# Fine Pw With 'lepine Caliber Ii'



## Mikrolisk (Jan 23, 2008)

Hi again,

because this fine watch went yesterday evening to my jeans pocket, I will present you this watch. It is my oldest "wearable" watch I have - built in about

1830, thus it is used with a key. The movement is the second of the five so-called Lepine-calibers, and was built between 1820 and 1840 in raw movement

manufactures like Japy Freres. The watchmaker/seller of this watch is still unknown, there are no marks, signs or punchs that will give me any hint.

This watch is one of my favorites, as I saw this movement the first time, I fell in love with it. Although it is very old (now 170-180 years!), it still ticks and

keeps time really good! As you know, the cylinder escapement isn't the precisest one, but for me it is ok. I can keep it running (without adjusting)

for a few days, so that's ok.

So, heres the outside of the watch:

Front:










Back:










The case is out of silver, richly decorated, with a fine gilted border (front and back bezel), hard to see in the images. What you cannot see, is the thickness

of this pocket watch, it's only just under 1 centimeter! Other watches are much thicker! The diameter is 46mm (1,81"). The dial is out of enamel, the brass

hands are Breguet-style.










On the outer dust cover there is - hardly to see - the swiss silver mark and the numbers "34178 / 1004".










The inner dust cover is made out of brass and signed "Echappement a Cylindre / Quatre trous en rubis".


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## Mikrolisk (Jan 23, 2008)

The movement... *OhILoveIt* ... is an old bridge movement known as "Lepine Caliber II" or "Caliber a la Demi-Breguet" with 4 jeweled bearings (thus 6 rubies),

a cylinder escapement, key wind and key set and a complete maltese stop wind that you can see in the next "under-dial" image:










When this watch came to me, it made me exasperating. I wound it, it runs for a while - and stopped. I opened it, it starts running and running with a strong

beat... so closed it and minutes later it stopped. I opened it, watched the strong beat in all positions, and later in my pocket it stopped.

First I saw the hands draggled on the crystal - you must know in this flat watch there is really not much space between dial and crystal - and fixed that.

But that problem remains - until I noticed that the square end of the center staff was just a little bit too long and touched the back lid. Well, I shortened

it a little bit and got a really lovely timepiece!

Regards, Andreas


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## Mikrolisk (Jan 23, 2008)

Oh, one mistake... there is not a swiss silver mark in the back lid. This PW is from france! Sorry!


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## Guest (Jan 25, 2008)

I like that, first time I have seen that movement.

Is that a tea-cup you have used to take the photo's?








Rabbit


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## Mikrolisk (Jan 23, 2008)

Yea, an old gilt mocca cup I got from my granny. Photos are taken on our balcony.


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## tranber70 (Mar 24, 2007)

I really love the arcdhitecture of this mvt and the look with these blue screw.

Can we imagine these screw original or someone customised the mvt?

Sorry, I have only a small knowledge in wristwatches and I don't know anything in PW.

Bertrand


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## Mikrolisk (Jan 23, 2008)

The screws are original. It was common in these time to make a movement look really fine, thus with blued screws, springs and decorated plates and so on.

Andreas


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