German "Kasper" ladies watch, Art Deco 1940's

[Endeavor]

Hello All;

I stumbled on eBay over this little N.O.S. 1940's German Art Deco ladies watch. Cylinder escapement, 6-jewels. It looked in good condition and I couldn't help myself.....

Upon reception of the watch, it looked different than on the sellers pictures. That is to say, my wife (for which I bought the watch as a little present) thought it was too small for here liking   For me on the other hand, the condition was even better than on the pictures. After opening the back-lid I though it was a modern, recently made watch. A few surface scratches on the outside of the case but inside, it all looked like brand new !! Listening carefully and one could still hear the sounds of the factory echoing in the watch case. The surface rust on the balance was negligible, the seller must have taken that picture from the worst possible angle (perhaps he is a very honest man )

A few winding's and there was life in the balance, be it hesitant, but life nonetheless

After the disappointed that my wife didn't like it as much as I did , I did set off to strip this little gem.

The watch case consisted of two parts, the upper with the crystal and strap-lugs, and the bottom "box" in which the movement houses. It's a press-fit case.

The hands and dial came off without major problems or any damage. The dial had two feet and was held in place by two dial-feet screws (bottom left, top right) The hands were lumed, so were the numbers on the dial. Not sure if this lume is the "bad-stuff"??

With the dial off, the movement finally revealed some of its secrets;

First, the ratchet wheel and "the click", the latter consisting of a small wire spring which engages in the ratchet wheel teeth; bottom left arrow.

Secondly, the maker of the movement. It turns out that it's made by a company called "Kasper & Co", founded in 1911 in Pforzheim, Germany. Initially the company made elastic bracelets for watches, later added manufacturing of watch cases and from 1932 they produced complete wrist watches. In 1955 they produced their first automatic movement cal.1000, followed by their 2nd automatic movement, cal.1450 in 1964. In ca. 1970 the company ceased to exist. Here their logo from 1939 onward, printed on the front face of the main-plate, top arrow pointing to the logo on the watch;

However, the watch was sold under the name "WAP" (?) , as shown on the paper-label. So far, I couldn't find any information on "WAP". Most likely this watch is out the 1940's era .....

First I made sure that any residual tension in the mainspring was removed. Failure to do so and the chances are that the escape-wheel takes off as soon as the balance is removed, potentially ruining the movement. Removed the balance and escape-wheel; both being jeweled on either end.

The wheel-train bridge and the barrel-bridge consisted out of one piece;

I wasn't able to remove the center wheel as the cannon pinion was still attached to it on the other side. To see is the ratchet wheel and the click on the right;

With the main plate flipped over, stripping of the key-less works. The key-less work works quite simple. The winding stem is hold in under spring tension and when turned, the main-spring gets wound. When the crown is pulled & hold out, the hands can be manipulated. The winding stem pops back in once released.

The main plate looks in very good condition. Last action for today, removing the main-spring from the barrel;

At first glance, all looks in perfect condition, no wear nor any tear .....

This was the easy bit, tomorrow the tricky parts; cleaning of the balance wheel and the cleaning & oiling of the cap-stones....... I hope this all goes well and then the re-assembling ....

To be continued .....

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 30, 2018 by Endeavor

[Delgetti]

Very nice, looking forward to the assembling pics.

Is that luminous material on the dial and hands? I must admit that I'm quite afraid of radium in watches of that era.

[Endeavor]

Through the night I left most parts submerged in Zippo lighter-fluid. This should give the decades old oil a chance to dissolve. All the pivot holes and jewels were separately cleaned with peg-wood. All the pivots, teeth and balance cylinder were inspected with a 10x eye-loupe. Remarkably, after 70 years in storage, everything was 100% !

First up was to re-wind the main-spring back in the barrel, oil the spring, grease the arbor and assemble the barrel. I always hand-wind the main-springs.

The top of the balance had some surface discoloring (see picture at the beginning). I remove this by gently stroking the surface with a glass-fiber brush, while the the balance was suspended from a balance-holder. I didn't take any pictures as I didn't want to get distracted during this very delicate operation..... sorry ...... It took however only a few stroke to remove the discoloring.

Next up was another delicate operation, the oiling of the balance cap-stone. Two screws on the underside of the balance cock had to be removed without damaging the hairspring nor the very delicate balance-staff pivots. On the left the already cleaned capstone, ready to be oiled. For oiling capstones I used to use a very fine dip watch-oiler, but now I'm using a 0.1mm Rotring pen. This works very well for me, very precise and controlled.

With all parts cleaned, inspected and both cap-stones oiled, it was time to demagnetize. I made demagnetizing, after some hard lessons learned, a standard procedure.

Of course, a German watch runs best on German oils .... Dr. Tillwich is the name;

(BTW; the Swiss- and Russian-watches also seem to like this stuff ....... )

Time to assemble the ratchet wheel underneath the barrel, the wheel-train and a part of the keyless. Don't forget to insert the little screw (or sometimes a push-pin) which goes underneath the barrel-bridge: see the arrow. Won't be the fist time that you line everything nicely up only to discover that you have to undo your hard work again .....

Barrel-, and in this case also the wheel-train bridge back in place, all pivots engaged and lubricated.

Here a close up of the back-side of the yoke including the setting wheel;

Assembled the keyless works and ratchet "click". Tested functionality .....

Time to install the more delicate parts; the escape wheel and the balance ........

Lo and behold, after a little tension on the main-spring the movement started to run ......

It seemed happy so I decided to go ahead with the dial and hands. There was no work to be done on the dial, so it went straight back on. Replacing the hands was no problem either.

I don't expect to get a COSC certificate with this movement, but I hope that, within the next few days, I'll to get it run within a minute per 24 hrs ....... or so ......

As a side-line remark; I found it difficult to get a descent grip on this movement using the Bergeon 4039 movement holder. But it is also the first time I'm working on a tonneau shape movement of this size, so it may well be me ........

Anyway, I managed to get this little gem serviced without doing any damage. Better be, because there is nowhere on this planet a shelf full of spare-parts to be found

Now, it's to hope that I can find a lady who is willing to give it wrist time and can appreciate this little 1940's "time capsule". Obviously it needs a new leather strap, but that will be to the new owners taste ....

I'll hope that somebody will have some benefit of this write-up, at some point in time .....

Edited August 31, 2018 by Endeavor

[StuartBaker104]

Lovely job Roland. You may have figured this out, but what you have there appears to be a Kasper cal 200 https://17jewels.info/movements-en/movements-k-en/movements-k-kasper-en/879-kasper-200-neu.html

Amazingly, if you’d had any problems with any parts, then Cousins has a pretty good selection!!

Hopefully you’ll find someone to appreciate it as it has many years life left!

[Endeavor]

@StuartBaker104; Well, well ...... I would never have thought that !!  Thanks for the info, it makes the watch even more "colorful" .

Even though my movement (probably the "old"-version) has only 6-jewels (2x capstones, 2x balance staff jewels and 2x escape wheel jewels), it survived "time" a whole lot better than the movement on the pictures presented in the link. As said, I thought it was brand spanking new .... amazing !!

As a side note and/or side step; The Kasper factory was located in Pforzheim, a town which was multiple times bombed during WW2. According to Wikipedia:  "The largest raid, and one of the most devastating area bombardments of World War II, was carried out by the Royal Air Force (RAF) on the evening of 23 February 1945. Nearly one third of the town's population, 17,600 people, were killed in the air raid, and about 83% of the town's buildings were destroyed. The Allies believed that precision instruments were being produced here for use in the German war effort and that the town was a transport center for the movement of German troops. The story of the bombardment is dramatically recounted in the history by Giles Milton, titled Wolfram: "The Boy Who Went To War (2011)"". No wonder that the German watch industry took a big hit .....

Always eager to expand my horizon, I ordered the book. Not often that I've heard or red "the story" from the other side. The book has high ratings on Amazon .....

Where watches can lead to ........

Edited September 1, 2018 by Endeavor