A great Gruen - and a whacked Waltham

[rjenkinsgb]

A Gruen 510SS - I serviced the movement ages ago but was hoping to find a replacement case, as the original has been just about worn to death! No case yet, so reassembled; it's a nice wearable watch regardless!

 

And a Waltham 1908 series with the worst impact damage I've seen inside a movement!

I got three similar non-running Waltham movements on ebay; two plated and one brass. One of the plated ones tries to run & looks like it just needs a service, so no challenge.

The other had a visibly very bent escape wheel! I though initially someone had used it for a donor and swapped parts in, but after examining it in detail it looks like it had been dropped - the lower pivots on the balance and pallet fork were broken as well, a pallet jewel shattered and several other cracked jewels!

I never realised so many jewels could be damaged in one go. I can only guess that impact angle was straight in line from the balance through the fork and into the escape wheel.

 

So far I've replaced all the damaged jewels, and with the escape wheel from the brass donor the escapement now seems to work as it should. I've not quite got the balance wheel as free as it should be yet - and with both this and the donor, the minuscule screws that hold the hairspring studs to the balance cock seems to have evaporated during the cleaning  

(And everything needs another clean after the jewels and alignment are finished).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of the replaced ones - this is why I got the Chinese jewel press!

 

 

 

 

[RichardHarris123]

The dial and hands on the Gruen look immaculate, could the case be replated or is it too battered? I've never seen an escape wheel look like that. 

[oldhippy]

That Gruen what a lovely looking clear dial with nice hands. 

[rjenkinsgb]

Both sides of the Gruen case are very badly worn, the lip around the case back has completely gone at both sides. I did get one "Gruen 510" case but it's a different style & needs a smaller dial.

I'd rather keep the original, as it does look so good. It's got a rounded edge, and the hands are shaped to follow the edge curve.

Edited July 13, 2024 by rjenkinsgb

[agg221]

There was a Smiths A453 Antarctic for sale in October 2020. It was discussed on one of the forum sites (possibly NAWCC) as being too far gone for repair due to water damage to the movement, dial and hands, and the degree of wear on the case.

I found the post after I had bought the watch. If anyone happens to recall it and can find it, it would be a very useful comparison to this post because I forgot to take any 'before' photos, however, there were deep scratches in the main body and the lugs were completely worn through. I attach repair and 'after' photographs showing what the watch looked like after repairing the damage to the case and now following replating.

The other photographs show a case back which is made of brass and was originally gold plated. It had worn through completely at one point and had serious pitting corrosion. No 'after' yet, but a photograph taken just now - this has been repaired and is ready to be polished and plated.

The Gruen case is definitely repairable.

Alec

Edited July 13, 2024 by agg221

[Neverenoughwatches]

3 hours ago, rjenkinsgb said:

A Gruen 510SS - I serviced the movement ages ago but was hoping to find a replacement case, as the original has been just about worn to death! No case yet, so reassembled; it's a nice wearable watch regardless!

 

And a Waltham 1908 series with the worst impact damage I've seen inside a movement!

I got three similar non-running Waltham movements on ebay; two plated and one brass. One of the plated ones tries to run & looks like it just needs a service, so no challenge.

The other had a visibly very bent escape wheel! I though initially someone had used it for a donor and swapped parts in, but after examining it in detail it looks like it had been dropped - the lower pivots on the balance and pallet fork were broken as well, a pallet jewel shattered and several other cracked jewels!

I never realised so many jewels could be damaged in one go. I can only guess that impact angle was straight in line from the balance through the fork and into the escape wheel.

 

So far I've replaced all the damaged jewels, and with the escape wheel from the brass donor the escapement now seems to work as it should. I've not quite got the balance wheel as free as it should be yet - and with both this and the donor, the minuscule screws that hold the hairspring studs to the balance cock seems to have evaporated during the cleaning  

(And everything needs another clean after the jewels and alignment are finished).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of the replaced ones - this is why I got the Chinese jewel press!

 

 

 

 

Good work Rob, I'm sure you can fix the case re-plating.

[VWatchie]

The dial and hands on the Gruen look absolutely stunning. Had it been in a stainless steel case I would have tried to find a copy. These days I stay away from all plated cases. I don't know how to restore them and I'm honestly not that interested in learning it.

Edited July 13, 2024 by VWatchie

[agg221]

On 7/13/2024 at 12:20 PM, VWatchie said:

The dial and hands on the Gruen look absolutely stunning. Had it been in a stainless steel case I would have tried to find a copy. These days I stay away from all plated cases. I don't know how to restore them and I'm honestly not that interested in learning it.

Restoring plated cases is certainly not a commercial proposition. In a way, that's why I have had to do it. Many of the watches I am interested in come from an era of plated cases so I would be very restricted if I stayed away from them. If it isn't worth anyone else's while to fix them I end up doing it myself. This was yesterday evening's lug repair - one lug on each side was worn right through and the other was paper thin; now taken back to the correct size for a spring bar pin.

Alec

 

[rjenkinsgb]

1 hour ago, agg221 said:

This was yesterday evening's lug repair - one lug on each side was worn right through and the other was paper thin; now taken back to the correct size for a spring bar pin.

Nice work! How did you build up the lugs?

[agg221]

36 minutes ago, rjenkinsgb said:

Nice work! How did you build up the lugs?

It's surprisingly easy. I drill out the holes to 2.0mm, or if they are too oval I enlarge them in the chosen direction using a 1.0mm drill bit as a milling cutter. Brass and nickel cases are soft enough that this works fine with a Dremel.

I then insert a single piece of brass tube with the correct ID right through both lugs. I have tried it using two separate pieces but they don't stay straight and there is always a risk that the tube becomes blocked. The tube is about 1/4" over length on the outside.

I then braze into place using Tenacity No.5 flux and 55% silver brazing rod (silver solder), heating with a chef's blowtorch. I pre-heat until the flux melts, then place a small piece of pre-cut filler wire on one side using tweezers and use capillary action to pull it through to ensure full wetting (place one side, heat from the other). The filler has a wide enough melting range that I can add a bit more if needed to fill a wide gap between the tube and the lug if it was particularly worn, like the area which had worn right through.

I then trim fairly close to the lugs with a cut-off wheel in the Dremel and file up with diamond needle files. That's the stage shown in the original pictures.

The two pictures added here illustrate the steps. You can see there is rather more excess filler on two of the lugs (although not as much as it first looks like as the flux residue has not been removed at this point) - those were the ones with missing areas so I went back and added a bit more before cutting off the tubes to length.

Alec

Edited July 14, 2024 by agg221