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Tmuir

By Tmuir
in Watch Repairs Help & Advice

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Tmuir Distinguished Member

Tmuir

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I've got a Unitas 235N pocket watch that I'm planning on attempting to make a balance staff for, but I'm first sorting out the rest of the movement.

The pinion on the minute wheel had lost a couple of teeth, but I have a replacement one on the way, it had the wrong size spring in the barrel so I also have a replacement spring on the way. I had just finished taking my measurements for the new balance staff and decided to give all the wheels a once more over again.

This time I noticed something I had missed, the top pivot of the third wheel was showing wear. Its the bottom pivot in this photo.986191147_wornpivot.png.4a7e365289364ad17025e70115d5fc24.png

So of course I went and had another look at the jewel.

I could see a tiny spot on the edge of the pivot hole, but couldn't make out if it was just old oil that hadn't cleaned off or a crack, but under my USB microscope its clear its a chip off the edge of the jewel, atleast I know what was causing the wear now. I will attempt to polish the pivot, but that jewel is going to need to be replaced. The crack is the shadow on the left side of the hole, I could see it clearly as I wiggled the bridge under the microscope so the light caught the chip at different angles. I would of kicked myself if I fixed up everything else and the watch stopped again in a few weeks time due to the pivot being ruined.

cracked jewel.png

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Tmuir Distinguished Member

Tmuir

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On 9/12/2018 at 4:29 AM, Pip said:

That's a good spot. You're getting good images from your USB mic, what type is it? 

It is just a cheap one off ebay.

I bought it some time ago, its a 5MP camera.

I think this is it.

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/UM012C-USB-Digital-Microscope-5MP-Video-Microscope-300X-Magnifier-Camera-BV/163244990258?hash=item260228df32:m:mNz-C8JXSsK7XjApiGfUkuQ

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