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sheepdoll
·Way back in the dawn of time I found I had some Landeron movements. This lead me down the Landeron rabbit hole and off on to all sorts of tangents. The initial observations were in this thread, where I more or less rebuilt a Landeron 48.
The problem with this warren is there were about a half dozen or so watches in the drawers. The need for replacement parts added the remains of three more. Other auctions aquired missing parts. Twists, turns and what not.
In the last six months many things were learned. The main one was that Landeron 48 and Landeron 51, which share a base caliber, do not have many parts in common. Much time was needed to sort though trays of watch parts and new materials intended to traverse this warren.
With some effort parts for 9 watches can be identified. (Pay no attention to the Omega side tracks waiting for parts.)
The above image shows one of the many iterations attempting to group these rabbits and spare parts. This shows 4 Landeron 51 and 5 Landeron 48 watches. One of the Landeron 51 watches (lower left) is mostly complete needing a case. The other three are basically parts movements.
I thought I had posted a screen shot of a typical eBay parts auction. I only found the photo of them from the site.
What I was mostly interested here are the dial. Note that one of the dials is not on a watch. This dial actually fits my Valjoux 23 parts watch. Hours of looking at these showed that one of the movements seemed to have most of a wheel train. Shadows shoing the extended 4th wheel pivots.
What takes some skill to see, is that someone has jammed a spring from a Landeron 48 onto a Landeron 51 plate.
Here again, below, is the before photo of the watch which started this trip down the rabbit hole. This also is a mix of landeron parts. One which was mostly assembled was a Timecraft which has it's own thread. https://omegaforums.net/threads/on-the-bench-landeron-48.149921/#post-2046401
The remaining parts are for a Delbana. This watch is one of the few with a case and pushers. A third case was engraved Modera. Niether the Delbana or the Modera have dials.
An auction for a Debana dial proved most fortunate.
on arrival it came with a bag of spare parts.
To my amazement this watch had a good balance, but no escape wheel. Downside is that the lower jewelcap was also crushed. Interesting that two watches had almost the same failure.
With so many movements and parts I decided to try a different approach. Most of the Modera was cleaned at the same time as the Timecraft. The Delbana was not cleaned as the lower jewel was crushed. With the guidance of OF members. I was able to press out one of the ebay jewels from one of the stripped movements and transfer it to the Delbana plate.
I then tried the balance and it seemed to work. As I had two identical watches I decided to build the chronograph first.
This way I could go through the textbooks and repeat the assembly steps. I did this with the Val-72 and got to where I could replace the chrono in 40 minutes or so. Unlike the Valjoux parts, the Landeron parts are stamped sheet metal with a much looser tolerance. Even so I found that screws and parts have to work together. This formed a lot of mixing and matching. Even within a caliber there are parts which subtly differ due to the year of manufacture. The data sheet even points out that some will not work together. Until one has both parts in hand can the differences be seen.
This is where the eBay twins became helpful. If nothing else as a screw holder.
I had done similar things with the A Schild watches. With the chronographs, I became aware of what is the obvious. That the parts are fitted and adjusted to work as a group. My initial approach was to put all the pretty parts onto the Delbana. I also learned why the Modera watch pushers jammed. These parts worked better on the Delbana. There may be parts mixed into the Timecraft as well. Sometimes it comes down to the patina of the part.
Another thing I learned. Is that the case can sort of work as an improvised movement holder. The Bergeon holders often get in the way of the pushers. Ideally one would make or find ($$$) a specific movement holder. Holders for these old war horses do not seem to currently a catalog item.
I had thought that a dial marked MEPA went with the Modera parts. But when I cased it the dial did not fit. One of the other dials (with hand set) did fit. Since this movement ticks. I decided to go ahead and finish casing it. If nothing else to keep all the parts in one place.
The result came out quite well.
The lack of a pusher make wearing this impractical. The case has also seen some hard use. I actually was going to attempt some nickel plating on it. Projects like that seem to require too much overhead. Something as simple as replacing the staff in the spare balance becomes 'a Project.' The more flat work surfaces one has, the more they seem to accumulate 'stuff.'
With this success, it was finally time to see if the Delbana 'Mouse' movement would tick using the case as an improvised movement stand.
... and it does. Not the most exiting of photographs. Most of this is about the anticipation and the waiting for parts or the time to play with such parts.
There are also many choices to ponder. A downside of getting a nearly complete parts movement for a dial, is now there can be another movement to consider restoring. The branch of this rabbit warren not explored here, but much time spent upon was the Landeron 51 movements. One of those is a rather nice Bovet. At first I thought I could steal screws from the 51 for use in the 48. Only the tick tock parts are the same. The plates and everything on them differs even the screws.
This makes looking for parts online a bit of a challenge. Many who sell the parts only to a quick check of the reverences. Often the sales are mixed lots where something advertised as VAL-22 parts, shows those plates and Landeron levers. Unless one has the parts in hand it is often a game of chance to see If the parts are what they look like.
Assembling the parts back into movements helps with the organization. Some things like working with the dials and hands though are risky. With the Delbana, I now have two sets of hands. It is possible I did have the dial at one time. This does give the option to attempt to re-lume the hands.
This rabbit hole still has a long way to go ...
The problem with this warren is there were about a half dozen or so watches in the drawers. The need for replacement parts added the remains of three more. Other auctions aquired missing parts. Twists, turns and what not.
In the last six months many things were learned. The main one was that Landeron 48 and Landeron 51, which share a base caliber, do not have many parts in common. Much time was needed to sort though trays of watch parts and new materials intended to traverse this warren.
With some effort parts for 9 watches can be identified. (Pay no attention to the Omega side tracks waiting for parts.)
The above image shows one of the many iterations attempting to group these rabbits and spare parts. This shows 4 Landeron 51 and 5 Landeron 48 watches. One of the Landeron 51 watches (lower left) is mostly complete needing a case. The other three are basically parts movements.
I thought I had posted a screen shot of a typical eBay parts auction. I only found the photo of them from the site.
What I was mostly interested here are the dial. Note that one of the dials is not on a watch. This dial actually fits my Valjoux 23 parts watch. Hours of looking at these showed that one of the movements seemed to have most of a wheel train. Shadows shoing the extended 4th wheel pivots.
What takes some skill to see, is that someone has jammed a spring from a Landeron 48 onto a Landeron 51 plate.
Here again, below, is the before photo of the watch which started this trip down the rabbit hole. This also is a mix of landeron parts. One which was mostly assembled was a Timecraft which has it's own thread. https://omegaforums.net/threads/on-the-bench-landeron-48.149921/#post-2046401
The remaining parts are for a Delbana. This watch is one of the few with a case and pushers. A third case was engraved Modera. Niether the Delbana or the Modera have dials.
An auction for a Debana dial proved most fortunate.
on arrival it came with a bag of spare parts.
To my amazement this watch had a good balance, but no escape wheel. Downside is that the lower jewelcap was also crushed. Interesting that two watches had almost the same failure.
With so many movements and parts I decided to try a different approach. Most of the Modera was cleaned at the same time as the Timecraft. The Delbana was not cleaned as the lower jewel was crushed. With the guidance of OF members. I was able to press out one of the ebay jewels from one of the stripped movements and transfer it to the Delbana plate.
I then tried the balance and it seemed to work. As I had two identical watches I decided to build the chronograph first.
This way I could go through the textbooks and repeat the assembly steps. I did this with the Val-72 and got to where I could replace the chrono in 40 minutes or so. Unlike the Valjoux parts, the Landeron parts are stamped sheet metal with a much looser tolerance. Even so I found that screws and parts have to work together. This formed a lot of mixing and matching. Even within a caliber there are parts which subtly differ due to the year of manufacture. The data sheet even points out that some will not work together. Until one has both parts in hand can the differences be seen.
This is where the eBay twins became helpful. If nothing else as a screw holder.
I had done similar things with the A Schild watches. With the chronographs, I became aware of what is the obvious. That the parts are fitted and adjusted to work as a group. My initial approach was to put all the pretty parts onto the Delbana. I also learned why the Modera watch pushers jammed. These parts worked better on the Delbana. There may be parts mixed into the Timecraft as well. Sometimes it comes down to the patina of the part.
Another thing I learned. Is that the case can sort of work as an improvised movement holder. The Bergeon holders often get in the way of the pushers. Ideally one would make or find ($$$) a specific movement holder. Holders for these old war horses do not seem to currently a catalog item.
I had thought that a dial marked MEPA went with the Modera parts. But when I cased it the dial did not fit. One of the other dials (with hand set) did fit. Since this movement ticks. I decided to go ahead and finish casing it. If nothing else to keep all the parts in one place.
The result came out quite well.
The lack of a pusher make wearing this impractical. The case has also seen some hard use. I actually was going to attempt some nickel plating on it. Projects like that seem to require too much overhead. Something as simple as replacing the staff in the spare balance becomes 'a Project.' The more flat work surfaces one has, the more they seem to accumulate 'stuff.'
With this success, it was finally time to see if the Delbana 'Mouse' movement would tick using the case as an improvised movement stand.
... and it does. Not the most exiting of photographs. Most of this is about the anticipation and the waiting for parts or the time to play with such parts.
There are also many choices to ponder. A downside of getting a nearly complete parts movement for a dial, is now there can be another movement to consider restoring. The branch of this rabbit warren not explored here, but much time spent upon was the Landeron 51 movements. One of those is a rather nice Bovet. At first I thought I could steal screws from the 51 for use in the 48. Only the tick tock parts are the same. The plates and everything on them differs even the screws.
This makes looking for parts online a bit of a challenge. Many who sell the parts only to a quick check of the reverences. Often the sales are mixed lots where something advertised as VAL-22 parts, shows those plates and Landeron levers. Unless one has the parts in hand it is often a game of chance to see If the parts are what they look like.
Assembling the parts back into movements helps with the organization. Some things like working with the dials and hands though are risky. With the Delbana, I now have two sets of hands. It is possible I did have the dial at one time. This does give the option to attempt to re-lume the hands.
This rabbit hole still has a long way to go ...
