Medana 500 Xtensa

[Charette]

Hi all,

Here is another project watch of mine, this is the third watch I've worked on so far. It was not in terrible condition when I got it to begin with. This is the first time I have sanded a crystal down and then back up again. There are still micro scratches but I find once I've put back onto the watch I don't notice them.

This is a 1-jewel, pin pallet escapement. The Xtensa, I assume, refers to the shock protection on the balance. It was extremely frustrating to take apart/oil put back together the shock protection. The cap stone was not captured in the normal manner - it rather kind of floated on top of a donut shaped plate that held the 'hole jewel' that is not actually a jewel, under the spring. I was trying to be extremely careful of not breaking the spring or losing anything as I didn't want to spend on a donor movement. After at least a couple hours combined for both sides I managed to get them together at least. I would seriously consider staying away from working on a watch with this shock setting in the future, unless the price was right and I liked the look.

Even though this is not so fancy on the inside with only 1 jewel, I understand there were tons of these pin pallet movements made and I enjoy the look, so hope it will last for many more years. I am happy to continue buying nice looking watches like this for very reasonable prices for my own enjoyment.

The movement photo is before cleaning.

Have a good night all.

 

[Neverenoughwatches]

7 hours ago, Charette said:

Hi all,

Here is another project watch of mine, this is the third watch I've worked on so far. It was not in terrible condition when I got it to begin with. This is the first time I have sanded a crystal down and then back up again. There are still micro scratches but I find once I've put back onto the watch I don't notice them.

This is a 1-jewel, pin pallet escapement. The Xtensa, I assume, refers to the shock protection on the balance. It was extremely frustrating to take apart/oil put back together the shock protection. The cap stone was not captured in the normal manner - it rather kind of floated on top of a donut shaped plate that held the 'hole jewel' that is not actually a jewel, under the spring. I was trying to be extremely careful of not breaking the spring or losing anything as I didn't want to spend on a donor movement. After at least a couple hours combined for both sides I managed to get them together at least. I would seriously consider staying away from working on a watch with this shock setting in the future, unless the price was right and I liked the look.

Even though this is not so fancy on the inside with only 1 jewel, I understand there were tons of these pin pallet movements made and I enjoy the look, so hope it will last for many more years. I am happy to continue buying nice looking watches like this for very reasonable prices for my own enjoyment.

The movement photo is before cleaning.

Have a good night all.

 

Medana did make some decent watches in their time, movements by MST were of good quality.  One Jewel ?   2 cap jewels over 2 holed, by my calculations last time i checked added up to 4. Strange ? 

1 minute ago, Neverenoughwatches said:

This is the first time I have sanded a crystal down and then back up again. There are still micro scratches but I find once I've put back onto the watch I don't notice them.

Solvol auto polish makes a good fine scratch remover after reducing wet and dry grades to around 3000. Also 0.5 micron diamond paste i have heard suggested but have not tried this yet.

8 hours ago, Charette said:

Hi all,

Here is another project watch of mine, this is the third watch I've worked on so far. It was not in terrible condition when I got it to begin with. This is the first time I have sanded a crystal down and then back up again. There are still micro scratches but I find once I've put back onto the watch I don't notice them.

This is a 1-jewel, pin pallet escapement. The Xtensa, I assume, refers to the shock protection on the balance. It was extremely frustrating to take apart/oil put back together the shock protection. The cap stone was not captured in the normal manner - it rather kind of floated on top of a donut shaped plate that held the 'hole jewel' that is not actually a jewel, under the spring. I was trying to be extremely careful of not breaking the spring or losing anything as I didn't want to spend on a donor movement. After at least a couple hours combined for both sides I managed to get them together at least. I would seriously consider staying away from working on a watch with this shock setting in the future, unless the price was right and I liked the look.

Even though this is not so fancy on the inside with only 1 jewel, I understand there were tons of these pin pallet movements made and I enjoy the look, so hope it will last for many more years. I am happy to continue buying nice looking watches like this for very reasonable prices for my own enjoyment.

The movement photo is before cleaning.

Have a good night all.

 

MST 434, also used in the Roamer brand, the few examples i found also strangely enough marked as 1 jewel. A basic watch would have 5,  these situated within the balance . 4 to accommodate the staff pivots and 1 attached to the roller also known as the impulse jewel. Strange that this is marked as only 1 jewel . Other movements in the 430s caliber are fully jewelled and labelled accurately. I thought makers loved to state as many jewels as possible.  Any thoughts anyone ? John ?

[Geotex]

As far as the last question, isn't the visible cap jewel the only one you will expect to find on these 1-jewel movements, with everything else consisting of metal bushings and pins? The balance "jeweling" is not symmetrical.

[Neverenoughwatches]

7 hours ago, Geotex said:

As far as the last question, isn't the visible cap jewel the only one you will expect to find on these 1-jewel movements, with everything else consisting of metal bushings and pins? The balance "jeweling" is not symmetrical.

I thought the OP mentioned doing both sides. So is that just 1 cap jewel on top of the balance ?Thanks for the explanation 

[Charette]

2 minutes ago, Neverenoughwatches said:

I thought the OP mentioned doing both sides. So is that just 1 cap jewel on top of the balance ?Thanks for the explanation 

There was a cap jewel on both sides. Maybe just some weird counting convention (jewels on one item).

[mikepilk]

Nice looking watch.  Odd that it's got so few jewels.

I've never bought a movement with less than 15 jewels, and plenty of those have caused me trouble - so good luck with that !