Waltham Sidereal watch

[biltsfick]

Hi, I need help on finding information about Waltham Sidereal watches. I have one serial # 19001039 that has been converted to a standard 12 hour gearing and dial. What do I need to get it back to a Sidereal movement? Will hour and minute gears do it? Please help. Joe Cook cook2222@bellsouth.net phone # 229-246-9721

 

[Bill Tapp]

Joe,
The short answer is without the dial you are stuck. The minute pinion is a 3-leaf lantern pinion and the hour wheel has 24 rather course teeth. I have made both and it is not too challenging. I wouldn't be surprised if you were able to find originals as they were supplied as parts and were not often used. The only other difference is that to keep sidereal time the watch needs to be regulated 3 minutes and 58 seconds fast of civil time.

Bill

 

[watchtone]

Hi Joe,
I have just purchased a model 1892 A.W.W.Co. 19J from the Sidereal range 18028501-18028600 but it was running as a 12 hr movement.
I want to restore this to a 24 hr movement (I have a Sidereal 24 hr dial) and need to source the minute pinion (with the 3 pins) and the 24 coarse teeth centre pinion. Do you have any ideas how I can get these parts. The rest of the 1892 movement is running and I have converted a similar movement in the past, using a 24 hr movement from an incorrect run.

 

[Tom McIntyre]

It has been 10 years since Joe last posted here and my friend Bill Tapp died recently.

Hopefully someone else can follow up on this for you.

In looking at the gray book records that are also in the handwritten ledgers (before 7.4M), it is clear that many watches were combined into runs of similar material in the gray book. Without other documentation that a watch had originally been a 24 hour siderial there is no particular reason to believe it was.

I believe there are also some 24 hour dial examples that are not sidereal, but kept civil time. Of course, that is easily changed. If the dial is not marked sidereal it was likely a civil 24 hour dial.

 

[watchtone]

It has been 10 years since Joe last posted here and my friend Bill Tapp died recently.

Hopefully someone else can follow up on this for you.

In looking at the gray book records that are also in the handwritten ledgers (before 7.4M), it is clear that many watches were combined into runs of similar material in the gray book. Without other documentation that a watch had originally been a 24 hour siderial there is no particular reason to believe it was.

I believe there are also some 24 hour dial examples that are not sidereal, but kept civil time. Of course, that is easily changed. If the dial is not marked sidereal it was likely a civil 24 hour dial.

Thanks Tom
I am sorry to hear of another member passing away.
I am a great fan of the Waltham model 1892 and I collect the special signed watches.
I know that many of the Waltham runs were mixed and I've seen lots of 12 hr watches in the recognised Sidereal runs.
I just feel it would be nice to get this watch back to a 24 hr motion with the correct sidereal dial.
Tony

 

[Tom McIntyre]

I agree that having one of those is a nice thing.

My flavor of that need was the Fitch's patent dial with all the minutes marked.

As Bill said, those are available parts, and someone can make them for you if they cannot be found. You might try Dave's Watch Parts in California.

 

[musicguy]

I just feel it would be nice to get this watch back to a 24 hr motion with the correct sidereal dial.

I'm also curious how you know it was changed from Sidereal, and that it's not
currently original like Tom suggested.



Rob

 

[Tom McIntyre]

I think it is safe to say "authentic" where "original" might cause some to question ones motives.

Those are choices all of us make from time to time, when restoring a watch. I think the choice is less significant when talking about mass produced machine made watches.