Horology 101

by Jack

This is a follow-up from a previous story on pocket watches last October. Contrary to popular belief, horology is not the study of ho’s. It’s the study of watches, sorry to disappoint.

I’ve always been impressed by the precision put into old pocket watches and that led me to a new hobby, collecting old watches.

You know, for something that had only one narrow function in life (keeping time) there was an amazing amount of technology that went into its delicate construction! It’s incredible to see how precise these things are, especially under intense magnification. The parts are often so small you actually do need a magnifying glass to see them.

The pocket watch, as we know it, began being mass produced in the early part of the 19th century in North America. Prior to that time they were made one at a time by a highly skilled craftsman.

CONT-

The pocketwatch was carried in combat by many leaders and soldiers during the civil war and they helped time coordinated attacks. With the expansion of the railroad, the chronograph became an indespensible tool to prevent train wrecks. But, it was not until almost 1900 that the humble appearing pocket watch was somewhat affordable to the middle income owner.

A couple of months ago I picked up my first pocket watch, an Elgin. It was a junker, but I got it just to tinker with, and see what makes it “tick”, pun intended. In a fairly short time.

In a short time I had acquired several old junkers from various sources, flea market, Salvation Army and eBay, none were working. The next thing I discovered was, these things are expensive to fix! This encouraged me to start learning how to do easy repairs so I might salvage a few of the better ones and keep the others for parts.

Mostly my pocket watch education came via the net, but also from studying some 100 plus year old watch repair articles. Almost all the good articles are as old as the watches I’m working on. The newest I own is c1935, an art deco pocket watch by Elgin.

You learn a lot by taking a pocket watch apart, then putting it back together, broken parts and all, does matter. And it helps to do it at least 3-4 times or until you get the feel of how pocket watches are generally constructed. The next challenge was to learn enough to tell what might be wrong with it. Some things that can stop a pocket watch cold are hard to find, like a piece micro sized piece of debris lodged on a tiny gear tooth or a build up of grime on bearing. It more often means the watch needs a good cleaning to be put back into working order.

My first formal education came by way of a book titled, Watch Repair for Beginners, this is pocket watch identification, collecting and the fine art of repairing. it was written in 1895 and it was tough reading, but necessary if I was going to have any chance of restoring some nice old pocket watches.

The begins with clock history, then on to the basic parts of all clocks and watches with diagrams, the basics of their functions, dis-assembly, cleaning and oiling and reassemble…the right way. No easy task to reassemble either, we’re talking lots of tiny parts and getting parts into areas with clearances less than the thickness of a human hair. Just a tiny bit of dust in the wrong place could cause the watch to work poorly. Then it gets into more complicated repairs..about 300 more pages worth. That’s where I’m headed next.

Two pages were devoted to oiling. Now, you might think oiling is the simplest thing you could do, just break out a little WD 40, give it a few squirts and done, right? Nah, it requires a very expensive oil, around $15 for a half ounce. I won’t bore you with what goes into it, but it’s a complicated formula. Then again it lasts 20 years or more.

Watch oil is applied with a small syringe so precisely and sparingly you could hardly see it. But, it’s critical that the application of oil must be done in such a way as to only coat the bearing surfaces; we’re talking are area that is less than 1/64th of an inch, yet there must be no build up of oil outside that area. Watc servicing and repair is tough, it’s why shops charge $90-100 per watch. Given the cost and complexity, it’s no wonder that mechanical watch repair is becoming a lost art. It takes years of experience and study to become a professional horologist. I’ll never make it, but I will be able to do simple things and more often that’s all it takes to save an old watch from being parted out.

There is a lot of history surrounding the pocket watch and that’s why it’s becoming a very collectable item. Abe Lincoln’s old Waltham is in the Smithsonian. The modern watch, far less costly and more accurate has virtually wiped out the traditional mechanical watch business and this has left a lot of really great old time pieces sitting in drawers or jewelry boxes just gathering dust. Unfortunately for collectors many of them were made with gold cases and with the spike in gold prices the cases were more valuable than the watch itself. This resulted in thousands upon thousands of gold cases being melted down…what a shame. Many of the movements were tossed or left for dead in a drawer. But, this is where people like me have a chance to score an expensive movement for pennies on the dollar and fit it into another case, more likely a gold plated or silver type.

This is a hobby that takes patients! Besides, taking years of practice, this is also a very tedious job and not everyone has the patients for it. As my horology books says, watch repair can not be hurried! How true. The books also goes into great detail how a repair area should be set up so that it’s quiet and free of interruptions. Imagine some watchmaker holding a tiny hairspring… trying to fit the end into a hold so small you need 4X glasses just to see it…then the dog or the kids come busting in screaming? Boink…the spring is never seen again.

As you also might expect, the work place should be well lighted with smooth surfaces, so when those tiny, irreplaceable, parts shoot off the end of your tweezers – you have at least a small chance of finding them. That’s my hobby… well what the hey, I could do worse, like knife juggling or diving from tall bridges.