# Relatively Modern Watch.



## ValvesRule (May 20, 2009)

I bought this in our antiques shop in Biggleswade today for Â£3.50.

It is push-to-set, pin-pallet, solid-rim balance, and Motor Barrel or Harrison's form of Resting Barrel. No jewels. Snap-on lid and bezel, glass missing.

It seems to be going reliably at 4 b.p.s. Occasionally it stops every minute but I can see nothing wrong with the 4th wheel or its pinion.










Can anybody give any information on this watch? In particular, I would like to know what form the hands took.










^ Photographed running, with balance spring near full compression.

Stamped into the bottom plate is "MADE IN GT BRITAIN", and "552M" or "652M", you can just about see the upside-down 'M' in the photograph below the 4th pivot.


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## ValvesRule (May 20, 2009)

I have made some hands, based on a photograph of another Smiths Empire pocket watch.










Each hand is basically a loop of copper wire with solder suspended inside, then coloured with permanent marker. Each wire is in a sort of figure-or-eight form, with the larger loop forming the hand proper, and the smaller loop the boss.

The minute hand is bent down at the end, contacting the dial, to avoid the hour hand and the glass.

I also found some glasses on E. bay. I'm not sure whether or not the watch's original glass would have been glued in, but I have had to.

It is keeping reasonable time; better than 1 sec./hour. The regulator is capable of driving it to gain or loose slightly more than 1 sec./min.; making precision adjustment difficult.










^ The Movement viewed from the 6 o'clock position, the Balance being under the 3.


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## mel (Dec 6, 2006)

Yer a determined beggar, VR, ain't ya'? Making Hands? I'd have sourced a non-runner off the bay and swapped hands! The heads up on how you "do-ed" it is good though :lol:

How about a pair of 4CX250B's and set up your own Time Signal station ? 

(ex GM6, EA and GM9 call holder :toot


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## ValvesRule (May 20, 2009)

mel said:


> Yer a determined beggar, VR, ain't ya'? Making Hands? I'd have sourced a non-runner off the bay and swapped hands! The heads up on how you "do-ed" it is good though :lol:


It honestly never occured to me. My work on older Watches (admittedly made by different makers) probably led me to believe that hands from one watch would never fit on another watch. Besides, I would have felt obliged to try and get the non-runner going, before depriving it of its hands. I don't like swapping components around.

Incedentally, the Watch I am carrying as I write this is mostly 1896, but with the Hands and Motion Work of an 1872 Watch which I couldn't make go. I had to pack the Cannon Pinion with a piece of very thin copper wire, and move the Minute Wheel pin.



> How about a pair of 4CX250B's and set up your own Time Signal station ?
> 
> (ex GM6, EA and GM9 call holder :toot


I assume you're referring to the Valves themselves, rather than a transmitter using those Valves. I can't even build an amplifier, let alone a V.H.F. oscillator! The closest I can come, and I have built a number of these, is an Arc transmitter using an automotive ignition coil, and a relay wired as an oscillator.










I used this to signal in 2010.

When this photograph was taken, the quartz clock was about 1/4 sec. slow. However, I noticed that the transmitter interfered with it, causing it to loose 4 seconds, so my G.T.S. replica was probably 2 seconds late. To take up your suggestion, I would need a proper [mechanical] regulating clock.


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## mel (Dec 6, 2006)

What a naughty Boy, VR, an arc (spark) Transmitter - I hope your neighbours never find out it was you that was knacdgering their telly signal :rofl2:

Put that on at soap opera time and half the UK would kill you given the chance! Interesting concept though using more modern components. Main prob with a pair of 4CX250B's is/was cooling - need a blower and ceramic blowthrough bases. A lot of mechanical work involved in building a suitable chassis with in and out air inlets plus the blower mountings and feeding the bases with enough air to keep the valves from self destructing at full power - oh, and balancing the pair electrically as well of course. :lol:

Happy days! :to_become_senile: My main interest was QRP low power work though, I've used less than 3 watts to send an HF signal (sideband) from Spain to the UK, and less than 1 watt on CW (morse) - those you cancarry in your pocket almost. :yes:


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## ValvesRule (May 20, 2009)

mel said:


> Put that on at soap opera time and half the UK would kill you given the chance!


Actually, it doesn't go much further than a mile, probably because the energy is spread over so wide a frequency range. I have experemented with conventional L./C. tuning, but normal capacitors flash-over and I don't know how to make a Leyden Jar of known capacitance.

Also the fn of the spark is about 1 MHz. - Medium Wave.

But, yes, it does interfere with television. And Long Wave. And Short Wave. And wireless internet (only my brother uses this, so that doesn't matter). But not so much F.M.



> My main interest was QRP low power work though, I've used less than 3 watts to send an HF signal (sideband) from Spain to the UK, and less than 1 watt on CW (morse) - those you cancarry in your pocket almost.


I have been intending to experement with directional transmitting aerials for a while (I tried once with a set-top Yagi array) - I have some 10" plastic near-parabolic clock crystals. I plan, some day, to cover one in foil and see what happens. Unfortunatly, I have no-one nearby which whom to conduct experements and investigations, and I cannot use anything with I.C.s in to generate a test signal because of the spark noise.

I have built a nearly pocket-sized arc transmitter (excluding batteries and receiver. And aerial. And earth), my specification being that its peak cubic dimentions should be those of the transformer, which is cylinderical. I managed to fit terminals, key and the oscillator either side of the transformer, while the spark gap took the form of a hole in the P.C.B. with dead-end tracks diametrically opposing. I built this for a friend who's Mum didn't want my more sturdily constructed machine and car battery in her house. I have learned lessons from this machine, and applied them in my later ones, including one of almost identical design except that it also contained a simple triode-detector receiver.


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## rambutan (May 7, 2010)

always good to buy a Smiths - they seem to sell very well if running and in decent condition


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