Poising A 6s Waltham Pocket Watch From 1886

Hello everyone, welcome back to another video. Today on the bench I have a really nice six size Waltham. This watch was made around the tail end of 1886, and the case is made of coin silver. I put this watch on the time grapher to get a general idea of the condition, and it's got some pretty severe poise issues. When the timing is zero to dial up, pendant up was 109 seconds fast per day, and pendant left was 49 seconds slow. The amplitude was consistent across the vertical positions, so I think the pivots and hairspring are fine. Let's decase the movement now and get started on the service. I'll start with the hour wheel. It's in good condition. This is actually the only watch I've seen with an hour wheel serialized, so that's pretty neat. And as you can see, it does match the serial number on the movement. The minute wheel's next. It's in good shape. Next I'll remove the cannon pinion. It also looks fine. The second wheel's bushing is slightly loose, but that's easy enough to repair with a staking set. Now I'll remove the keyless works, which are held in by this retaining plate. This is the intermediate wheel for the time setting. It's made of brass and is in good condition. This is the intermediate wheel for the winding function. It's made of steel and is also in good condition. Here's the crown wheel, which also looks good. The setting lever is next, and it looks fine. That's the dial side disassembled, so I'll start on the gear train now. The watch is running fast overall, so I'll keep that in mind during the poising process. I'll remove the balance assembly first. Before you poise a watch, it's always important to make sure the pivots and hairspring are in good condition. They both look great on this balance, so this one is good to go. Next I'll remove the pallet fork bridge, as well as the pallet fork. These are called poised pallet forks. The idea of being a balanced pallet fork will make the movement more efficient. In reality these actually hamper efficiency, but not by any appreciable amount. Now I'll remove the gear train plate. These lighter spots are from old oil damaging the plating. Cleaning will help brighten them, but they'll always be there. Other than that, the bridge is in good condition. All of the jewels look good as well. The gear train looks fantastic. This watch has been well taken care of over the years. The winding wheel looks to be in good condition as well. There's a bit of excess oil on the ratchet wheel, but otherwise it looks good. Let's take a look at the mainspring now. It's looking pretty set, so I'm going to replace it. And that's the watch fully disassembled. I'll clean everything and start poising the balance wheel now. This is a static poising tool, and it's important that the jaws are as level as you can get them. Right now they're pretty much perfect, so I can put the balance on and start the poising process. Static poising tools almost always have either ruby or agate jaws, these being the latter. They provide a smooth hard surface that's relatively frictionless to help aid in the poising process. Now with a light puff of air, the balance will start rotating and naturally rest with the heaviest area facing down. It looks like the timing screws near the roller jewel are the heaviest right now. Since this watch is running fast with the regulator centered, I'm going to add a timing washer to the opposite screw, which is currently at the top. I'll continue to repeat that process until the balance fails to rest in one spot consistently. As the balance gets closer and closer to being in poise, the swings will become less exaggerated and more lazy looking. At this point I'd say this balance will probably have a total delta under 30 seconds per day, so I'm going to put the hairspring back on and put it on the timegrapher. If the watch needs more poising, it's at the point now that dynamic poising can be used. Dial up and down look identical, and it looks like the total delta is under 20 seconds per day. Here's the movement, fully serviced, and here's the watch cased and completed. Thank you all for watching. I hope you enjoyed the video, and I'll see you next time.