Elgin Model 6, Grade 305, 16s

 Here we have an Elgin 16-size, Model 6, Grade 305 with a fancy dial, in a solid 14K Lissauer & Co. case.  The watch was made in 1905, it belonged to the client's great grandfather and he wanted it restored to the greatest practicable extent.  It was not running, had considerable internal corrosion and the crown was jammed.  Additionally, the crystal was missing completely and the engraved inner caseback was deeply scratched, along with assorted other case damage.  It had been serviced in the past, as evidenced by the multiple screwdriver slips, damaged screw slots, missing dust shield and "graffiti" scratched into the inside of the case.  Why scratching a code into the watch case (or even the movement, in some cases) was ever acceptable is far beyond my powers of understanding.  Imagine if your mechanic scratched his own personal, indecipherable code into the body of your car every time he worked on it.  My guess is that most would disapprove of such a practice.  I also have no explanation as to why dust shields are so often missing.  Let's get to it.

The watch, as it came in...

The rust-pitted ratchet wheel was corrected by lapping the pitting out, then "snailing" and "raying" in the lathe.  The rayed teeth are also beveled.  Unfortunately, I forgot to get a photo of the snailing setup, though I did photograph it when refinishing the pallet cock.  Sorry.

The pallet cock had multiple screwdriver marks that had to be removed before snail finishing.

The other steel parts that suffered from corrosion pitting were the screws, the arm and scale of the Moseley regulator and the counterpoised pallet lever.  Again, the pitting was lapped out, then these parts were flat, or "black", polished.

The third wheel and balance pivots needed to be burnished.  The balance staff ends also had to be cleaned up, which necessitated resetting the endshake by altering the depth of the pivot and end jewel settings.

With all of that done and everything scrupulously clean, the movement was reassembled and lubed.  A new mainspring was of course installed and lubed as well.  The movement was left to run for a day before checking it on the timegrapher.  Unless the watch is marked as being adjusted to X number of positions, it was originally likely adjusted to three positions, those being dial-up, dial down and pendant up.  After a day of running, these were the positions that were adjusted.  I also like to get the beat-error as close to zero as possible.  

With the movement finished, it was time to turn my attention to the case.  The scratches were very carefully removed and the stem mechanism was repaired.

I cleaned the dial, (though I could do nothing about the cracks), cleaned and polished the hands, and installed a new crystal.  The watch was then reassembled (with a new dust shield in place), the time was set and the job is finished.

Bushing a Pivot Bore

 This post will detail the process of correcting a worn center pinion pivot bore.  The patient is an Elgin Model 6, grade 151, a seven-jewel pocket watch.  This particular watch had high mileage, as evidenced by the fact that all of the pivots needed to be trued and polished, and their bores needed to be bushed.  I will detail here the bushing of the center pivot only, as the rest of the train was handled in a similar manner.

The video clearly shows the extent of wear.  Naturally, because the center pinion is subject to the highest torque input, it is also subject to the most wear (especially in a non-jeweled watch).

After truing and polishing the pivots in the lathe (and establishing the pivot's new finished diameter), the blank bushing is turned up.  It is a blank in length only, as the inside diameter is drilled and reamed, and the outside diameter are established in the lathe.

Here, the barrel bridge is reamed to accept the bushing.

The bushing is then pressed in, leaving enough protruding to set the end shake.  If the bushing looks a bit crooked, it is because it is just placed on top of the hole while I took the photo.

The end shake is set, using a shop-made cutter.

The well is cut and polished and that's it for that one (only seven more to do).

The result of many hours of work...

Rescuing an Elgin Model 3 Grade 303

This watch had been its owner's family since new and is yet another example of sentimental value trumping market value.

It was, as the photos will show, in pretty sad shape.  The silver-plated brass dial was destroyed, the hands were rusted and more than one ham-fisted "hurry up and get it done" type of watchmaker had been inside it.  The case had suffered serious damage as well, with multiple scars from an attempt to pry off the screwed-on bezel and caseback.  There were also notches cut into the mid-case on either side of the pendant (I could not even guess why).

With no small amount of luck, I found a new old stock dial so the decision was made to make the rest of the watch deserving of it.

The watch as it came in...

The case is gold-plated brass.  After disassembling it, I welded up the damaged areas and then reworked and polished the case.  I then replated it in 14K gold, as it was originally.

The balance cock was scarred by a carelessly wielded screwdriver.  Since a correct replacement was readily available, that was the route that I went.

The crown wheel, its bearing and the ratchet wheel were rust pitted.  The pitting was lapped out and I refinished the wheels.

The rust and pitting were removed from the hands, then they were polished and reblued.

The movement was cleaned, inspected and lubed, a new mainspring installed and all of the screw heads were cleaned up.  The finished watch looks much more presentable, and most importantly, it runs correctly.