Most modern manufacturers use trade movements but they leave the factory cased. So originality is easier to identify.


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[ramrod]

you did a beautiful job of restoring that case and movement. stunning.

[TimFitz]

1 hour ago, ramrod said:

you did a beautiful job of restoring that case and movement. stunning.

Thanks so much.

[frenchie]

Very nice indeed! well done!