Waltham 845 movement, Circa. 1906

[nin7sics]

I possess a hand-jeweled, No. 845 movement, Waltham pocket watch. Movt. Serial No. 15111545. The case appears to be Nickel, but I am not for sure. The case is stampted "DEFIANCE" with the No. 7254015. It appears to be open-faced (i.e. no metal face cover), and I am missing the crystal face.

Upon opening the case, I found the movement to be immaculate. It appears that it has not been touched since its creation. The movement plates are clearly hand-jeweled.

I took apart the movement and all mechanisms are in working order. The escapement mechanism appears to have two jewels on either side, and the regulator mechanism has 14 pins and still possesses its beautiful blue color, but it has a gap near one of the cross bar attachment points.

My problem: the watch only runs while positioned on its side. I took apart the mechanism to inspect the main spring, but I have been unable to disassemble it as it appears the gear is pressed on to the shaft.

Apropos, I found no jewel at the bottom of the mainspring housing where the bottom of the shaft sits. Is that normal for the 845 movement?

Any suggestions as to how to remove the gear to inspect the main spring?

Any comments regarding the case? I know nothing about it.

Any comments as to why the watch only runs while on its side?

Where might I obtain a proper crystal face for this piece?

[nin7sics]

[rrwatch]

If your Waltham 845 does NOT have cap jewels over the hole jewels on the pallet fork arbor, the movement contains a jeweled barrel. The jewels are located inside the barrel cover and cannot be seen until the barrel is taken apart.
The Waltham jeweled barrel utilized a two piece arbor. The top and bottom portions screw together inside the barrel.
The easiest way to take them apart is to do the following:
1. With the barrel assembly out of the movement, reinstall the winding wheel and retaining screw.
2. Wrap a rubber band around the smooth part of the barrel, grasping it firmly with your fingers.
3. While using the rubber band to keep the barrel from slipping, unscrew the winding wheel. Its a regular right handed thread.
4. This will unscrew the two pieces of the barrel arbor, so that the top and bottom portions can be removed from each end. Be careful as the bottom part is quite small and is easily lost.
5. When reinstalling, make sure that the square that forms part of the bottom section engages and stays in the square hole in the mainspring barrel, or the spring will not wind correctly.

Please let us know if this solves your problem

The Defiance case is usually chrome plate over a brass core. These were commonly sold as replacement cases during the 1930s.

There are a number of reasons why a movement will run only when laid on its side, but the first thing I would look for is a broken or bent balance pivot or a badly cracked jewel supporting the balance, pallet or escape wheel arbors.
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[nin7sics]

Thank you for the advice.

[nin7sics]