Another Nice Elgin

I seldom purchase American pocket watches because I have little experience dealing with them - in fact, I hadn't bought an American watch in two years - but I came across two fine Elgins recently that I couldn't pass up. The first is the doctor's watch in the previous post. And the second is a nice 6s Elgin from 1893. Although the movement itself is far from spectacular, the case is quite exceptional: a gold multicolored, scalloped case with a diamond in the back. 

So I Made a Light Box... (Elgin Doctor's Watch)

I googled "homemade light box" after seeing the hundreds of delicately taken pictures on watch forums - most if not all required controlled lighting. The search resulted in a rough converted USPS box with holes cut out and paper towels taped the the sides - emphasis on the rough. No matter how ugly the is, however, I have taken some incredible pictures! It took awhile to learn exactly how to maximize the effects, but the photographs I recently took of an Elgin doctor's pocket watch are by far the best pictures of a watch I have ever taken - that first one in particular. 

Hope you enjoy these photos as much as I enjoyed taking them!

My Ever-growing Ledger

This is a quick post about one of my favorite parts of selling watches: filling in my ledger. I'm a fairly old-fashioned guy (go figure, I'm interested in antique watches), so when I began my watchmaking hobby, I liked the idea of a hand-written ledger. I've only filled out about four pages worth (roughly 40-50 watches), but the simple act of writing in yet another sale on one of the lines is surprisingly rewarding.

On each line, I have the maker, city, year, case, running condition, serial number, other markings/features, date sold, and price sold of the watches. For obvious reasons, I've cut off the prices sold in the picture below. The different colors correlate to different regions of origin - red is for Swiss watches, blue for English, and green for American and others.

Again, this wasn't meant to be a long and terribly intriguing post, but it goes more into the inner-workings of my watchmaking hobby, which I hope is of some interest to you!

Off to College

This will be my last post for a few months as I'm already at college with no watches to fix. Meant to post pictures of the following watches several weeks ago but here they are now:

Arnold Charles Frodsham Simple Split Seconds Chrono

Poitevin Geneve Independent Jumping 1/4 Seconds

Pivoted Detent Chronometer

Tarts London Repousse

I've never mentioned this before, but I'm an art history nerd. In short, I took an intro to art history course in high school that sparked my passion for this other "old-people" interest. I vividly remember a class period during which my teacher flashed an image of a gold repousse plate of some sort then asking the students if we knew the term for such decoration. My hand shot up, and I quickly blurted out "repousse." From my days of drooling over antique watches, the term was a no-brainer. Since those days, I had always dreamed of acquiring a repousse pocket watch. Fortunately for me, that day came in the form of a "Dutch forgery."

Tarts pocket watches are considered "pseudo-London" pocket watches. These have been known as "Dutch-forgeries" rather than genuine watches from England. Tarts is the most prolific of these watches with John Wilter being another of these "pseudo-London" watches. These watches are usually of lesser quality  which is apparent if you were to compare pictures of this movement to actual English watches of the same time period - the finishing is much cruder with "choppy" edges rather than smooth and screws that look more industrial than refined. 

The overall condition of the watch is great but at the same time not so. The repousse case should be silver gilt, meaning that it should be gold plated overtop the sterling silver base. Most gilt watches have a brass base so that once a watch has been thoroughly worn through, the dull brown "interior" is in full view. This case being silver, however, I was still able to polish it nicely though not to excellent condition because it should be completely gilt and not silver. The inner case (not pictured) is of much better condition having its gold coat and all. I was able to confirm that the watch is silver gilt and not simply gilt because of the hallmarks within the inner case. 

Another neat feature of the watch is its champleve dial. The dial is made to have troughs and raised portions. Traditionally, champleve is combined with enamelling so that the enamel fits right into the carved out areas. What I have seen with watches, however, is that the troughs are left as is, unfilled. The dial is also of gold tone, but I was unable to test the gold content (I should really invest in a gold testing set...).

Vulliamy Half-quarter Dumb Repeater (repeater a toc)

I was fortunate enough to purchase this watch at a phenomenally low price and sell it for more than double - a little bit of knowledge goes a long way in antiques dealing! I didn't even take the watch apart as it was working and repeating already. I did, however, take extra time to research the history behind Vulliamy and this particular type of repeater.

SO, here is what I discovered:

The movement consists of a cylinder escapement and dumb repeater mechanism combination which is rare in itself. The addition of the Vulliamy name, which can essentially guarantee quality, ups the rarity tremendously. What I mean by quality is that nearly every single part of this watch is finished to an exceptional degree. I realize that I'm using these large and overused adjectives to describe the movement, but I'm serious, this watch is an absolute beaut! Check out the pictures and captions below of the detailing.

This specific type of dumb repeater is a British Stockten-type movement based on the mechanism underneath the dial. I don't have too much info on that, but feel free to look it up. At this point, some of you might be wondering what a dumb repeater (repeater a toc) is to begin with. Essentially, it is a repeater without gongs. Rather than hitting gongs and chiming, the hammers on this dumb repeater tap the dust cover that cause vibrations so the user can feel the time rather than hear it. I have seen other examples of the hammers tapping the actual case, too. This type of watch has also been referred to as an opera watch because its practical purpose back in the day was for the user to know the time without disturbing others around him in a dark environment. 

So what about Vulliamy? What makes the name so special? Unfortunately, the movement was probably not made by the Justin Vulliamy, the father of the Vulliamy family of watch and clock makers. A particularly unique aspect of Vulliamy watches is the code that Justin Vulliamy and Benjamin Gray devised as a "numbering" system. This movement is marked "x i s," which actually doesn't tell us much at all. This secret code has continued to elude understanding for centuries. What I can confirm, however, is that this movement dates before 1816, the year Vulliamy switched to a four-letter code.

Didn't have the watch in my possession for even a week, but the opportunity to own and examine this piece of horological history was fascinating. The history I learned from research further solidified my passion for this "old-man's" hobby.

*Working on getting the video up*

Full-capped balance with nice 
pierced and engraved parts

As someone mentioned to me, the diamond is truly of
jewelry quality with all the facets of a diamond you'd 
normally find in a ring

View of the hammers
(the polished metal part touching the main plate)

Close-up of the cylinder escapament

Unfortunately no hands :( 

Highly finished, polished repeater mechanism
 - still beautiful after 200+ years

The Tools of My Trade

Many people, both friends and strangers, have wondered how I picked up watchmaking. The question that generally follows, however, relates to how I fix watches in the first place. That's what this post is all about (something I've actually been meaning to write for some time now).

To repair a watch that has a swinging balance and no broken or missing parts, a set of screwdrivers, a pair of tweezers, oil and an oiler, and some Rodico are the essentials. Screwdrivers and tweezers for taking apart a watch, oil to keep the watch running consistently, and Rodico for cleaning it. I began my watchmaking adventures with just those tools. 

Eventually, I acquired a couple more tweezers, a balance tack, a loupe, a movement holder, and two gauges (one for movement sizes, the other for mainsprings). The additional tweezers came as a result of my abusing the first one by using it more as a metal toothpick to pry things or poke parts out. The balance tack is really quite pointless, but it was fun to play around with when I first began examining balances. The movement holder is one of my favorite tools - it is incredibly helpful at keeping a watch steady while I work on it. The fact that it isn't a flat surface on top helps, too, because any part that protrudes from the base plate doesn't get damaged. The gauges are straightforward tools for measuring sizes.

I also have the containers I use to store parts while taking apart a watch pictured. Any sort of container to store pieces would technically work, but these slots are great at organizing. I have three of the smaller size for non-complication watches and surplus parts. The larger box, obviously, is for complications. One of the most rewarding feelings I get when fixing watches is seeing the tens, even hundreds, of parts laid out in those boxes and then knowing that sooner or later, they'll be ticking together harmoniously. 

It's Summer Time!

High school is finally over and college is only a couple months away. My time has freed up quite a bit, so I'll be posting more frequently. This is a short post to give a sneak peek of what I'll be writing about.

I only have so much capital to work with when buying watches, and having made the two most expensive purchases a couple days ago, I'm stuck with the two watches until I can resell them. In addition to those repairs, however, I'll be writing about other watchmaking-related topics.

Here's a brief list of what's to come:

-My "workbench" and tools
-My small library of watch books and catalogs
-My ledger
-Vulliamy Repeater a Toc (Dumb Repeater) Movement
-Tarts London Pocket Watch in a Repousse Case

As you can see, I stepped up the ante with the watches I acquired. Can't wait to show you guys!

After Nine Grueling Months of Waiting...

The double-sided calendar moon phase pocket watch is fully finished! Although the wait was incredibly long (which included at least twenty calls and tens of emails), I could not be happier with the result. As usual, I'll let the pictures do the talking.

If anyone is interested in dial refinishing, International Dial Co. does a great job - just be prepared to wait!