Paging af please, or other watch people

I love car boot sales. Someone selling pocket watches, another person picked one up, inspected it, and handed it over to me. It's silver, quoth he, but not working. I grabbed it and two more.

May I have opinons on these two please? Age, are they decent, and how the heck to a) find keys for the silver one and b) OPEN the second one! I think the silver one, which is in the first set of pictures, is about 1900, but I'm no expert. No marks on it, other than Fine Silver and a serial number.

The second one is a Waterbury.

 

THe first one is Swiss, C. 1900 as you suspect and probably has a barred cylinder escapement movement, you'd have to open the inner back for me to see. You could buy a key star for a couple of quid, this has about 6 key sizes and covers most key wound watches.

The Waterbury might be a Waterbury duplex, I'd have to see the movement. The back opens with a knife blade, there should be a tiny lip top right as you look at the back, . try to insert a blunt knife blade and instead of levering it slide the blade round a little, this gradual action is less violent than a prising action.

 

Thank you! I shall go take a careful look at the Waterbury.

How do I open the inner door on the Swiss one, please?

 

Same way. Prise,

 

Done it - there's a little notch. The movement is beautiful. May need to wait till daylight for a photo.

 

OK, so here's the interior of the Swiss one. There's a mark of S F .

 

I love the back on the first watch. Is there a name for that type of pattern?

 

THe pattern is called engine turning.

That is a low grade Swiss cylinder escapement movement, notice there are no jewels fot the pivots. If the balance staff is busted there is no economical way to fix it, if the balance swings when you give the watch a twist, it may be workable. If the mainspring is busted there is no economical commercail way to fix it but an amateur could probably change the spring, assuming they valued their time at nothing.

S/F = slow/fast. Made for the British market. Alternative is A/R for Advance, Retard, the same thing in French.

Auction value about £10 to £20.

THe maker could be one of many but is really immaterial.

Cracking pictures by the way.

 

The Waterbury back and front likely screw off

 

That is possible, if there is no sign of a lip it is worth a try.

 

Hi,
F & S (fast or slow). I posted this early AM put forgot to hit post.
greg

 

Thank you all very much, especially af! I can see how people get fascinated by watches. This one is a low grade movement, yet really well made. I sat and stared at it for rather a while.

I'll have another go at the Waterbury.

I got these and a Sekonda for a grand total of eighteen dollars (£12). I know the Sekonda will sell - it's a 60s one with a train on it, and people like them. So, the other two were worth grabbing.

af, thank you for the compliment about the pictures. My trusty Panasonic Lumix as ever. They're great cameras, especially for macro work and low light. The first two were taken under a table lamp and the second on my back windowsill in daylight. Superb cameras, I've owned several.

 

I have a Lumix 8x and can't get a decent picture with it. What's the trick?

 

Mine is an FZ100. I suspect that may be the key: it has a proper Leica lens and the sort of heft that an SLR had. I use the macro setting and a bit of zoom for close up stuff, and play around with the settings a bit, so that it works rather like a "proper" camera.

Mind you, having said that, I've had decent results with an iPad!