# New Member Pocket Watch Help



## Tortoise (Jul 23, 2009)

I have been collecting pocket watches for about 6 months. My first pocket watch was a G.S.T.P. that I purcased in an old junk shop / House clearnce shop in Rhyl.

Since then I have started to build a collection. I have been purchasing pocket watches from Antique Fairs, Local collectors/trades and ebay. I decided I wanted to try to collect pocket watches made by the Lancashire Watch Company and Railway pocket watches. I have a few of the LWC pocket watches that were produced for J.G Graves, H Samual, John Forrest and others companies because these are usally a lot cheaper than one's with the logo are name of the company on.

Most of the pocket watches I have are the old english silver cased pocket watches. I have leant a lot about the Lancashire Watch Company and managed to track down that old book about the history of the company. e.g (THE LANCASHIRE WATCH COMPANY 1899-1910)

I am having difficulty trying to remove the dust cover from these old pocket watches. I can open the case and the movement moves up from the 6 but I can not remove the dust cover. I think I am being too careful. I need to build a knowledge of what to look for when buying pocket watches but the is not much information available on the internet. what would be the best books to buy.


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## Shangas (Jan 27, 2008)

www.pocketwatcher.org or www.pocketwatchsite.com ought to have some info on what to look for and how to buy vintage/antique pocket-watches. They certainly helped me.


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## Seismic one (Jun 21, 2008)

Dear Tortoise,

Many of the old silver cases appear to have a dust cover but is in fact an integral part of the case but made to appear as such. before attempting to open the dust cover flip open the movement and look at the dust cover from inside the case if no join is apparent then it is a one piece design. This practise was prevalent when the watch was a key wind

with the hole through the dust cover for the key.


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## tixntox (Jul 17, 2009)

Seismic one said:


> Dear Tortoise,
> 
> Many of the old silver cases appear to have a dust cover but is in fact an integral part of the case but made to appear as such. before attempting to open the dust cover flip open the movement and look at the dust cover from inside the case if no join is apparent then it is a one piece design. This practise was prevalent when the watch was a key wind
> 
> with the hole through the dust cover for the key.


I have some pocket watches which are opened with a sharp tool (get one as they are worth their weight in gold) and some open by unscrewing. I occasionally run a drop of lighter fluid around the join line on the threaded ones to remove the accumulated dirt/sweat/fluff etc.


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## tyrianplum (Apr 3, 2009)

Tortoise said:


> I have been collecting pocket watches for about 6 months. My first pocket watch was a G.S.T.P. that I purcased in an old junk shop / House clearnce shop in Rhyl.
> 
> Since then I have started to build a collection. I have been purchasing pocket watches from Antique Fairs, Local collectors/trades and ebay. I decided I wanted to try to collect pocket watches made by the Lancashire Watch Company and Railway pocket watches. I have a few of the LWC pocket watches that were produced for J.G Graves, H Samual, John Forrest and others companies because these are usally a lot cheaper than one's with the logo are name of the company on.
> 
> ...


The person that you need to talk to about the Lancashire Watch Company, is David Griffiths BA, at Prescot Museum. He is at the moment writing a new book on the Company. You can e-mail him at [email protected] David is THE MAN on anything about this company.


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## tixntox (Jul 17, 2009)

See if you can get hold of any of Donald De carle's books on Practical Watch Repairing and Practical watch adjusting. I find them invaluable, especially if you intend to start servicing your own.


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## ValvesRule (May 20, 2009)

> I can open the case and the movement moves up from the 6 but I can not remove the dust cover.


There is another interpretation of this, other than that the "dust cover" is the Dome.

Tortoise, is it a Brass Cover which you cannot remove, Directly Attached to the Movement? If so, then the Method is as follows:

There should be a "C"-shaped Device attached to the Dust Cover (actually called the "Dust Cap"), probably Deep Blue or Black, and assosciated with two Steel Pins - one at either end. There may be a third "Stud" in the middle. This is the Lock for the Cap.

You need to move it so that it "turns" anticlockwise (viewed from the Back) inside the circumference of the Cap (i.e. it does not pivot on any pin; but merely slides past the pins, rotating about the centre of the movement).

The lock should move in a general direction towards VI. Once the Lock clears the Pins, the Motion will suddenly become Very Free, then it will Hit the End of its Travel. You should then be able to Lift the Cap off the Movement, and find that the Pins are mounted on the Back Plate.

This System was later replaced by Screwing the Movement into the Case. The Movement was then Accessed by Lifting a second Cover (Cuvette) underneath the Back Cover. There was no access to the Movement from the Front of the Watch, except to Remove it after the Screws had been Withdrawn from the Back. I believe that This is what Seismic One is referring to.

Both of these Forms are called "Consular Cases".

(It may have helped if You'd posted Photographs. We like Photographs.)


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