Elgin 18s 17 Jewel for Dave from Wisconsin #66

Serviced Elgin 17 Jewel, replaced hair spring collet

[@stuartlockwood9645]

Hi James, beautiful job, on a magnificent pocket watch, and the close up filming is superb, I've never seen better. Many thanks for your efforts, and the time it took to produce these videos, fascinating. Best wishes, Stuart UK.

[@jamesmartin5370]

Thanks Stuart, Our relative's are from Sussex, they left there in 1840

[@larrykelly2838]

Great restoration and cleaning.

[@avianfish8732]

Thats a lovely watch. Nice to watch an excellent craftsman.

[@DavoShed]

I’m thinking how are you possibly going to saw that hair spring taper pin off. With a hair spring taper pin saw of course. 🤠 You are right! You can’t have to many tools. I have been reluctant to view one of your watch videos as I knew it would be impossibly small. Your steady hands are unbelievable, well done.

[@jamesmartin5370]

These old pocket watches are a breeze compared to a small ladies watch.... Unbelievable the high quality, precision and smallness of the parts yet they were made such a long time ago..

[@DavoShed]

@@jamesmartin5370 I can’t believe how they make those tiny screws. Although I fixed my iPhone a while back and those tiny screws are still around. I’m enjoying all your videos. 🤠

[@francisvoet3897]

It's a pity you live so far away otherwise you could restore my grandfathers watch. You are the best.

[@jamesmartin5370]

Thanks Francis, Yes I am in Washington State. I have had several people ship their time pieces. So far haven't had any difficulties them being shipped. Hope you find some support in your area. Best Regards

[@EvenStarMN]

Great. I love Elgin P watches.

[@Landrew0]

It truly feels like being there in the shop.

[@max.m.8873]

Great work! Beautiful watches👍👏

[@julianbizdoaca1546]

Fascinating man!!!! Love to watch you people doing this

[@billg125]

Thankyou James Interesting technique ..... escape wheel & pallet fork in top plate prior to fitting

[@jamesmartin5370]

I have assembled them several different ways, upside down works ok too. The pallet fork can be a set back in these full plate movements.

[@theQdomain]

Just found your channel a couple of days ago. These are great videos. Love the rubber bands while positioning the pivots. I always feel like I need a third hand when I am doing it. Especially on clocks. Thanks for sharing.

[@jamesmartin5370]

Thanks Norm, Yes the bands work great sometimes, they give a steady gentle pressure and frees up one hand for other items.

[@twentypdrparrott694]

I found a hunter case Elgin just like this many years ago for my sister-law to give to my bother.

[@jamesmartin5370]

There were some beautiful case work done back in the days of Victorian era...

[@Johnmiller-gm9lm]

Thank you

[@sjurgabriel]

What a nice watch! Some skillful and steady handed work on that spring collet. Impressing. Let´s hope the owner keeps it off the beach for the future :-)

[@jamesmartin5370]

Now that you mention it, it did look like beach sand.

[@davidwilliams1383]

Great grandpa did concrete work. I can only assume that's where the sand came from.

[@twentypdrparrott694]

I forgot to mention the price was $300 at a pawn shop

[@tveksam8347]

Nice to see Mozart in watchmaking again! 😀

[@denisblasius3946]

Bon travail

[@duanelarocque1541]

Excellent video. I’m amazed at how many of the components had the serial number. I didnt know that they did that back then. I am curious what you used to clean the parts.

[@jamesmartin5370]

I've always used L & R cleaning products.

[@philipbrailey]

Any reason you’re not wearing those funny little half rubber gloves . Nice video. My head is spinning a little lol

[@jamesmartin5370]

Thank You, Tough to pin a hairspring wearing those, I prefer a good set of tweezers.

[@grecko12345]

James, did you remove and clean the mainspring? Do you have to lubricate mainspring itself for a movement like this? Or do you just lubricate the mainspring arbor?

[@jamesmartin5370]

Yes, removed, cleaned and oiled with synthetic. It had one of the newer stainless/white metal springs in it already. The dry lube was not in good shape, had thick black deposits on areas stuck on the spring and was catching when I let it down, it worked out just fine. I always lube the mainsprings in these and also the arbor pivots.

[@maestromecanico597]

Nice piece and nice job. One anomaly: I don't recall seeing a lever set movement in a hunter case where the bezel had to be removed to access the lever. Is that factory?

[@jamesmartin5370]

Opening for lever in bezel is slightly large for the lever , the lever had somehow slipped past the bezel. Movement is factory, back when these movements were sold they were sold separate from case, customer chose the desired case and the movement was fitted to the what ever case was purchased.

[@kevinwallis2194]

OK, i have to say i like how you do repairs. My question is if you can recomend anyone in southern oregon thats good at repairs. The closest one to me in grants pass is bad and has a bad reputation. He couldnt figure out how to fix my synchronome, and wouldnt even sell me any taper pins.

[@jamesmartin5370]

Unable to help with any references to repair persons in Oregon.

[@deeranfoxworthy6069]

That is a gorgeous watch! Beautiful work as well! The mechanism uncovered at 15:36, is that some sort of older self-winding mechanism?

[@jamesmartin5370]

Before the 1900s, it was fashionable for men to wear pocket watches that fancy dials, they were sure nice looking. The item at 15:30 is an adjustable movement holder,. Its spring loaded, you rotate it to open it wider then mount the movement in it, the spring load on it keeps it snug against the movement. To take the movement out, you rotate it to the open direction and it releases the movement.

[@ronaldlinkenhoker5705]

Maybe someone used this as a railroad standard watch. Sand from the locomotives and coal dust from everywhere on the railroad.

[@jamesmartin5370]

Tough to say, its probably the worse stuff you would want in a nice pocket watch.

[@ronaldlinkenhoker5705]

We old railroaders were really proud of our watches.

[@robertnealy9891]

Do you repair old Waltham pocket watches?

[@jamesmartin5370]

Yes

[@ИгорьПопков-ц3м]

Посторонним звук часов надоедает

[@jamesmartin5370]

Информация принята к сведению, спасибо. Это из тестовых часов клиентов. В настоящее время я использую фильтр для уменьшения шума.

[@markgrant8771]

goldminers watch

[@christopherjulianus2214]

00000

[@vincentcino455]

Ticking clocks in the background very annoying. '

[@jamesmartin5370]

The room I do this work in is small, I do a fairly large volume of time pieces, to test these mechanical clocks and watches they are run them for two weeks before returning to owner.

[@kevinwallis2194]

I feel the opposite. Even having that come form someone tells me you must not really be a fan of timepieces. The first video i seen of james had me trying to listen to them. Granted im used to it because i have 3 running in my bedroom all the time.

[@jamesmartin5370]

@@kevinwallis2194 Sometimes I have over a dozen running in here, my grandkids say it the haunted room.

[@samshfo]

Easy now. That’s music!

[@abastard]

Dad & the kids at the beach. Dad: Okay kids, what have you done with my pocket watch? Kids: It's a treasure hunt dad, we buried it in the sand. Dad: Words muttered under his breath, that can not be repeated here...

[@jamesmartin5370]

Very good possibility

[@davidwilliams1383]

James, you are a master of your craft.

[@jamesmartin5370]

Thanks David. Looked like someone who used this watch worked around sand blasting equipment or visited the desert often, the clear sand particles were everywhere.

[@davidwilliams1383]

Yes, my grand and great grand fathers worked concrete road and building construction.