Just got this watch back from the watchmaker today. I’ll be wearing it to Easter services tomorrow.
This is a Hamilton Grade 937 made in 1898 for Mr. H. V. Taylor of Waterloo, Iowa. It was a railroad approved watch at the time and Mr. Taylor was the watch inspector for the Illinois Central Railroad at that time. The watch was in need of cleaning and adjustment. Dave and I got into a conversation about hairsprings and how over cleaning eventually weakens them, causing the watch to lose time and necessitating addition of weight to the balance wheel to get the watch back in time.
Speaking of hairsprings and balance wheels, here’s one of three that were delivered today.
This balance wheel is for a Hamilton Grade 940 railroad watch. The spring is the hairspring and the diameter of the wire is that of a human hair. The screws attached to the balance wheel are weights. The balance wheel is the device that regulates the speed at which a watch runs and the hairspring must be vibrated to the balance wheel independently. This is a replacement for the balance wheel and hairspring in one of my Hamilton 936 watches. This part is one of the most expensive parts in a watch-this one was $110.00. My order had three of them, just in case one balance wheel might have a bad balance staff or issue. I inspected the pivots and the balance staffs all appear to be good.
Here’s the upper pivot of a balance staff as viewed through my watchmaker’s microscope. They’re so small that they have to be viewed through a microscope and require special tools to machine.
I’ll deliver the parts to the watchmaker next Saturday and hopefully he can get the watch back running properly.
