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Harry jenkins
·Hello chaps. I'll begin by saying that I'm not a watch maker and know only very rudimentary stuff about watches. I usually go to a watch maker down the road who rarely gets to work on old mechanical stuff - seems to know his stuff and charges a fair price for good work. I recently purchased two Elgin 'pershing' dialled 'trench watches. I have always wanted one. I first bought one that I liked which was a 'nickel' case. It was engraved with a ww1 air force chef called Evert J fetters which I thought was cool.
However, I also own an old Illinois with a brilliant Fahy's Ore Silver case. This case is pretty much the same size as the Nickel case but meatier. Heavier - the lugs are thicker and the distance between them is greater. So I started looking for a Fahy's Ore Silver case to put the Elgin into. The small frail lugs of the nickel case were burned into my mind and I couldn't shake them. I found one - it too was also an Elgin 3/0 size pershing dial and it was a good price.
To me, the Fahy's Ore Silver case is superior in every respect and it also just looks better on my wrist.
But the movement of that (Oresilver cased) watch has screws missing and the plastic crystal is garbage. Here is a photo of the movements.
Engraved Nickel Cased Elgin:
Fahys Ore Silver cased Elgin:
My plan was to remove the dial and movement of the nickel case and fit it into the Oresilver case and also swap the crystal - then put everything from the Oresilver case into the nickel case, get it serviced and sell off my duplicate. However my plan was kind of extinguished (maybe) when I found that despite the seller of the Oresilver Cased watch saying 'No Dents or Dinks', the screwed case back had obviously been pried/levered off at some point and was misshapen enough to make screwing it back on very tough/unnatural/laborious/overly precise of a process/probably shouldn't force it. When I received the Oresilver watch the case back was not fastened. Also the seller listed it as 'running' which it does for about a minute before stopping. Here is a picture of the bent bit:
and Here is a picture of the other side (180 degrees away) where the threads sit more flush when lightly 'screwed':
When placed on a flat surface the damage is more clearly apparent:
So I grabbed a pair of rubber handled Pliers and used the handle as a mallet and kind of whacked that bit gently over the lip that had obviously been levered upward in an attempt to reverse the damage.
This seemed to help the gap slightly and made the threads, thread a little more naturally. Though I was tempted to continue my method I stopped this madness and thought I'd come on here and ask you what I should do. I just really like the ore silver case. Any tips on how I could straighten this out? Any insight of any kind? Many thanks in advance.
P.S here is my Illinois that started my preference for these meaty lugged cases:
However, I also own an old Illinois with a brilliant Fahy's Ore Silver case. This case is pretty much the same size as the Nickel case but meatier. Heavier - the lugs are thicker and the distance between them is greater. So I started looking for a Fahy's Ore Silver case to put the Elgin into. The small frail lugs of the nickel case were burned into my mind and I couldn't shake them. I found one - it too was also an Elgin 3/0 size pershing dial and it was a good price.
To me, the Fahy's Ore Silver case is superior in every respect and it also just looks better on my wrist.
But the movement of that (Oresilver cased) watch has screws missing and the plastic crystal is garbage. Here is a photo of the movements.
Engraved Nickel Cased Elgin:
Fahys Ore Silver cased Elgin:
My plan was to remove the dial and movement of the nickel case and fit it into the Oresilver case and also swap the crystal - then put everything from the Oresilver case into the nickel case, get it serviced and sell off my duplicate. However my plan was kind of extinguished (maybe) when I found that despite the seller of the Oresilver Cased watch saying 'No Dents or Dinks', the screwed case back had obviously been pried/levered off at some point and was misshapen enough to make screwing it back on very tough/unnatural/laborious/overly precise of a process/probably shouldn't force it. When I received the Oresilver watch the case back was not fastened. Also the seller listed it as 'running' which it does for about a minute before stopping. Here is a picture of the bent bit:
and Here is a picture of the other side (180 degrees away) where the threads sit more flush when lightly 'screwed':
When placed on a flat surface the damage is more clearly apparent:
So I grabbed a pair of rubber handled Pliers and used the handle as a mallet and kind of whacked that bit gently over the lip that had obviously been levered upward in an attempt to reverse the damage.
This seemed to help the gap slightly and made the threads, thread a little more naturally. Though I was tempted to continue my method I stopped this madness and thought I'd come on here and ask you what I should do. I just really like the ore silver case. Any tips on how I could straighten this out? Any insight of any kind? Many thanks in advance.
P.S here is my Illinois that started my preference for these meaty lugged cases:
