Grandfather's and Grandmother's watches

The replacement arrived. Swapped the whole balance assembly of the donor movement onto Rich's movement... tic-tic-tic-tic in every orientation. I can clearly see the difference in where its hairspring rests vs. the one I've been working on. I don't like swapping parts out but this definitely looks like it is a viable solution to getting this timepiece on Rich's wrist!

 

Good job!. I just spent hours getting a balance true, closing endshake on the pallet fork, finally figuring out I had an elongated cock jewel hole causing wobble and replaced that, readjusted the Breguet overcoil and found where center beat should be. I was 5 minutes away from getting this to work and blew too much air on the hairspring as I was recleaning it and somehow it tangled before I could reinstall. Arghhh. Now back to the same drawing board. Parts swaps are legit and were done in the day...

 

Doing a few “run tests” before adjustments and I’m happy to report each wind has gone longer than 24hrs now. Time to finish the timing and get it cases.

 

I was putting the watch together and something didn't "feel" right. I stopped and stewed. I've realized what seemed wrong. There are no movement clamps/spring-tabs to hold the movement into the main body of the watch. That explains the amount of circular rubbing and wear on the outer edges of the dial. It was free to shimmy about. I've ordered a set of tabs (I didn't have any spares but will need them eventually) so I can get it properly seated into the case.

 

Everything is assembled and running! The amplitude is great, beat error terrific, and timing is really good as well. During most of its time being worn the crown of a wrist watch will be pointed in the position it is mounted on my timegrapher (45 degrees off of crown-down) as one walks and stands with arm swinging or elbow slightly bent. Another important one is crown horizontal and/or dial up while one’s arm rests on a desk or table. These are the positions I focused on balancing out.

Image Unavailable, Please Login

I will finish packing it up and send it home as soon as I can. Cannot wait to see what Rich thinks!

Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Thank you for sharing the pictures and even more so for trusting to repair it. I hope I didn’t do or say anything to make you feel guilty as that absolutely wasn’t my intention at anytime. I felt bad that I was taking so long!

It makes me proud to be able to bring new life to an heirloom like this. I’ve got a long way to go in my education but opportunities like this allow me to grow my skills and give me excuses to buy new tools

On to the next adventure for me!

 

Congratulations! Very cool restoration.