Calling all Pocket Watch Buffs

Zapatta · Dec 8, 2021

noelekal
Would like to see the movement on your Omega Zapatta.

Its not mine, found it on local site.

DaveK · Dec 8, 2021

noelekal
I'd give your post a "like" Dave, but it seems wrong somehow to "like" your plight.

Like the Omega pocket watch very much.

its all okay. My Hamilton 992b should be ready on Saturday after almost a year at the spa. While there I’ll ask my regular watchmaker if he has the tools to get my Omega back in action

Canuck · Dec 8, 2021

DaveK
its all okay. My Hamilton 992b should be ready on Saturday after almost a year at the spa. While there I’ll ask my regular watchmaker if he has the tools to get my Omega back in action

A year at the spa for a 992B? A year?

TexOmega · Dec 8, 2021

Hamilton
974 Special Circa 1936
Heavy Gothic #519 dial
If one required a top performing PW but did not need a RR grade/approved edition, the Hamilton 974 Special fit that criteria.........in the US☕. 😁

Bus/Trolley/Commercial/Dapper Dan......time "is" money...😗

This example was only dropped once, but before my ownership

DaveK · Dec 8, 2021

Canuck
A year at the spa for a 992B? A year?

I might need to find a new watchmaker with more time for me

TexOmega · Dec 10, 2021

TexOmega
I finally found my pictures showing these in action

And another picture I finally found

Canuck · Dec 10, 2021

TexOmega
And another picture I finally found

I must have missed your previous post which relates to this update in which you show these very interesting pictures. Can you give us a link to the previous post please?

TexOmega · Dec 10, 2021

Canuck
I must have missed your previous post which relates to this update in which you show these very interesting pictures. Can you give us a link to the previous post please?

Page 74 of this thread

WestCoastTime · Dec 21, 2021

Elgin 241, c.1906. Not running, but good balance staff. See if a service can breathe some life back into it...

General accumulated grime. The camera doesn't particularly pick it up, but the crystal is pretty well scuffed up & scratched.

Movement looks complete, balance wheel turns, but going train will not advance (cleaning will help).

I'd say that old mainspring is just about used up...

Fresh out of the cleaner

Back together & looking good

Couple of little hairline cracks on the enamel dial, but good enough for its next 100 years 😀

DaveK · Dec 21, 2021

Nice photos @WestCoastTime 👍

Helvetia History · Dec 22, 2021

Helvetia History
Here is a new one I have just received.

It is a swing ring with a screw mechanism on the crown to stop it being pulled out when tightened. Movement is probably on early version of the Helvetia Cal 32. I have seen a few of these from Helvetia, the later ones are normally marked, the serial on this one dates it to 1909.

It's very robustly made and obviously designed for heavy use and to stop the ingress of dust and water as much as possible. Omega seem to have made quite a few of this type of watch and they date to around the same time as this one which was also the same time that the Brandts were severing their ties with Helvetia so they possibly came from the same drawing office. Several seem almost identical.

This style of watch also seems more common in the US from what I have seen but it may just be because I have been looking for this type recently and it's skewing my perception. I don't know much about US pocket watches, would anyone with any more info be able to say if this is true or not?

Thanks. Carl.

I've managed to get hold of another of these water and dust protected Helvetias for restoration. In a bit of a state to start with.

The serial number puts it at 1910.

Interestingly there is a slot cut into the swing ring and case which looks as if it has been added to adapt the watch to lever set, though there is no sign of the lever, it has definitely been done at a later date to the manufacture of the watch, possibly to make it 'Railway Standard'? Is there any other reason anyone knows for this slot to be cut? Has anyone seen another watch that has been adapted this way rather than originally manufactured like this?

I managed to straighten the hour hand and add matching minute and seconds I had. I've also given it a clean using a lot of elbow grease. It's looking much better now and looks nice with its slightly older brother from the post above. I've got to tackle the movement next.

Canuck · Dec 22, 2021

WestCoastTime
Elgin 241, c.1906. Not running, but good balance staff. See if a service can breathe some life back into it...

General accumulated grime. The camera doesn't particularly pick it up, but the crystal is pretty well scuffed up & scratched.

Movement looks complete, balance wheel turns, but going train will not advance (cleaning will help).

I'd say that old mainspring is just about used up...

Fresh out of the cleaner

Back together & looking good

Couple of little hairline cracks on the enamel dial, but good enough for its next 100 years 😀

The skinny on @WestCoastTime ’s outstanding transformation of the Elgin. Indeed it takes a great deal of intuition to view such a mess as shown in the before picture of the movement, and to predict the vision as shown in the after picture of the movement. A stunner, indeed!

https://pocketwatchdatabase.com/search/result/elgin/12252421

Canuck · Dec 22, 2021

@Helvetia History ,

Since cases were not generally made by the maker of the movement, that slot was often cut into the rim around the dial, in case a lever set movement is fitted into the case. The screw in the pendant that you describe is mostly found on cases with lever set movements. There is no sleeve in the pendant to accommodate pulling the stem out to a setting position. Therefore, such cases are almost always fitted with a lever set movement. My guess is that the case is not original to that movement. The movement having replaced a lever set movement. Right or wrong.

Helvetia History · Dec 22, 2021

Canuck
@Helvetia History ,

Since cases were not generally made by the maker of the movement, that slot was often cut into the rim around the dial, in case a lever set movement is fitted into the case. The screw in the pendant that you describe is mostly found on cases with lever set movements. There is no sleeve in the pendant to accommodate pulling the stem out to a setting position. Therefore, such cases are almost always fitted with a lever set movement. My guess is that the case is not original to that movement. The movement having replaced a lever set movement. Right or wrong.

Thanks Canuck.

The cases of these two watches seem identical (apart from the added slot) and they both have Helvetia serial numbers on the case and are fitted with Helvetia Cal 32 movements. I have also seen several others with these cases and the same movement.

So the cases and movements are a match, that doesn't mean that the case came with that particular Cal 32 movement of course. The first watch pulls out to the setting position and the hands set correctly however the one with the slot, though the crown pulls out OK, the hands don't move so possibly this movement is configured for lever set but the lever is missing.

Hopefully I'll have a chance to look at the movement properly over Christmas.

Fritz · Dec 22, 2021

TexOmega
Hamilton
974 Special Circa 1936
Heavy Gothic #519 dial
If one required a top performing PW but did not need a RR grade/approved edition, the Hamilton 974 Special fit that criteria.........in the US☕. 😁

Bus/Trolley/Commercial/Dapper Dan......time "is" money...😗

This example was only dropped once, but before my ownership

Pretty... special “low fat” hands?

TexOmega · Dec 22, 2021

Fritz
Pretty... special “low fat” hands?

?

Canuck · Dec 22, 2021

TexOmega
?

If this comment refers to your Hamilton 974 Traffic Special, he might be commenting on the hands which are not typically the bold style of hand that was mandated on a railroad standard watch of the same era. He’ll please correct me if I’m wrong.

TexOmega · Dec 22, 2021

ahhh, ok... probably right

Fritz · Dec 22, 2021

TexOmega
ahhh, ok... probably right

Yeah... what he said

the thin hands caught my eye as they’re just not what you usually see with a watch like that. Not that there’s anything wrong with them, they’re just different.

TexOmega · Dec 28, 2021

Duracuir1
I was looking at a local on-line auction yesterday and one lot was simply described as “Curio Tray”. In the photo (you can see it here) was an old strap that I have never seen in person. It held either a watch or a compass. I bought the lot simply for that strap, in case I want to make some in the future. It contained a small Sterling case pocket watch. The watch does not work and is not worth fixing, but now I have that strap! The strap is designed to be worn with the buckle piece down. The strap is comfortable and keeps the little watch in place. I have a few similar watches that have fixed lugs. I think these are referred to as transitional (or something?). Canuck will know.

I found this saved document, after a bit of hunting on an old outboard HDD