We were cleaning out some desk drawers. That started me looking for a safe place to keep my great-grandfather's pocket watch. When I am involved, nothing is ever that simple. I started looking at the watch, got some numbers off the innards, went on-line, and in a few minutes discovered more history about this watch than any living member of the family knew or could remember. The watch was manufactured in 1901 and is one of the highest grade watches made by Waltham. The case is a fairly common gold-filled type that shows a LOT of wear. Most of the gold is completely worn off the back. The case has served it's purpose. The watch movement and face appear to be in excellent condition.
Of course, now I'm thinking it would be really neat to get this watch working again. I must have a disease. If something is broken, I cannot resist the urge to try and fix it. My Dad took the watch to a shop many years ago and was told it would cost more than it was worth to fix it.
My previous experience with watches is limited to taking links out to shorten the band and replacing batteries. Most of the watches I have dealt with have a snap-on type back. This pocket watch is an open face, lever-set type. The front and back of the case are threaded and relatively easy to screw off. Taking the back off exposes the very nicely finished clock work. One of the first things I noticed is the balance wheel, that should rotate back and forth on it's axle. This one is very wobbly.
I studied everything I could find on-line, and determined that the balance is not right for this watch, the axle is too short. My guess is that this watch was used as a parts watch to fix another one that the rotten individual could sell. That means I'm a little stuck. I need a new balance, and maybe some of the associated parts between the balance and the escape wheel. That is basically everything that makes the watch go Tick-Tock. This could get expensive.
Working on this pocket watch is a challenge. The guts are held together with screws about the size and weight of a fruit fly. I need fairly powerful magnification just to SEE some of them. The balance and clock-spring are very fragile parts.
FACT: Buying lots of parts to fix anything is likely going to cost more than it's worth. What I wanted was a couple of "parts watches". Broken watches are cheap and always full of good parts. I now have acquired a whole box of watch repair tools, two "parts watches", and a bunch of other miscellaneous parts. The bad news is that my great-grandad's watch still does not work. However, both of the parts watches I bought are now working! They looked too good to sacrifice for parts, and only needed to be cleaned and oiled. That was good experience and good practice for working on the more expensive watch if I can find the parts.
So, I have added Watch Repair to my list of hobbies.
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