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Calling all Pocket Watch Buffs

ghce
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Bernhard J Bernhard J
Well, comparison with a "dollar watch" is quite unfair. Do dallar watches have jewels up to the third wheel? This one will have 15 jewels in total.

One immediately recognises a Smiths movement by the two screws for the balance cock and the general setup. Here is a Smiths DeLuxe wrist watch movement, compare. The pocket watch movement is imo only let down a bit due to the plain balance wheel. I would expect that working on the pocket watch movement will be just as easy as in case of the wrist watch movements.

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Yeah those balance wheels don't leave a good impression, I have a few Smiths Oven timers, the balance wheels look the same 🙁 but they are good reliable runners and even I can service them with out mucking them up!

These are mostly what I see when it comes to Smiths PW's but now with TexOmegas example I have something to look for that will match my Smiths Deluxe.

Smiths PW.jpg Smiths.jpg
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TexOmega
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Bernhard J Bernhard J
Well, comparison with a "dollar watch" is quite unfair. Do dallar watches have jewels up to the third wheel? This one will have 15 jewels in total.

One immediately recognises a Smiths movement by the two screws for the balance cock and the general setup. Here is a Smiths DeLuxe wrist watch movement, compare. The pocket watch movement is imo only let down a bit due to the plain balance wheel. I would expect that working on the pocket watch movement will be just as easy as in case of the wrist watch movements.

4.jpg


And if no movement shot, they will always have two screws seen on the dial to secure it.
 
Duracuir1
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Y
I
TexOmega TexOmega
Possibly

Better pictures or a in hand report would be definitive. Or both.
Here are more pics sent to me by the auctioneer. I laughed at this first one because the glare was obstructing the 17. I also wanted to look at that 31st minute. So the second pic helped a bit with both concerns.
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For those who are wondering why I am posting these. This watch is up for sale at a local auction near me. (Discussed a few days ago).
 
Canuck
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Not a damnation, but there’s also a hairline by the 5. Still and all, in a nicer case, with a tune-up, and a new crown & crystal, this would be a desirable watch.
 
Duracuir1
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Canuck Canuck
Not a damnation, but there’s also a hairline by the 5. Still and all, in a nicer case, with a tune-up, and a new crown & crystal, this would be a desirable watch.
I used to do quite a bit of ceramic, porcelain and slate floors for our properties. We can put some grout in those cracks. 🤪

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Watch is sitting at around $50 CDN. Keeping an eye on it.
 
Bernhard J
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Those hairlines need nothing else than a good dial clean and you will really have problems locating them. After 10 or 20 years they might begin to reappear (ask me why I know) and then might need a clean again.

Normally using warm water and a neutral soap will be sufficient. What you see is not the crack of the hairline, but dirt and/or corrosion products of the metal substrate.

Aside this, look what magnification is necessary to note them. And, with increasing age at least my eyes become weaker anyway ... 😁
 
Canuck
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This one has the worst dial of any of my pocket watches! When I bought it, I thought i’d fix it up and “flip” it! Long story short, this one was a railroader’s duty watch over a 45 year career with CPR. I have the repair records for the years between 1917 and the mid 50s when his regular repair guy retired. Over those years, the watch had 7 balance staffs and several broken jewels, plus all the usual maintenance. The owner smacked it around quite a bit. The enamel dial looks passable in the picture, but it is a spider’s web of hairlines. In spite of it all, because of what I have learned about it and the watch inspector who maintained it for about 35 of its years in the owner’s bib overalls, it deserves an exalted position in my collection, in spite of how ugly it is! A watch with a story!

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ghce
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Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder but to me that is a very beautiful PW, I love that case and the industrial looks of the dial.
Certainly pride of place and not a safe Queen!
 
H
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Hi there folks,thought it be proper to share some of my mil-spec PWs in this thread.( one of them actually being a stopwatch instead of a PW) . The two Hamiltons are iconic Model 23s made in 1942 and 44 respectively(One even came with a surplus bezel and crystal which doubled as a transparent back lid). The chrono on the top is made by Breitling rather than Hamilton and uses a completely different movement. One of the pics here also shows a Model 23 being clipped onto a Kollsman Aircraft Periscopic Octant. Although Model 23s are originally designed to be paired with the Navy-issued Mark IV self-recording octant,but somehow it also fits well on the Kollsman model.(gives you a sense of how the timepiece would've looked liked when being used during the war.)
 
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Pastorbottle
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That railway watch has well and truly done it’s duty throughout it’s career and now it deserves to live a happy long life in retirement
 
Canuck
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The one at 6:00 in your first picture is an Elgin jitterbug timer, use (I suspect) for navigation? The seconds hand traverses the dial in 10 seconds. I have one of these, but yours differs from mine in the layout of the subsidiary dial. These beat 40 beats per second, I have heard. I use mine for rating anniversary clocks after I fit a new suspension spring. My only “military” piece, other than a Hamilton model 21, 85-size chronometer, and a 35-size Hamilton , model 22 torpedo boat chronometer.
 
H
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Canuck Canuck
The one at 6:00 in your first picture is an Elgin jitterbug timer, use (I suspect) for navigation? The seconds hand traverses the dial in 10 seconds. I have one of these, but yours differs from mine in the layout of the subsidiary dial. These beat 40 beats per second, I have heard. I use mine for rating anniversary clocks after I fit a new suspension spring. My only “military” piece, other than a Hamilton model 21, 85-size chronometer, and a 35-size Hamilton , model 22 torpedo boat chronometer.
Hi there, I also own an old and beat-up marine chronometer made by Thomas Mercer, M21s and 22s surely are my goals in the future. Since you mentioned that your M22 being a "Torpedo Boat Chronometer" I would assume that this M22 of yours acutally being a gimballed version? This type of M22s are fitted inside wooden boxes like any other ordinary marine chronometers. There's also an even rarer Hamilton chronometer called Model 36, which also fits your discription. Anyway Hamilton surely knows its way to make magnificent timepieces back in the days.
As for the stopwatcg, it is indeed an Elgin Jitterbug, these were used by Army and Navy navigators to determine ground speed during bombing runs and sort. A small portion of them were even issued to submariners as some sayings suggest.
I have some troubles regulating the jitterbug and other similar timepieces (BPM exceeding 36000) Ordinary timegraphers are unable to pick up such high beat rates.
 
DaveK
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H Horologistical
Hi there folks,thought it be proper to share some of my mil-spec PWs in this thread.( one of them actually being a stopwatch instead of a PW) . The two Hamiltons are iconic Model 23s made in 1942 and 44 respectively(One even came with a surplus bezel and crystal which doubled as a transparent back lid). The chrono on the top is made by Breitling rather than Hamilton and uses a completely different movement. One of the pics here also shows a Model 23 being clipped onto a Kollsman Aircraft Periscopic Octant. Although Model 23s are originally designed to be paired with the Navy-issued Mark IV self-recording octant,but somehow it also fits well on the Kollsman model.(gives you a sense of how the timepiece would've looked liked when being used during the war.)

Fantastic entrance to the forum 👍
 
Canuck
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My model 21 and model 22 Hamilton marine chronometers shown here. They both are gimballed, and both have the outer mahogany carry case, and both are kept running. Both serviced by me, in 2023. Love ‘em!

My model 22 is indeed the gimballed model.

The model 21 was made in September 1944. In October of that year, Hamilton produced about 650 model 21 chronometers. It wouldn’t surprise me if that was close to what Mercer produced n all their years of existence.

PC078214.jpeg PB268184.jpeg PC048211.jpeg
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Canuck
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H Horologistical
Hi there, I also own an old and beat-up marine chronometer made by Thomas Mercer, M21s and 22s surely are my goals in the future. Since you mentioned that your M22 being a "Torpedo Boat Chronometer" I would assume that this M22 of yours acutally being a gimballed version? This type of M22s are fitted inside wooden boxes like any other ordinary marine chronometers. There's also an even rarer Hamilton chronometer called Model 36, which also fits your discription. Anyway Hamilton surely knows its way to make magnificent timepieces back in the days.
As for the stopwatcg, it is indeed an Elgin Jitterbug, these were used by Army and Navy navigators to determine ground speed during bombing runs and sort. A small portion of them were even issued to submariners as some sayings suggest.
I have some troubles regulating the jitterbug and other similar timepieces (BPM exceeding 36000) Ordinary timegraphers are unable to pick up such high beat rates.

My Vibrograph B 200 can pick up a model 214 or 218 Accutron, both of which are 360 hertz!! All I need to do is set the B200 to the 18,000 bph setting. I don’t recall trying the jitterbug on the B200, but it would’ve surprise me if it would pick that up as well.
 
Duracuir1
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Canuck Canuck
Never took you to be a steampunk fan!


No comment! ::facepalm1::
Damn. Now I need to fill out a report.
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