botched case needs help

[Ian Timshel]

Hey all.
http://ca.geocities.com/itschaotic has a couple of pictures of the offending case work. It has been converted from a pendant to a wrist watch and now the folks falling heir to it want it back the way it started. Namely as a pendant watch. I explain a bit more on the site. If you have any suggestions as to where to look for help with this please get in touch, or post it here if you would.

[Ian Timshel]

Hey all.
http://ca.geocities.com/itschaotic has a couple of pictures of the offending case work. It has been converted from a pendant to a wrist watch and now the folks falling heir to it want it back the way it started. Namely as a pendant watch. I explain a bit more on the site. If you have any suggestions as to where to look for help with this please get in touch, or post it here if you would.

[Tom McIntyre]

There is no picture of the movement and dial of this watch. However, you could not possibly have the work done for less than a low grade watch of the same make would cost in a case. Then the matter is simply to switch the cases.

If there are parts that are engraved and therefore important, it should be possible to find a watch with the proper body and just switch the front and back.

How about posting a picture of the movement and a clear picture of the case mark inside the back.

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Tom McIntyre
President, NAWCC Chapter 174
Pocket Horology Web (http://www.pocketwatch.org)
Tommy the JOAT's Web (http://www.mcintyre.com/McIntyre)

[Ian Timshel]

Not much interested in swapping out the old movement. Not my style. I don't have a pic to scan in for the case markings. No digital camera only a scanner. Sorry.
Thanks for taking a swing. Ian.

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itschaotic@yahoo.ca

[Rick White]

Scanners are great for taking "pictures" of movements and dials. Just lay the movement flat on the scanner glass and lay a heavy cloth over it. I have used a towel. If you picture your movement it might help some of our resident watch wizzes to help ou out. It looks to me like you have the bow. It could be put on by any jeweler. I didn't see the winding crown is it attatched to the movement? If you can supply more info you might be closer than you think.

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Rick White
Pocket Watches Moderator

[Tom McIntyre]

Maybe you misunderstood my meaning.

It is not possible to repair the case the way you wish. If it is gold filled, you cannot remove the lugs and make it gold filled again. You might be able to plate it and get it to look ok for a while.

The only "repair" that would hold up would be to cut out the area where the lugs were attached and fill with gold solder and then replate the entire case to a suitable color gold. There was a goldsmith in Boston who did pretty good repairs to wrist watches several years ago. He used the above technique to fill in worn through cases. The work usually held up for at least two or three years. I think it would cost over a hundred dollars to have this done to your case.

If you can find another identical case, the body can be removed and assembled with the undamaged parts you have. These small ladies GF cases can usually be purchased at NAWCC marts for much less than one hundred dollars.

In the end you would have a watch that was identical with the original form of the watch with the possible exception of a case serial number on the body under the bezel.

I personally would not consider that "switching" but I am sure there are others who would.

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Tom McIntyre
President, NAWCC Chapter 174
Pocket Horology Web (http://www.pocketwatch.org)
Tommy the JOAT's Web (http://www.mcintyre.com/McIntyre)

[Ian Timshel]

I love this board. I'm so grateful to have such wise ears to bend now and again. Thank-you for your detailed responses.

Rick.
I'll try the scanner trick soon. A heavy work day tomorrow but I'll see if I can play maybe at lunch for a while. Great idea. All of a sudden the poor scanner is a much more versitile machine.

Tom.
I'm in a very rural area and my resources for finding another case are limited somewhat by location. However I have a few junk piles both here and elsewhere that may yield better results. I sometimes can't see the forest for the trees.
Thank-you for clairifing the gold filled repair problems. I do think I can find enough parts to make something work here. I had just not known enough about working with gold to know.
Cheers! Ian.


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itschaotic@yahoo.ca

[Ian Timshel]

Hi all.
I have updated the page at http://ca.geocities.com/itschaotic to include pictures of the dial, dial side and main plates of the watch in question. It is a little slow to load but I'll fix that later today.
I would call it a 3/0 movement. The back of the movement measures 28.4mm across the bridges. The case seat measures 29.0mm and the front plate measures 29.5mm. The movement is 4.7mm thick.

Thanks again for all your kind offers of help.
Cheers! Ian.

N 49 12' 30"
W 96 53' 45"


................ what is essential is invisible to the eye
antoine de saint-exupery


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itschaotic@yahoo.ca

[Ian Timshel]

I've updated the reference page at http://ca.geocities.com/itschaotic to reflect the some of the details I had missed initially. I've also reduced the size of the images by quite a bit so it won't be so long to load.
Thanks again for the effort of you all.

Ian.

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itschaotic@yahoo.ca

[Tom McIntyre]

I was hoping you had an American watch so we could have some assurance of finding an accurately similar case. The watch is Swiss, but a very high quality for a ladies watch. I am sure you have noticed it is missing the whiplash spring from the regulator.

Swiss 3/0 watches made to sell in North America were designed to fit in standard cases, so you may still be OK.

If you cannot find a case body, let us know and we can look in our scrap piles too. :smile:

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Tom McIntyre
President, NAWCC Chapter 174
Pocket Horology Web (http://www.pocketwatch.org)
Tommy the JOAT's Web (http://www.mcintyre.com/McIntyre)

[Ian Timshel]

Thanks Tom.
I'll certainly take you up on the junk pile if mine comes up empty. I've built a new shop and some of the reference points seem to be confusing me. ;^)
I certainly did notice the regulator damage. The way the regulator was "wicked" over to retard, right off the balance bridge altogether, I'd say the balance itself is in question as well. It's a personal job too which is making the task a bit more challanging.

Cheers! Ian.


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itschaotic@yahoo.ca