A special project showed up today: a 1919 Hamilton 910 that's actually IN a Hamilton case. That wasn't common for Hamilton; they usually sold their movements to go in other makers' cases.
This one seems like a victim of old, gummy oil. Until the 1940s and 1950s whale oil was commonly used. The newer synthetics are a ton better and just like putting synthetic motor oil in a car that's never had it, it tends to clean out crud.
We shall see.
Now, this other thing. Looks a lot like the sleeve wrench, but totally different function.
This is a "jewel pusher," designed for removal and replacement of watch jewels, the little ruby donuts that act as low-friction bearings for a lot of the moving parts in a good watch. "17-jewel movements" and such? Yeah. That means 17 little tiny donuts of actual ruby in little fittings to make things run smooth.
Jewels are fiddly pains in the ass and I try to avoid dealing with them.
You know how every task seems to end up with a specialized set of tools? I have collected up a few for dealing with watches.
This showed up today: it's a vintage Moseley 10-prong sleeve wrench, silly. It's designed for installing and removing sleeves.
Not on a puffy vest, stem sleeves for pocket watches.
All the technical debris is in the alt text below.
Three revivals in a week seems like enough for now. Everything is polished and running and I am out of 16s cases and usable 18s movements for now. I should go drink or something, except buying and rehabilitating these beasts is actually cheaper.
This one has been sitting around for a couple of months and I wasn't sure if it ran. A 1910 Elgin 312. I swiped the hands off another Elgin that has bad balance jewels, and it went into the other case that showed up today. They seem to get along pretty well. It does run, and pretty well.
116 years old.
Another large watch case showed up today. Since it has no 18s movement to install right now, it got polished anyway.
$29. And I probably have a movement or can get one cheap.
Running all afternoon, and shows no inclination to stop. So, it got a short ride on the buffing wheel, which only made it shinier.
By such tiny means we can change a $40 watch left for dead into a nice shiny runner worth more like $200. I will never understand sellers who can't be bothered to do a tiny bit of work to make stuff much more worthwhile.
Still running. It's actually a very good-looking watch. Simple, straightforward nickel case, a two-tone dial (white and pale light blue). It has been running for a couple hours straight without whining.
It occurred to me that this might be an uncommon dial-set configuration: you just move the damn hands like my wall clock. Gently, and only ever forward. But it worked. This thing is actually pretty accurate.
One drop. And they might assemble 60 or 80 watches a shift! These things did not ask for much, so when I see old movements that have been dry for decades, or gummed up by old whale oil that was often used until the 1940s, and I am appreciative that I can buy "non-running" watches in great shape otherwise... cheap. This one was $40 and came with a nice case.
Oil, I got.
I haven't completely used the one drop of oil I put in my oil tray two months ago.
20 minutes running so far.
This beefy thing showed uo today. It was, as usual, sold as not running, they said the balance wheel moved freely but the second hand wouldn't advance.
It was... gummy. I may have to use hexane on this one if the racing oil and persuasion doesn't work. Old oil tends to get gummy and collect sludge that puts drag on the geartrain. I got it to run badly after five or six minutes, but the oil needs to soak in.
It seems to be missing its setting lever. That might require surgery.
The Turtle