English Verge / Fusee Pocketwatches (service and repair)

The balance staff with the worn flags is fine. The issue is the depth of engagement of the crown wheel to the flags. Also, you can see that the wear on the flags doesn’t match with where the crown teeth are touching them.

I’m going to try to adjust the crown depth and see if that does enough but a different crown with longer teeth and a larger wheel diameter may be needed to run properly.

 

…and now we get down to the real task at hand. Aside from needing a new minute hand, this beautiful timepiece is “just” in need of cleaning, oiling, and timing.

Image Unavailable, Please Login

I’m really taking my time and using everything I’ve learned so far to help this takedown go smoothly.

 

The Wagstaff piece was so easy to take down. Everything looks fairly clean, but there are one or two little globs of dirt or grease in-between the teeth on one of the wheels. There are a couple of screws holding the springs on the plates that I cannot get loose yet. Once I can get the last few bits undone and can inspect everything under the microscope, it will be time for a cleaning. The worse things I saw was a missing brass taper pin in one of the pillars. For shame, Art! For shame!

Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Life has been pretty busy lately and kept me out of the lab. Today though I’ve begun cleaning the Wagstaff piece so it will be ready for reassembly shortly.

In addition, I’ve started working on different hand repair methods I’ve come across online in the event that we need to repair the broken minute hand instead of finding a replacement.

Step 1: break a hand.
Image Unavailable, Please Login

Step 2: solder the joint back together and gently file it down. This one needs more solder to bridge the gap and a few finer files or paper to be used but it is getting close. It will also need to be nickel plated then gold plated.
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

I got to spend a lot of time in the lab again today. As a result, I am pleased to say that Art’s Wagstaff of Spitaltfields timepiece is back together and running strong. I am starting the long process now of getting its timing set correctly.

Image Unavailable, Please Login

I am amazed at how clean and well kept everything inside this one was. A beautiful piece to work on.

 

After about twelve hours, I’m happy to report that the timing in the “Pendant Up” (as it hangs in the image) seems to be really good. Tonight I will check it again and if it still looks good, I will wind it back up and lay it dial up for 24hrs to check.

 

I keep working on the John Snatt movement as I come up with an idea that might fix the issues. I think I've finally been able to get the engagement depthing adjusted. I will have to get it reassembled and see how it runs to know for sure though.

(1) Here is the before (poor quality image) with roughly half the engagement of what appears to have been the original depth.
Image Unavailable, Please Login

(2) Here is the current condition which is setting right about where the original depth appears to have been.
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

I managed to get the John Snatt reassembled (I’m getting pretty good at it with all the practice I’ve had now) this afternoon.

(1) The full swing of the balance is now up around 60 degrees whereas it use to be closer to 30! Huge improvement but not quite where I’d like to get it to.

(2) I used a blade to push in a bit of the trailing edge of the mainspring barrel near the spring hook. Now, it will wind the entire way with no slippage!

All-in-all I’m thrilled with these improvements. I don’t know how much better the amplitude can/will get but I’m going to try to get that little bit more engagement depth before I give up.

 

@ArtS , from the side everything looks planar on the Snatt except the contrate wheel which is just canted a bit.

Now that it is running well and I have the hairpin shaped properly, it is running very fast. As I’ve been reading this is a common problem and could be a multitude of things.

I will check for the edge coloring on your Wagstaff piece next I am able to get to my bench.

 

John Snatt, No. 1729 is in full swing! I found the adjustment I had missed. The crown wheel had too much end shake. So even though the engagement depth with the paddles looked good, when it was running it was getting pushed out. After some tinkering, it is no right around 85-95 degrees of full swing on the balance!

In the slowest hairspring setting it had been running about 10% too fast. Today, it was 6-7 seconds slow over 5 minutes! That’s an accuracy error I can most likely deal with the timing adjustment setting on the hairspring.

 

Still having a few sticking spots when it runs though. I’ve got to figure out why and where it is binding. One thing after the other and hopefully they will eventually all be solved.

 

The 1755 date is just the center of that 1753-1757 range based on prior research. I've looked some more but am not finding anything. I need to reach out to the museum again as I didn't receive the request document they had said was coming my way. I've just joined the NAWCC as well so I need to see what other resources that may provide access to.

The holes in the plates aren't bad. They aren't perfect, but they are ok, there's some slop. I don't want to drill out and press in new bushings but that is on the line as a last resort. It gets stuck every now and then and I cannot figure out if it is the replacement contrate wheel where it contacts the crown wheel's pinion or if it is the crown and flags.

I may or may not have your Wagstaff in a glass dome on the bench (safely back near the wall) so I can see it all the time until it is time to send it back home.

 

It took a while for me to find it but I’ve finally received a stingray hide with which to recover the Snatt piece’s outer case. It is died and polished so you end up with white-ish scales that have a green infill.

I’m not sure about the color so I’ve order a darker green one that is unpolished. That will probably be more appropriate for this piece. I might use this one for practice, you know, since I’ve never worked with leather before.

Image Unavailable, Please Login

I have been working on the replacement dial plate for the Goldsmith piece and hope that tomorrow I can show how I’ve decided to go about getting it right.

 

Watches of that era would frequently have the outer case covered with leather (Shagreen, aka stingray leather or stingray patterned leather, was popular) tortoise shell, horn, etc. So, I’m order to complete the restoration, with stingray leather. I’ve seen a few others of the era with green shagreen on the case and really think the contrast looks good. As I said though, I don’t think the polished hide here is quite right so it will be for practice. An unpolished one is now on its way.