Hampden 12s #603 "quickie"

[WileyDave]

Okay here is my first, (virginal) walkthrough, I got this 17j Hampden for less than $30,  it's not uber rare scarce or anything uncommon, anyway upon arrival, I immediately noticed some rusty hands and lack of winding (AAAARRRGGH), fortunately it was just from cheap crystal, (I think) the seconds hand is almost gone!)

Next off they came and things still looked pretty good.

I don't like dust shields and read somewhere they are not recommended/necessary on Hampdens anyway.

when I got under dial, the cannon pinion and hour wheel were pretty toasty, otherwise it was pretty clean.

Next, off comes balance assm and out comes pallet bridge and fork. Just in case, I did try to let down mainspring, but that appeared to be part of problem.

Then comes main barrel bridge, winding wheel, third and fourth wheels and bridge, note steel escape wheel and white/clear jewels on pallet fork.

Out comes barrel and arbor

And just as suspected, mainspring is a goner! Note the serial number inside barrel, matches the rest of watch

Dial cleaned up pretty nice, lot's of hairline dirt removed. Still has some nibbles between the 10 and 11, that's what I call character!  

New spring

In goes the new spring, I did this by hand, (too cheap to invest in winder!) Just a pinch more to tighten up arbor and greased.

Patiently awaiting their return after cleaning. The cannon and hour wheel were replaced, I got lots of parts, so no issues there.

Now with everything tidy, back goes barrel and bridge

Third and fourth wheel bridge, plus touching up pivots/jewels with oil as we go. This last part can be a bugger if you don't line everything up, I give it a "soft screw", pardon the expression, but I'd rather check everything before it gets tightened, (learned the hard way on that one)

New Cannon Pinion, hour wheel and  dial washer on and dial ready for replacement. A few more touches of oil on dial side pivots. ( a bit heavy handed on the barrel, did clean that up a bit)

I picked out new hands, pretty fancy scmancy and had to replace second hand too.

Now I know I  didn't show all that boring stuff with the keyless works, set springs and winding wheels and mainplate cleaning, but it all had to be done, I just wanted to show how relatively simple these movements and others like them are to work on and hopefully get some others to try their hand. One quick vid,

she's running like a scalded cat!

DSCF0401.AVI

 

 

[Geo]

Excellent job and a great write up Dave! 

[oldhippy]

Nice work. What was the problem with the cannon pinion and hour wheel?

[WileyDave]

2 hours ago, oldhippy said:

Nice work. What was the problem with the cannon pinion and hour wheel?

Thanks, there was a touch of rust on main wheel and cannon pinion, was able to get apart and clean up with some gentle persuasion. Once I looked closely at hour wheel it was worn and 'crimped' to that point where there wasn't any free travel between the two. So if I had gotten the hands back on straight, chances are it would have run slowly.

[Watchtime]

Great walkthrough and result, I love those embossed dails.

[oldhippy]

7 hours ago, WileyDave said:

Thanks, there was a touch of rust on main wheel and cannon pinion, was able to get apart and clean up with some gentle persuasion. Once I looked closely at hour wheel it was worn and 'crimped' to that point where there wasn't any free travel between the two. So if I had gotten the hands back on straight, chances are it would have run slowly.

Lucky for you that you had parts, it could have caused the watch to stop.

[RyMoeller]

Great walk through and I think you found an amazing watch for the price! 

That is a beautiful movement too BTW.  The form of a high end American made pocket watch is hard to beat.  Look at that dameskeening and perlage.  Beautiful.