I just thought I'd share my latest acquisition, a lovely Pierce 134 with the single pusher - so probably late 30s. It is small for a chronograph from that era, about 32mm excluding the crown.

Yes the position of the sweep hand does annoy me but that can wait until I service it.



It gets better - the original box



Please excuse the state of my workbench.

.....and better still - the original instruction book

 

They're great watches, just expensive to maintain.

 

I guess there aren't many watchmakers who can work on them since they've been defunct for so long. From what I understand, Pierce had a novel approach to their design.

 

Here's another perfect example of why a near perfect original part should be used as a pattern to make replacement parts, in this case hopefully from more durable material.

 

I believe that the part is actually a washer in the chronograph runner assembly. I read, the other day, that you can make one out of sheet silicon rubber but stupidly, I didn't bookmark the web page and can't find it again. Doh.

 

the washer was originally made out of leather and the clutch-column wheel assembly is unique to Pierce.

Rick over at VWF has a watchguy that specialises in Pierce. Drop him a line and he should be able to help.,

 

Thanks for the tip Sean.