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On day 73 of the virtual pocket watch museum, in responce to Tonny's posting
of a steel cased IWC Pocket Watch, I shared this this steel cased watch with
you, and laid out a challenge to Jeroen. In short, can we save this bit of IWC
history and restore it ?
Being the watchmaker he is, he accepted the challenge.
During the life time of the project, come good times or bad (as is the case
with most restoration projects that start out like this), we will share the
progress, trials and tribulations with you.
This will be in the form of a photo essay.
Day # 4 - What goes up must come down
... or rather, what gets stripped down, must be built up again!
So after we made the descision to continue with the restoration in a phased
manner, I went ahead and sent off the original white and blue enamel dial for
restoration, and delivered to Jeroen an orginal IWC black and white enamel
dial for fitting to the watch in the interim.
The case (which we decided to not sand down to a smooth unpitted finish) is in
hand, and Jeroen has started the surface treatment of that (which will be the
basis probably for the Day # 5 post.
The Master watchmakeras we saw in Day # 3 had completed the strip down and
cleaning of the movement. Individual parts were checked and where necessary
replaced from spare parts taken from a doner movement. A picture says a
thousand words - so I will let this photos here do most of the talking.
Barrel Re-Assembly
Note the Maltese Cross ready to go back on.
Bridge Sub Assembly
Notice how clean and polished (back to original IWC manufactury specification)
each individial part is.
Barrel re-installed, and drive train build up
Note the winding stem mechanisim too, at the bottom right
Tools of the Trade
being put to work...
Pallet Fork going in...
And of course secured in place with it 's own top bridge plate
Now we get to the delicate matter of the beating heart - reassembly of the
balance wheel and regulation mechanisim
All together now
Open Heart Surgery - the moment of truth
Balance Wheel fully mounted and regulation arm in place
OK - all done this side. Let 's head over to the dial side...
Who said, there's nothing hidden under the dial?
Need to get these seated properly
This photo above is a good place to take note of the 3 holes where the dial
legs pass through the main plate (and their individual retaining spring clips)
Now, lets fit the (tempoary) replacement dial
See post imeadiately below here for more images of Day # 4
