jewel clamp on newer wristwatches

[c.kelly]

Hi All,
Recently read a post from member talking about difficulty in holding wheels in place while putting on plate. Well I ran into a similar difficulty yesterday working on ladies wristwatch. My son-in-law brought over a bag of old watches for me to look at and possibly repair for his dad to sell at flea markets. I sorted through them and decided what was worth fixing and what wasn’t. Also looked for something interesting to work on. One was a ladies Caravel small wristwatch. It seemed to be in good shape except small two fingered clamp on top of balance cock that holds lower jewel setting was missing. Watch would run fine dial side down but stop as soon as it was turned over. I’m not even sure of proper term for these small two fingered clamps. They are hooked on one side and other end releases to allow jewel to be removed. Anyway I searched watches case and found this small part. Worked with it about all afternoon trying to get it hooked back in place. Never did. Did try experiment with small piece of rodico to hold jewel in place just to check watch and it will now run fine in all positions. Still trying to figure out trick to put the clamp in place. Anyone got any ideas?

[Bob Tascione]

Hi C_Kelly,
That would be an Incabloc shock absorber which is one of many such setups. Incabloc is probably the most popular with KIF coming in second.
There is a trick to it. If you look closely you’ll see a groove or channel around the inside of the setting just above the cap jewel. This groove needs to be clear of the plate so that you can insert the “T” end into it’s recess. A jeweling tool like a Seitz is the best thing to use for pressing the setting out and back in but a staking set will work almost as well. The setting usually gives little resistance so it’s a fairly easy job. Just sounds hard here.

Hope this helps!
Please let us know how it goes.
Bob

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