# Hello From New Member



## BillD (Feb 2, 2009)

First of all HELLO to all from a new 'Novice' member.

I have always been interested in watches and clocks and as a child used to go around the junk shops in the UK with a friend of mine buying old marble clocks to take home, clean up and get going. This is now too many years ago than I care to remember!! My friend carried on collecting and now has a fantastic array of clocks of all sorts.

My collecting of mainly watches started about four years ago when I purchased this Hamilton GCT 24Hr Military from the widow of a watchmaker who used to use it as his workshop standard in the 1940's through to 1970. I have had it serviced and it keeps very good time.



















Now my question is I am trying to find a new winding stem for another military pocket watch I have recently aquired. The watch is a Carley & Clemence G.S MK II A. 22212 and the crown has broken off at the top of the stem.




























It is a swiss movement and I know that Carley & Clemence was a small London based company producing pocket watches for the military during the second world war. Other than that I don't know much else about the company. I have removed the stem and have been comparing against stems I have seen on the web. Most stems I have seen quote a "calibre" and I don't know exactly what that means. Any help on how I can source either another swiss stem of the same size or get one that I can adapt to fit, I would be very grateful. 

BillD


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## Mikrolisk (Jan 23, 2008)

Cal you tell us first, what's written on the movement? It is quite unreadable...

Andreas


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## BillD (Feb 2, 2009)

Mikrolisk said:


> Cal you tell us first, what's written on the movement? It is quite unreadable...
> 
> Andreas


Hi Andreas, Thanks for such a quick reply, I wasn't expecting that!

Yes, the movement has 'Swiss Made' '15 Jewels' and 'K.F.260' on it.

I am afraid my camera is not that good at close ups...or it may be the operator of course!!!

BillD


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## Mikrolisk (Jan 23, 2008)

Yeah, K.F. = Kurth Freres, founder of the Certina.

Some history:

The brothers Adolf (1863-1897) and Alfred (1865-1937) Kurth founded in 1888 an ebauche-manufacture in Granges ("Grenchen") as Kurth Freres. After a first success they produced under the tradename "Grana" (latin, "Granacus" = Grenchen/Granges in Switzerland). After 1929 the sons of Alfred, Hans and Erwin succeeded the company and expanded the production. From now the company was named Kurth Freres SA (Societe Anonyme).

1948 they introduced the tradename Certine (latin for security), and the company changed its name to this tradename. 1958 they introduced the trade mark "DS" for "Doppelte Sicherheit" (=double security). In 1971 they were integrated into the ASUAG-Holding (later Swatch Group).

Your movement is a Certina 260, 17''' (=diameter is 38mm), height 4.3mm, 15 jewels, 18000 A/h, runs 30 hours.

See this germany page for some details:

http://www.ranfft.de/cgi-bin/bidfun-db.cgi...amp;Certina_260

Regards, Andreas


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## BillD (Feb 2, 2009)

Mikrolisk said:


> Yeah, K.F. = Kurth Freres, founder of the Certina.
> 
> Some history:
> 
> ...


Andreas,

Thank you so much. What a wealth of information you have. You certaiinly have given me more details than I ever expected.

One probably obvious question now but just to clarify in my mind. The Calibre is 17''' (38mm dia) so calibre is related to the size of the watch and not, as I had been thinking, the size of the stem itself. Thanks again.

Regards, BillD


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## BillD (Feb 2, 2009)

Just wanted to say a big THANK YOU to Andreas and also to thank the Watch Forum for being there. I have now found the winding stem I require and it is being shipped from the US as I write this note. It would have taken me ages to find out this information without the forum. 

Regards

BillD


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## Mikrolisk (Jan 23, 2008)

Cool! Hope your watch will run again!

Congratulations!

Andreas


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