SOME RECENT WORK
Here are a few watches I’ve worked on in the last year or so.
They give a good idea of my skillset and what I enjoy working on.
Here are a few watches I’ve worked on in the last year or so.
They give a good idea of my skillset and what I enjoy working on.
Ladies' gold Rolex needing a new gold lug, as well as substantial work on the movement, including bushing the barrel arbor holes.
The case as it arrived. The customer wanted to wear it on a leather strap
I use a centering microscope to line up the barrel bridge for boring the barrel-arbor hole
Preparing to make two new lugs
Completed lugs
A fine Illinois pocket watch needing a basic service and some rust removal. The goal was to get it running as accurately as possible
Inspecting the parts prior to cleaning. The mainspring needed to be replaced
View of the movement post-servicing. Rust on the crown wheels was removed without damaging the soleillage.
A much-loved watch that had seen better days... see next photo!
Removed all the previous nickel-plating and replated it with fresh nickel. The customer was over the moon.
Sidereus asked me to make an 18 carat gold inlay on the bezel of one of their watches.
I have a good working relationship with a highly skilled laser-welder working in the medical industry. He added material to this 6-mm crown wheel from an old Tudor Prince watch. We were able to save the component which would otherwise be costly to replace.
Silver half-hunter requiring a lot of work! The hour and minute wheel were destroyed, balance jewels were broken, impulse jewel was broken, barrel and fusee needed bushing and the fusee chain needed repairs. Hands were corroded and needed gold-plating
The catastrophic failure under the dial!
Depthing the hour and minute wheel to ensure correct engagement, in advance of placing a new post for the minute wheel
Measuring the minute wheel to determine the width of the post
Test-fitting a donor hour and minute wheel after re-planting the minute wheel post.
Running quite nicely, with a useable 30 hours of power reserve and decent amplitude.
Made a new link for a Rolex bracelet. I blended copper and gold to get as close a match as possible.
I love chronographs! This one needed work to ensure the reset lever engaged properly. Valjoux movement now running +/- 5s with 300 degrees of amplitude.
An unusual Zenith Calibre 133.8 in terrible condition!
The lower jewel for the rotor had smashed, causing extreme wear to the rotor arbor.
Spent quite a long time finding a suitable jewel
Test-fitting the replacement rotor-weight arbor in the newly-fitted jewel
A very satisfying result! The final steps were to re-polish the screw-heads and lubricate the movement. As a rule of thumb I use 9010 on balance and escape, 9020 on fourth and third wheels, 1300 on centre wheel, and Molykote DX on barrel arbor and keyless works. I always use epilame on escape, pallet jewels and keyless works.
An astonishing chronometer by Constantaras Freres, with detent escapement and helical hairspring. Needed re-oiling to ensure running to +/-2 seconds
Work on a musical clock from the 1780s. I prefer to work on watches, because clocks require substantially more time and effort, but I'm always happy to work on something interesting!
Rolex watches are always a delight to work on!
I'm just as happy working on modern calibres. Even Breitling, as long as I can get the hands off!
Breitling's version of the ETA 7750 - straightforward and easy to service
Omega Seamasters and Geneves tend to be my 'bread and butter' - they seem to have been extremely popular in the 60's and 70's, and now their owners' children are wearing them.
Two pocket watches to service. Both had cylinder escapements with broken pivots. I wouldn't claim to be an expert on cylinder escapements, but I got them running!
A beautiful gold quarter-repeating savonette from the 1830s with a duplex escapement. The glass and hand were missing, and the watch wasn't running.
I found a perfectly matching hand
I cleaned each part of the repeating mechanism separately
I made a detailed drawing of the mechanism to aid reassembly!
A fine carriage clock with grande and petite sonnerie and alarm. I very much enjoy working on carriage clocks.
Carriage clock movement. Had to address substantial wear on some of the pins. Someone had hopped the clock off the mantlepiece so the platform needed new jewels, and I had to get replacement glass (I use an excellent chap in the UK).