Waltham 1872/1888?

[Lorne]

Hello all,

I bought a Waltham 1872 movement,Royal Grade, just because I didn't have one. By the way, my wife loves that reason as much as I love "because it was on sale."'

Anyway, when I got the movement I noticed that the staff was trashed (standard gripe) and the balance table was missing (a new gripe).

A little research shows that the dimensions of the 1888 staff are the same as the 1872's staff. The issue of the pivots aside, can you use a 1888 balance assembly in an 1872?


Lorne

[DaveyG]

Lorne, according to my information source the 1872 staff is not the same as the 1888. The 1872 staff is 5.86mm long whereas the 1888 staff is 6.10mm. The Waltham Pt Nos are different with the 1872 being # 2844 and the 1888 #4251. I think the answer to your question is - no.

[Harold Visser]

From the Otto Frei watch material site,

16 Size 1872 Model, Description: Large Shoulder ("G" 1.31 mm), Large Waist (Hub 2.00 mm)
Dimension: A 6.09 mm, B 3.10 mm, F 0.92 mm, G 1.31 mm, H 0.62 mm The 16 size 1872 model used four different staffs: 4251, 4252, 4253 and 4254
4251 is small shoulder with large waist
4252 is small shoulder with small waist
4253 is large shoulder with large waist
4254 is large shoulder with small waist

[Lorne]

Nuts, I found a reference that stated both were 5.85...

Oh well...

[Tom McIntyre]

Perhaps they needed to make room for the double roller.

[DaveyG]

Re my Post #2. My error, I transposed the whole data sets from Col Townsends booklet, which should read:

1872 - #4251 Length 6.10
1888 - #2844 Length 5.86

Apologies for any confusion that I caused.

This information source does actually give the length of the #4252 as 6.20. #4253 & #4254 as 6.13