Looking for Amatuer Watchmaker for potential mission impossible.

[impalla62ss]

This message will not potentially self district in five minutes.

I have my dad's mickey mouse watch that he took a wrench to the crown on. As a kid he did not want to be seen wearing it. I have found two parts watches. His is the one with the red strap and the Ref. number on the back. I was wondering if I could pay you to open them up and see if you can salvage one movement out of the three heads? Not sure if anyone would be willing to take a look. No worries if you are not interested as pin lever escapements are difficult to work on.
It is a manual wind watch powered by a standard pin lever escapement movement; U.S.A. made. 1948 Ingersoll / US Time Case Back. https://omegaforums.net/threads/got-mice-mickey-mouse-watches.138353/page-2#post-2188355
Thanks in advance for your consideration.

 

[sheepdoll]

Dear Mr Phelps;

Pin lever watches are not all that difficult to work on. Many of them can be fairly high grade and finish. Where they get awkward is when things are riveted together.

Mostly it is a mater of economics. If the watch cost 19.99 or 10L and 6d, then who is willing to pay the 200$ or so for the time to work on such things. It would take between 3 and six hours to dissemble, clean and adjust the movement. Provided that no parts need replacing.

There is also risk of disappointment. That more than anything probably keeps many of us from working on other peoples watches.

More than likely, people who collect such things will probably learn some of the basics for simple maintenance. If one is methodical it is not that difficult. A lot of folk build model airplanes, boats or cars. That is why I encourage others to take up the watchmaking hobby.

There are a number of You tube videos (mostly to garnish clicks for entertainment.) Repair books are also helpful. Would have been nice 30 years ago to have such resources.

I am wasting spending a lot of time to see if there is a way I could adapt AI and robotics to such things. AR has potential for some fault detection. A lot of the manufacture is already highly automated. This of course requires jigs and fixtures. Such things can be 3D printed or laser cut. The old catalogs have silhouettes of identifiable movement parts. Computer vision is now somewhat mature. Tracing and finding these outlines is what modern systems are good at. Downside is that such systems rely on large volumes of information.

 

[impalla62ss]

Thanks sheepdoll. Your research into IA and robotics is pretty interesting.

 

[impalla62ss]

Balance wheel is free on this one. I think all it needs is a stem and crown, which I have.