Where to even start ...

I spent the day cleaning my watch cleaning machine. I have not used it probably in over 20 years. Has been stored in my workshop/shed where I have my woodshop, and store pipe organ parts. The roof over the shelf where it stored leaked, so it is in pretty bad shape.

From online searches It seems to be a 'Peerless "Little Giant."' Distributed by C.E. Marshal. It is farly small as these things go.

I actually got it down from the shelf yesterday. The baskets were all over the place. I could not find the top covers. So I cleaned off the work surfaces in the 'shed.' These were piled with boxes of crank organ parts. I finally found two covers under some Standard Electric AR-3 school clocks.

Good thing as replacement baskets for this model seem to be going for 100USD on ebay/esty.



Now I can start thinking about cleaning some watches that have been in the top drawer for a couple decades. I take them out every so often and look at them.

It can also be seen why I chose to post this in the unusual complications section. These are all complicated watches. To make things easier, I probably will create a separate thread for the different watches.



For starters I have most of the books in this correspondence watch course. Such courses were popular in the late 1940s and 1950 as they qualified for the GI bill. Such were advertised on the back pages of magazines as well as on match books.

In practice they are much like a you tube video. All they do is show a step by step guide to assembly. There is not much on theory and regulation. They can be useful as a guide to calibers. I am missing some of the numbers.




A lot of these books were translations of the factory service documents or foreign publications. This one does make the claim that all the graphics are drawn specific to the course. This may be the case as the drawings to show the parts in isometric projection. So someone did have to take the time to do that.

I'll post the watches in specific threads. One is a common omega, so that thread will be in the omega vintage section.

-j

I’ll have to start looking at vintage match books now

and old magazines... I never really though to collect ephemera like that, it would be interesting to see what is still out there. I have over 50 years of the British Horological Journal on my shelves from the early 1950s to the early 2000s (when it got too expensive.) The advertisments are an art unto themselves.

Omega had some (and still does.) some great advertising going back to the late 19th century. They are up there with brands like Wurlitzer and Apple, just reading the old adds makes one want to own an example. Some companies just get it right.

-j