Where to get a good assortment of Jewels

[gmoodyii]

I recently damaged a escapement wheel jewel while servicing a non-runner from ebay. I removed the jewels and measured. Lucky I have a watch repair shop in town so I hit them up and purchased a couple of jewels.

I want to have an assortment of my own. I notice that CousinsUK has a 1000 piece assortment. Cousins part# J47732

Is this a good option instead of buying one at a time?

Thoughts and comments please.

 

[oldhippy]

When it comes to parts you can never have enough. Always good to have spairs such as jewels, don't forget there are a few types so make sure at first you get the correct type. Go to auctions, look through local papers, watch repairers retiring or closing down and ebay.   

[khunter]

It's definitely cheap enough, but would you ever need 1000? Just finding the right one, assuming the assortment had it in the first place, would be frustrating to say the least.

[clockboy]

I have a stash of jewels that i have picked up through eBay over the years. However it's surprising the amount of times I have required a jewel but have not got the correct size. Cousins supply jewels but the prices have increased significantly. If you want to just a have a selection in stock this company supplies at a reasonable price.

http://redroosteruk.com/100-vintage-watch-jewels/

[chadders1966]

I gave up on these generic no size selections some time ago as you need to measure each jewel accurately to be of any use. Not many of them seem to end up the type you need either. I buy up, as cheaply as I can, small second hand jewel lots where they are already graded by size and type. I have managed to build a good mixed selection that way.

Stephen

[gmoodyii]

Well, being a glutton for punishment I ordered the 1000 piece assortment from cousins. Along with staffs and stem assortments. 

Since this is in the hobby stage I don't mind spending time sorting though to find something that might work. 

Actually probably get more use from the stem assortment since some of the non runners I get from eBay have no stems. 

[transporter]

Chadders1966 has the right idea, I have bags of generic jewel sizes and I can tell you now that tipping all these out to try to find the correct size is painstaking to say the least, although you do learn quite quick how to gauge sizes by eye alone ( ball park size that is )