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Thread: Smiths Pocket Watch

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    Default Smiths Pocket Watch

    I was at a mates recently and somehow the conversation turned to clocks and watches, as I have a few (4) and my great grandfather and his brother were watchmakers/jewellers/opticians who emigrated to Australia from Cornwall.
    My mate said he had a pocket watch he found when he was a kid back in the late 70's and went and dug it out.



    It's a Smiths Pocket Watch, definitely not an expensive watch, in fact they were known as "dollar watches" due to their cheap mass production (I don't think they were actually sold for a dollar though). Looking at the picture, you would probably think that is quite old, but it's not. Smith manufactured these watches up until 1980 !

    My mate found this one on the side of the road in about 1977 he thinks. He tried winding it at the time and it didn't work, so he kept it and put it in his box of treasures. I said I would have a crack at fixing it for him if he wanted, which he did.

    These watches are now quite popular and are pulling quite reasonable money. I would put a price of $200 - $300 on this now it is working. Because they were so cheaply made, when they broke, people threw them out and didn't bother fixing them. Even if they kept them, they are very prone to wearing out. See the picture below and I will tell and show you why.



    Even if you don't know anything about watches, you have likely seen or heard that they have "jewels". As an example, seeing "17 Jewels" written on a watch face is not unusual. But what exactly does this mean ?

    Watches have a number of pivot points, such as the point you see under the number 76. Watches of course have moving parts, and in each of these points sits a metal pin attached to a cog. As with anything "metal on metal" , you get wear.
    So to stop these points wearing out, they use "jewels", which are synthetic rubies and sapphires that have excellent capabilities of lasting and not wearing for long periods of time.

    These "dollar watches" contain no jewels at all.......what you are seeing at these points is metal on metal and of course after a period of time they will wear out to the point that there will be sufficient "slop" (movement) that will stop all the tiny gears lining up and the watch will stop working.

    This particular watch is not too bad at all. You will notice the number 76 , and yes, it was made in 1976 to the joy of mate who is a mad Hawthorn supporter and they won the Premiership that year. My mate found it in about 1977, so it had run for say up to 2 years at most ( adding a little time as of course he cant remember the exact date he found it )

    I pulled the back off it to see what the problem was. It didn't take long, you couldn't wind it up because the main spring had broken. If you look at the picture below, the large round cog is called the Barrel and inside it, is the Mainspring.



    When removed from the watch, the barrel separates in to 2 pieces and the mainspring is inside. See the picture below showing the broken mainspring, half in one section and the other half in the other.



    I hunted around for a replacement spring, but was unsure of it's exact size. I was just about to reach out to a couple of watch spring sellers on Ebay as they would likely know, when I found someone selling new/old stock.......an original brand new mainspring in barrel ! Wow, too easy for sure. But unfortunately his advert said he had sold out But I contacted him anyway, and he still had a few for himself and was happy to sell me one. It cost me 16 pounds, just under $30AUD delivered.

    So out with the old..........



    And in with the new...........




    And after approximately 44 years of sitting in a box and not running, she is back to life and ticking away nicely. It's running a little slow so far, so I will have to adjust it before giving it back. You can see the slow/fast adjuster in the last photo.

    I am probably the first person in my family that has fixed a pocket watch since my great grandfather. He is pictured below, circa 1916, in Warracknabeal, Victoria working on a pocket watch just as I was earlier - 105 years later.



    So if you come across any of these watches in good condition, they are worth some reasonable money. Smiths also brought them out in Collecatable series as well, with cartoon characters etc, so those ones can be worth some good money.

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