# Permission To Come On Board?



## JWL940 (Jun 11, 2010)

Permission to come on board ladies and gentlemen? Other than introducing myself and saying hallo elsewhere this is my first post so please be gentle.

Wind the clock back to the mid 1960s and I inherited my grandfatherâ€™s 1904 Benson. It was used daily as my bedroom clock until 1971 when I packed it away in a box, left home and took the Queenâ€™s shilling.










Fast forward to late last year, when I gave the shilling back, I took the Benson out of the box fully expecting it to work only to find its gubbins had turned green and it worked no more! I initially thought Iâ€™d have a go at fixing it myself but thankfully sanity returned soon after that thought and I packed it off to my High Street jeweller. A few weeks (and Â£70 lighter) I had it back working like a dream. The brass isnâ€™t as shiny as Iâ€™d hoped it would be and I was sure the hands were black before the repair but grandfatherâ€™s old watch is back working again.










I was still inquisitive as to how a watch actually worked then surprisingly Santa put this in my Christmas stocking.










Building that and working out gear ratios made me hungry for more knowledge so I purchased 3 Smiths / Ingersolls from a friendly internet auction site to take to pieces and rebuild. With the help of a digital camera recording each stage I stripped the first one down, rebuilt it and amazingly it worked, did it again it still worked but the 3rd time I tried it it took hours to get the balance wheel in and it totally refuses to work! Oh well, I had 2 other non-goers to play with but drops of watch oil got them both working before I attacked them with a screwdriver and now I havenâ€™t the heart to break them. A lot of education there for about Â£10 â€" money well spent.

The pocket watch bug must have bitten. I found this 1886 Waltham at a flea fair, it seemed to go OK but the dealer (!) was clueless how to set the hands (as I was at the time) but it was mine for Â£30. That night I found the lever at 2 oâ€™clock and suddenly I was the proud owner of a 124 year old pocket watch that kept good time and, other than a minute chip on the glass, looked to be in very good condition.



















A week later the mainspring had broken, you can hear it scrapping around in the barrel when you try to wind the watch up. So, a long winded way of getting to a couple of questions. Is there a Watch Forum recognised pocket watch repairer in the UK that I should be using or, having already proved himself, do I return to my High Street jeweller? Secondly is Â£30 value for money for an non-silver cased Waltham?

Grateful for any help you can give to a very new owner and I hope this is the first watch, and post, of many.

Apologies, these photos are only 800 wide but they still look too big, I'll try harder the next time.

Rgds

John


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## BlueKnight (Oct 29, 2009)

Permission granted sailor...!

Great pics and introduction.


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## Seismic one (Jun 21, 2008)

The mainspring will be easy to obtain visit either of the web sites listed below, email the watch details most importantly the movement serial number and they will be able to supply a new mainspring usually from stock.

I have used both on many occasion with excellent results post to the UK is not a problem.

http://www.execulink.com/~lfoord/order.html

http://www.daveswatchparts.com/

Your watch details are -

Start: 10/1/1886 End: 1/31/1887

First: 3115001 Last: 3116000

Model: 1877 Name: Broadway

Material: U Grade: Broadway, NL

Size: 18 Size: 18

Plate: FP Plate: QT

Jewelling: ? Plain Jewels: 7

Balance: Exp. Bal: 0

Style: KW Style:

NL

Seismic


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## Shangas (Jan 27, 2008)

*Blows Bo'sun's pipe*










Welcome aboard, sir.

Congratulations on getting your grandfather's watch back. It's a real pretty one!


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## Mikrolisk (Jan 23, 2008)

Yeah, have a warm welcome here on board!

Cheers, Andreas


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## a6cjn (Oct 29, 2009)

Welcome aboard

Great first post

Lovely Benson example

Chris


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## JWL940 (Jun 11, 2010)

Thanks for the welcomes gents; itâ€™s confirmed, this is a friendly place.

Seismic â€" 2 very useful URLs, many thanks for those. It is good to know spares are readily available. I guess from the â€˜U Gradeâ€™ I havenâ€™t got myself a Rolls Royce of a watch but that doesnâ€™t surprise me as its case is built like a brick outhouse and the whole thing weighs over 170 grams. Oh, and we share another common interest â€" anything from Islay is my preferred tipple.

Shangas â€" Honoured with your pipes. Itâ€™s a first for me but Iâ€™m not worthy. I never made flag rank (my career was more on the Baldrick scale than Blackadder) and to add to the confusion I was Junior Service/Light Blue rather than Senior Service/Dark Blue. Maybe I should have opened my first post with â€˜Chocks Awayâ€™ rather than â€˜Permission to come on board!â€™

Rgds

John


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## Ted (Oct 29, 2009)

JWL940 said:


> Thanks for the welcomes gents; itâ€™s confirmed, this is a friendly place.
> 
> Seismic â€" 2 very useful URLs, many thanks for those. It is good to know spares are readily available. I guess from the â€˜U Gradeâ€™ I havenâ€™t got myself a Rolls Royce of a watch but that doesnâ€™t surprise me as its case is built like a brick outhouse and the whole thing weighs over 170 grams. Oh, and we share another common interest â€" anything from Islay is my preferred tipple.
> 
> ...


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## Ted (Oct 29, 2009)

I think the fact that it was your grandfather's pocket watch is very important and that you cared enough to have it fixed. Have you thought about purchasing an inexpensive thin chain, attaching it to a belt loop, and placing it in an empty pants pocket and using it.That can be a lot of fun. Or of course, you can get fancy and get a watch FOB(see previous post below) and dress up and use it. On the other side of the ocean, the Americans made some pretty fine railroad pocket watches years ago,too, but only buy one nice one fully restored. They can be quite accurate.


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## JWL940 (Jun 11, 2010)

Ted

I am one step ahead of you there. Granddad's Benson came with a chain but I have never really considered it an important part of the watch until now.









My days of wearing business suits are over (I think) and wearing it for day-to-day use would soon see it broken but I am keen on having it on display as a functional item somewhere in the house.

With that idea in mind I made a display stand for my Waltham.










As you can see aesthetic design is not my strong point! This thing is totally out of balance and proportion but until somebody tells me how to improve it it will stay in my study and out of the garage. That said the Waltham looks a lot better in it than the Benson.










Maybe I should start a thread titled, 'Watch Display Stands' to work alongside Roger's, 'Watch Chains & Fobs.'


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## Ted (Oct 29, 2009)

JWL940 said:


> Ted
> 
> I am one step ahead of you there. Granddad's Benson came with a chain but I have never really considered it an important part of the watch until now.
> 
> ...


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## Ted (Oct 29, 2009)

Actually, the watch stand looks great. Did you realize they used to hang these things in little wooden boxes from a hook with a door in the front and a little round hole in the door to see the watch? They hung them in the same upright position at night because I believe people thought they would keep better time in that position. There are lots of brass or silver (chromed) stands available that grip the sides of the watch when a screw is gently tightened from the bottom that display them nicely. Good job with the wood working.


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