A Good Day

[chris mabbott]

I picked up a colleague today who delivered my little haul of PWs that I had delivered to the office in order to save about $450 in rip off USPS international shipping fees and that ridiculous ebay GPS program where they charge you the earth for postage, around $56 – $70 AND pre-charge you duty! Saints preserve us 😆

Anyway, I couldn’t wait to drop him off after lunch, obviously so he could sleep after his 18 hour trip I’m a kind soul 😆 And so that I could play and snap a few pics… Oh baby, my favorite…

Good news is that they were all supposed to NOT run, but 4 of them do and one does not.. great..

OK anyone up for a game of …… DIAGNOSE THE PROBLEM BEFORE TAKING IT APART ??

The one that doesn’t work, you wind it up, there is tension on the mainspring, as in you can feel that it’s not broken, but after the first wind, the train spins freely and the mainspring whirs back to the unwind position… ANY GUESSES

Here’s a little group of my preciousnesses 😆

[arutha]

1. Missing pallet jewel/jewels or complete pallet.
2. Missing any wheel in the train or one of the wheels has become un-riveted from its arbor.

Nice haul

[willofiam]

Hey Chris, how do you know the train spins freely? William

[chris mabbott]

Paul my English brother, thanks for catching the ball

Your diagnosis have been recorded ….

[chris mabbott]

William, when you wind it, just one turn, it immediately unwinds as you release the knob and you can hear the train spinning

[chris mabbott]

Here’s the poorly thing, but it fills a hole in my Hampden/Deuber collection, a Hampden 18s railway model from 1891, a hard to find sidewinder from this company. These watches were the boys back in the day, the height of technology.
This one I feel is pretty well as it should be, with the goth dial, train track seconds margin, matching goth movement, although I think the case “may” be original to this watch as I believe this type of case was also produced in the late 1800’s – 1920s ? It has a nice passenger train engraved, faintly, on the reverse.

Hampden sidewinders/hunting movements are difficult to find because after the “accident” they were not considered in the new regulations as railway pieces. So I’m sure that the majority of them were just scrapped or forgotten and discarded, much as we do today with our old mobile phones, video games, 8 tracks 😆
I’m sure those guys never considered that 120 years+ later that their obsolete watches would become collector items.

[willofiam]

O.k. that would rule out a click or click spring issue, I am with Paul on this one but I am thinking of only one pallet missing or broken, only because you can get some pressure on the mainspring, when it gets to be enough it will unlock to the broken side. does it stop at all if you gave the movement a twist and created action to the balance? William

[tmac1956]

Dude:

Where are you getting all of these toys? Most of my stuff is total crap.

I am envious!

Man what a nice selection!
Tom

[chris mabbott]

William – No sir, it does not hold at all, just freely spins when you let go of the knob

Tom my friend, I spend countless hours hunting the web, they used to say that someone who was a good pool player had spent a wasted youth, but what about us collectors 😆

[willofiam]

I agree with Tom, very nice, job well done from the hunt, and yes it takes time to find these things, I imagine your getting decent prices also as it sounds like you usually get them in need of repair.
Now, @Chris Mabbott wrote:

just freely spins when you let go of the knob

if you have to let go of the crown to have it spin then I am back to the click issue, If you hold the crown and give the watch a twist does it start to run?
OH and thank you for the brain exercising, I am in need of beefing up the mental strength. I like this idea its a great way to learn. William

[chris mabbott]

OK, here’s John C Duebers answer to the challenge, some may even say, the call. He was a character and it seems he was always up for the fight, never one to lay down and quit, he used the same model, basically, and added 2 more jewels, made it an open face and added “Special Adjusted” to enter his creation into the new requirement market. Do we know exactly what “Special Adjusted” means? Frankly I don’t 😆 but it was enough to be qualified as a RR watch under the new regs.

Hampdens are pretty underrated by many collectors, but they are extremely good timekeepers & tough as nuts, that along with the interesting history of JCD, make them, at least for me, one of the most fascinating of the American PW manufacturers.

This one, I think it’s funny, it’s the same thing as above, just that now it qualified, freakin hilarious that guy, the bombasity For me, that is what makes the American watches so damn interesting, there was a war raging, a time war, kinda like Dr Who, Paul knows who that is

[chris mabbott]

William, err, hang on, I think you’re brain exercising moi 😆

But no sir, the balance does not swing when it is wound, well, I can only wind it one turn, because it immediately unwinds when I release the knob to make another turn, then the train spins, but not the balance ❗

[david pierce]

Chris,
Check to see if the click spring is able to keep tension on the ratchet wheel.
david

[arutha]

William and David,
if it was a click issue the spring would just instantly unwind as soon as you released the crown and would not set the train running. There is power getting through to the train and for it to run freely means the issue has to be in the train, there is nothing to stop the train which is either the pallets damaged/missing, escape wheel missing or a wheel has become loose on its arbor. Easiest way to determine if there is a click issue is to remove the movement and put a piece of pegwood against the 3rdor 4th wheel and see if the click works when you wind the mainspring, if the the wheels are still spinning this would suggest a loose wheel on its arbor.
Paul.

Edit. after reading what Chris has said again, that he can only get one turn on winding before it unwinds, I think it could be a combination of click spring and train issue. If the spring is unwinding that quickly then that would indicate a click issue but even so, some of the power is getting through to the train and, because of the way the train is behaving, it would suggest one of the issues I have advised of. If the watch was wound to full power, the click gave out and let all that power through the train I am betting that rather than bending teeth and jamming up there was a wheel in the train that had a poor rivet to its arbor and with the sudden rush of power is now just spinning on its arbor allowing the rest of the train to run.

[chris mabbott]

Hey, this is getting good LOL

To be honest, I was thinking the same as Paul, broken pallet stones, that was my first thought as it isn’t an uncommon occurrence, but now the shadow of doubt is looming over me noggin

I haven’t looked at this movement either, because it only arrived yesterday, so with all your great participation and possible cause suggestions, I may have to do a quick strip, because now I’m curious too haha. Problem is that my area is full of mill parts.

Paul, what are you talking about coming to see me to learn watches? Looks like I should come and spend a week with you dewd LOL

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