Pocket Watch

[bernie weishapl]

Just as a side note I bought of ebay a 16s 15j Elgin pocket watch. Don’t know why I bought it especially when he said he dropped in on the concrete but couldn’t pass it up at $12.95. No other bids. It did have a pretty good gouge on the back and I could not get it to unscrew. I tried a mouse pad, non slip material and it would not budge. So I took and put hot glue around the back of the watch and stuck it down on a piece of ceramic I had out in the shop. Let it sit about 15 minutes. Lo and behold it came off. Nice thing is the hot glue will just peel off and leave no signs. Just thought I would pass that on.

[chris mabbott]

That’s a great idea Bernie, thanks for sharing. It’s always interesting to see how desperation creates ingenuity , I’ve also cursed & brought down fire and thunder when these case backs WON’T COME OFF 😆

[willofiam]

Great idea Bernie, this is perfect for the hints tips and tricks section, maybe our great and faithful moderator Paul could move it over there under “stuck pocket watch case back” or something like that, what would we do without him @Chris Mabbott wrote:

interesting to see how desperation creates ingenuity

ssssssooooo true

[bernie weishapl]

Thanks guys. Yep Chris I said shoot, darn and son of a gun several times. 😆 I can’t say I take full credit for it but it works. I was over in a town 60 miles east of us (pop 900) that had a little old watchmaker/jeweler who had a store there. Became a good friend of mine. He was the one that told me about hot glue trick and he said if you rolled up duct tape and put it on the back that worked to. I had to laugh when he said hot glue and duct tape fix anything. When I got to where I thought I couldn’t do watches anymore because of my eyes we would trade. When he got a clock in I would fix it in trade for him fixing a watch I had come in. Worked out well until he passed away last year at 90. He told me he started fixing watches at the young age of 14. He said he fixed a pocket watch he found in the trash and was hooked every since. 76 yrs he fixed watches right up until his death. He said he learned by doing and reading 2 books. Henry Fried’s watch book and De Carle’s watch book. He was a great man and boy there wasn’t much he didn’t know. I sat over there one day and watched him fix a small ladies wrist watch. Didn’t take me long to figure out I wasn’t fixing anything much smaller than 12S. 😆

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