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Posted

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.

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Posted

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.

Posted

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:

 

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Posted

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!

Posted (edited)

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 by autowind
Posted (edited)

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 by WillFly
Posted

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.

Posted

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.

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Posted

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.

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Posted

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.

Posted

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.

Posted

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.

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