Help never before seen ballance

Are you certain that it’s plastic and not alloy?

It’s a cylinder type escapement and they’re a PITB to change or find parts for.. Must be a euro watch from around 1900-1910 something..
They were sold, generally, as a low cost watch, kinda like a bic lighter, they break, you chuck it, as the cost for repair outweighed the value of the watch.

The pivot sinks were usually brass/steel, or a brass/tin plate that acted as a cap jewel.

You need a special punch or punch set to remove the cylinder plug..

The balance is, I believe, a punched out type that was poised by small holes drilled on the underside, if poised at all.

Good luck in finding parts, very very difficult. It’s something that you’ll have to make parts for unfortunately..

You see this a lot, when someone would purchase a pocket watch, it was usually at a jewelers or some such shop. You could choose a movement and a case individually.

In most cases (no pun intended) the buyer would choose an inexpensive movement, and a more expensive case. Obviously it was the case that was on display when worn and not the movement.

I think you’re right, I would do the same, restoring the watch would not be worth your expense as its value ( unless someone’s family heirloom ) is not high as a collectible.

Chris is correct, it is a cylinder escapement and it will be a brass balance wheel but it is a very strangley shaped balance wheel! As both Bernie and Chris have stated, you cant just buy parts off the shelf, these things were all hand finished so even if you did find a similar movement for spares, nothing would fit without some work to make it fit. The other thing to point out is even if you did get the pivot fixed on the cylinder,as it is un-jewelled, all of the watch pivots will need burnishing and I can pretty much guarantee it will need at least a couple of bushes.
As you have already said, use the case for something nice and put the movement in your “to sell on ebay” pile
Paul.

Very strange balance indeed. Wonder why it has teeth like a pin pallet escape wheel.

Jan

Just to make sure you know what you are taking on, this is not an ordinary balance staff, it is a cylinder. It is a hollow tube that hast two “slots” cut into it. The pivots are small bits of pivot steel which are very gently tapered and pushed in to the cylinder each end. The edges of the slots have to be ground to a fairly precise angle or it will not work well on the escape wheel.
It is not impossible, just bloody difficult. If you have never made anything like this before I would suggest you do some research first as there is more to these cylinders than first meets the eye.
Oh, and I forgot to mention the inside of the cylinder needs to be polished too.
If you do decide to give it a try I wish you all the luck in the world. I would love nothing more than for you to be successful and prove me wrong
Paul.

Where were they made? I have never seen one before but the people on your side of the world seem to have seen at least a few of them. A hollow staff? I never heard of that ever. Wow, some movement designer had a few unique ideas when they were thinking about this. Designing a balance wheel that can be manufactured with a hit from a stamping press is definitely a cost cutting idea. A progressive die in a press could easily stamp out 120 ready to assemble balance wheels per minute. As cheap as it is, a lot of thought went into designing that thing.
david