Hampden two tone

[WileyDave]

There are a few lessons here that I wish to impart upon those who like to do this kind of stuff and have experienced all the pratfalls of watches and the diagnosis and repair of such. I picked up a two tone 16s 15 jewel Hampden pocket watch a few weeks ago, complete with decent hunter case. My expectations were not really high because usually these type of two tone, (gold wash) movements are getting harder to find, hence the price goes up. I own a few, but not in 16 size. Anyway, this one comes up for $50 + ship, I saved it to see if any bids were received. After a week, nothing, watch get's relisted @ $30 + ship, so I threw out a bid and didn't expect a win. Long story short, it's mine now. So I get this and immediately start evaluation, ( does it run, wind, hands move, etc) Much to my amazement, it runs, but poorly. So apart it comes and here is what I found: No hands, sub second has funny twist, which is why it ran bad.

Next out of case and off with dial, balance, bridges removed. Of course it's filthy.

After an bath and overall assessment of jewels, mainspring, pivots, roller jewel/balance cock assembly, it got a bath.

 

back together with lube and love she's running but missing hands!

So I found another comparable movement, and it was also a two tone, but a little more common, after a few bids, it's mine at $14 + postage. Now the unknown, I know the hands will fit to complete the first watch which is really all I wanted/needed,

enter How not to ship watch, this is what I got today and of course I had to tear it down, ALL I WANTED WAS THE HANDS!!!

At first I was, well PO'ed, but I got over that... when I saw what I got.

In all fairness, seller did describe what they were selling, but here's the rub.... until you get it apart, you'll never know what you have, kinda like Forrest Gump " box of chocolates" First the hands were bent from packing, okay I can straighten them, then jewels were cracked, okay I can replace, (only if donor is found), then mainspring was out of barrel, I can fix that too...but roller jewel MISSING and appears to have been superglued in ARRRRGGGHHH!

See the T end  in opening, not where its suppose to be

cleaned up

jewel out

jewel in

bent hands from shipping,

Now I don't expect to get to the roller jewel unless I find a suitable replacement, (swap wheel and spring), which in a manner of speaking makes it a minor franken.

The point to all of this is: Whilst I achieved my preliminary plan to find some hands to make one watch complete, I now know have an additional movement, (dial cleaned up nicely) and the requirement of more part searching and effort to make complete, which I can sell off as a partial and maybe get some $$ back. All told spent ~$60 usd and one watch is working, Is it worth it???????

[tbrownexcel]

I think so

[clockboy]

The joys of pocket watches Dave. Another common fault with pocket watches is broken balance staffs probably because most had no shock proof jewels. Getting replacement parts is really difficult. 

[WileyDave]

4 hours ago, clockboy said:

The joys of pocket watches Dave. Another common fault with pocket watches is broken balance staffs probably because most had no shock proof jewels. Getting replacement parts is really difficult. 

Hampdens are not much if a part problem, I don't have a ton of spares in 16s, just have to spend more time searching....thx

[dadistic]

On 3/27/2017 at 3:13 PM, WileyDave said:

The point to all of this is: Whilst I achieved my preliminary plan to find some hands to make one watch complete, I now know have an additional movement, (dial cleaned up nicely) and the requirement of more part searching and effort to make complete, which I can sell off as a partial and maybe get some $$ back. All told spent ~$60 usd and one watch is working, Is it worth it???????

Oh sure it's worth it. Isn't that what we do? Start with a watch that needs to be brought back to life, buy a parts watch to accomplish that, look at the parts watch and say "gee, that would make a very nice watch if it was complete", but another parts watch, and -

repeat ad infinitum.

 

[frenchie]

3 hours ago, dadistic said:

repeat ad infinitum.

 

the perfect summary 

[WileyDave]

need to clarify, first pic movement in case was original, (left) I did clean, but the hands from donor look like this on original, I like the roman numeral dial too, so mission accomplished now hafta replace roller and see if I can this other one running

With donor hands installed and running ~8hours, btw missing case bezel & crystal

search goes on!

[vinn3]

hampdens are a problem for me.  i bought a few  (at that price) for the cases,  even got a coin silver hunting case  with that mvt. (had to pay a bit more for that one).   my guess is hampdens are one of a few cheaper replacement works  of the 1920's in the U.S..

[WileyDave]

22 hours ago, vinn3 said:

hampdens are a problem for me.  i bought a few  (at that price) for the cases,  even got a coin silver hunting case  with that mvt. (had to pay a bit more for that one).   my guess is hampdens are one of a few cheaper replacement works  of the 1920's in the U.S..

Problem with Hampdens, they didn't produce but 4M total movements, unlike other US mfgs, so parts are sometime a premium. They were not necessarily cheap, but competitive with Walthams, etc. The value in Hampdens because they did not produce the numbers, is there are not many out there. Dueber made many more cases than movements, I've found Dueber cases on just about every other US movement. Thanks vinn3 for you comment!

[vinn3]

how was the quality of the dueber cases ?  they put the name too close to hamilton (sp).

[WileyDave]

22 hours ago, vinn3 said:

how was the quality of the dueber cases ?  they put the name too close to hamilton (sp).

I suppose they were as good as anyone else's, Dueber had some pretty fancy looking ones!

[vinn3]

thanks,i like this.  vinn

[TimFitz]

Very interesting.

My first pocket watch was my grandfathers Hampton  he worked for the NY Central  RR.