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I found a rather elegant chronograph pocket watch on the bay recently. It was listed as non-running so I took a punt on it. Not cheap, but I liked the dial. The watch wouldn't run if the chrono was engaged, and would barely run without it. It's a French watch made by LIP. Popped the moment out of the case to have a look. It's very pretty in there... Time to strip it down. Took many photos so I could put it back together in the right sequence. Here's a bird's eye view of the chronograph works Removed the operating lever, pillar wheel, transmission wheel and various springs Removed the chronograph bridge: And the movement's now just a plain ol' pocketwatch movement: Time to see what's wrong with the movement itself: ...and found the culprit, or at least a suspect! Cracked 3rd wheel jewel: Spent a quiet Sunday morning sifting through my box of random jewels until I found one with the right diameter for the pivot: Reamed a wider hole and fitted the new jewel. I was pleased the colour matched the old one: Now I can put the movement back together. With the new jewel and a lot of cleaning the watch works extremely well - one or two seconds fast and only a little beat error which I'm going to ignore. Putting the chrono works back together was relatively straightforward - just a matter of lubrication and adjusting the eccentrics so that the depthing was correct: Time to fit the hands. The second hand for the chrono wasn't tight enough on the arbor, so every time you re-set to 0 the hand would spin! Tightened it with a cannon pinion tightener - there must be a better way! Movement goes back in the case: And another fine watch for my collection of slightly-battered-but-working-well watches. This was the first chronograph I've done, so I'm extremely pleased that it's working nicely. Learned a lot in the process. One of the things I learned was not to use Naptha on dials. The astute observer will notice that the word LIP has vanished from the dial. While I feel extremely guilty for having done this to a 100-year old watch, I'm secretly delighted - the first thing my wife said when the watch arrived in the post was "lovely dial, pity it says LIP on it...", and I agreed. Thanks for watching.

I have used the Tungsten Carbide Drills for a while now being aware of the brittleness. The problem is the harder the drill metal although stronger they become more brittle. In my experience removing a rivet the hole to be drilled does not have to be the same width as the rivet a smaller hole seems to remove the pressure fit & they then just pull out. The spade drills work really well in a lathe with the piece to be drilled turning, such as a pivot etc etc. ​ The key to success for drilling is for the piece that is going to be drilled to be absolutely square & secure then plenty of lubrication (spit,oil , etc.) and for the swarf to be cleared away as often as possible because this is what brakes the drills. ​For larger holes & to get absolutely in the correct spot first use a centering drill

I do it this way - it often works.

on some watches based on the Citizen auto calibres.. winding is acheived by a wheel on a football (american or rugby to you Brits) shaped pivots. Sometimes this is sticky and you need to tap it a bit to get it to sit right. Anil

That's smart - very nice indeed.

Oh I do like that! :) Being an engineer and ex aviator, I like it for two reasons. (1) The case looks like something I made in the past. (2) The dial remind me of an aircraft instrument.

Nice one. There's a lot of short run firms starting up of late, good thing too, you can find really excellent unique watches at very reasonable prices. A good site for reviews & info: http://wornandwound.com