English For A Change!

[Geo]

I picked up a nice 9ktgold Smiths Astral on Fleabay at the weekend. It is running well and just needs a bit of tidying up cosmetically. I serviced one for a friend of mine last year and was really impressed with the quality of the watch, especially the movement. Since then I had been on the lookout for one.

[Mark]

Nice watches.

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[autowind]

Show us the internals please.   :startle:

[Geo]

Show us the internals please.   :startle:

I've still a few things keeping me busy just now Roger, but I will remove the movement when I refinish the case. As I said, I've worked on one before and was well impressed with the movement.

[WillFly]

Here's the movement from my grandfather's British Rail retirement watch - a Smiths De Luxe - I think they used the same movement as the Astral:

 

[Geo]

The astral is pretty much the same Will. The De Luxe was a slightly better movement, it has the balance wheel with the screws in it and the Astral doesn't. My one will have a plain balance wheel, but being slightly younger, it will have shock protection.

That's a nice watch Will, I'm partial to subsidiary second dials.

PS I will have to get some treatment, I'm sure you passed on your disease just when I was starting to get clear of it!

[WillFly]

The disease has to be fed - just to propitiate the gods...

[bobm12]

Nice watches both! I would be great to compare the internals!

[autowind]

As mentioned they are very nice movements and look the equal of a Swiss watch and probably better than some.  Any ideas as to what killed off the English mechanical watch?

Edited August 5, 2014 by autowind

[WillFly]

As mentioned they are very nice movements and look the equal of a Swiss watch and probably better than some.  Any ideas as to what killed off the English mechanical watch?

In a nutshell, the English watch manufacturers didn't respond to change. They carried on in the same ways as they had always done and were overtaken by Swiss horological development - and gradually they lost customers and money. Swiss (and American) mass production methods produced fine watches that were the equivalent of - and even better than - English hand-made equivalents.

Edited August 5, 2014 by WillFly

[Geo]

In a nutshell, the English watch manufacturers didn't respond to change. They carried on in the same ways as they had always done and were overtaken by Swiss horological development - and gradually they lost customers and money. Swiss (and American) mass production methods produced fine watches that were the equivalent of - and even better than - English hand-made equivalents.

I would also guess that they weren't big or diverse enough to survive the quartz revolution.

[autowind]

Law of the jungle then, "The weak go to the wall".

[Geo]

Show us the internals please.   :startle:

Here you are Roger.

The movement and dial are in excellent condition and it starts from barely half a turn on the crown. Because of this I am not going to service it just now, but I will make a slight adjustment to the regulator as it is about one minute fast per day.

I will also tidy up the case and crystal while I have the case open, unfortunately someone has been trying to open the back with a knife when they should have split the case at the bezel. The damage is not too bad and I will be able to sort it out.

One thing that I do find strange, is although it is an English watch, the case was hallmarked in Edinburgh in 1968.

[WillFly]

It may well be that the movement was either cased by an Edinburgh jeweller or that there was a stock of Edinburgh-assayed cases in Edinburgh. My Swiss Majex with the AR movement also has an Edinburgh hallmark - for 1955.

[autowind]

Geo, Quality speaks for itself, very nice.  I had a look on the Bay and they were asking what I thought was silly prices for a basic watch, way beyond my purse.  There was also an automatic Everest which was around the £600 mark,  I think they are being a bit greedy myself.

[Geo]

The automatic Everest watches whereas good as Smiths got and mint ones do fetch really big bucks. I've seen them as high as £1000 / £1200.

There's an Astral buy it now £97 or offers in need of repair on Fleabay. The buy it now price is about £10 more than the scrap value of the 10 grams of 9kt gold.

[Lawson]

_{Very nice watch Geo.  Nice little score of the Fleabay mate :)}

[Geo]

I gave it a bit of a clean yesterday. It' good what 1000 grit wet or dry and some Solvol can do.

[WillFly]

Very nice, Geo!

[Lawson]

Man that's an elegant watch!

 

I'll really like to see a write-up on restoring case finish and glass. 

All the tips and tricks **Hint Hint Geo**

That's just as important to learn as repairing the movement.