Sunday 27 March 2011

THE COLLECTION: Unknown Tissot movement

This is a movement I bought a few years ago. It is a ladies pocket watch movement, something that makes it ideal for a wristwatch project :-)
Even before disassembly, it appeared to be of very good quality. The layout is typically Swiss.

There was a surprise under the dial, the Tissot name. However, I have been advised that this is not
the Tissot. I would be very obliged if anybody could throw some light on this Tissot.

On barrel bridge we can see this 'HB' logo. Also, the regulator is marked 'fast-slow' as against 'avance-retard' which was more common on the continent.


It is evidently a good quality movement. It has a Breguet over-coil hairspring. The balance, lever & escape wheel pivots are capped on both sides.


An interesting feature is the side, English type of lever. This indicates an early date. Perhaps before the entire Swiss industry adopted the anchor escapement.
Every part reeks of quality. even parts that would only be seen by a watchmaker have been carefully finished.




This movement is fortunate to still have the Geneva stop-work intact. This is a feature little understood by watchmakers & was generally discarded during servicing.

The only real problem this movement had was with the balance. As you can see in the picture below, the roller table was miss-aligned and, indeed, loose.
... an easy fix on the staking set.

I hope you enjoyed reading about this beautiful movement. One day I will make a nice dress watch using it :-)

Aditya

Thursday 17 March 2011

Finishing small parts

I have spent the last few weeks finishing various small parts that go into the movement. I want 02 to be absolutely perfect.

Below you can see some of the parts from the keyless work. All the parts have had their flanks & top surfaces straight grained and edges bevelled. The screw heads have been polished.

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Part of the cannon pinion & centre pinion will be seen through the minute hand hub. These have been polished too.

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The movement screws have had their heads & ends polished. The ends will be visible from the dial side. The flanks of the screw heads have been straight grained.
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Here are the dial markers. The heads have been domed & mirror polished. The flanks of the heads are straight grained.

The ends have been polished as well.
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The winding wheel has been skeletonised, bevelled & straight grained. The click & transmission wheel have straight grain finish on the top surfaces. I think the wheels will look interesting when the watch is wound since a straight grain finish changes with the light.

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The end of the barrel arbour.
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The balance spring stud holder (I have left the regulator alone since finishing the top surface will disturb the curb pins).
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The crown, castle & intermediate wheels from the keyless work.
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and finally, the barrel & motion works.

I hope all this effort pays off :-)

Aditya