A pocket watch revived

Here a pretty old pocket watch for common people of the late 19th century (most probably...).

Initial status

This watch is pretty worn...rust on and under the dial, a broken hour hand, a damaged dial and a lot of dirt on the case.

The backcover has a engraved singing bird - nice.

Under the outer caseback lies the inner one which features holes to wind and set the pocketwatch - there is no keyless system here which makes me think it is more late 19th but early 20th century.

The movement looks okay - some rust here and there as well as hardened grease and oil.

Picking up the pieces...

Repairing the pocket watch

Under the dial a lot of corrosion.

Disassembly with balance system already removed...

The ratchet / click for the mainspring barrel - a simple and clever solution to hold / release the mainspring force.

The mainspring inside the opened barrel.

Before removing the corrosion...

After removing the corrosion.

Disassembled movement during cleaning.

Some small parts - among them the soldered and reshaped hour hand.

Replacing the escapement wheel - the original left one had a run-down top pivot.

The cause for this damaged pivot was the cheap metal bearing which did not really fit it well (A). I assume it was replaced during a repair in the past as the wheel´s other pivot sat well preserved in a jewel bearing. The picture below also shows the spare jewel which I used to replace it (B).

Here the new bearing gets pressed in with the staking tool.

Checking the bearing under the microscope.

During re-assembly and oiling. On 2 and 8 o´clock positions you can still see where the damages were before I re-enameled the dial.

Finally the finished pocketwatch inside...

...and outside...working again. It gains several minutes a day and would actually require some more replacement parts to achieve better results - however considering the low monetary value that is not an option here.

greetings noq2

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