Lately I’ve been into watches. Or at least I’ve been watching videos on YouTube about them. First it was about wrist watch collecting in general, just finding out how watch enthusiasts get excited about different watch brands. Casio fans are especially passionate comparing different model features and their history, part serious and part as a joke I believe.
Then I started watching various videos of wrist watch servicing and got a better understanding what makes a clock tick. Interesting stuff and for a moment I thought about starting such a hobby myself of dismantling mechanical watches (so far this has remained as a thought as reassembling them is a whole different story).
My grandfather’s pocket watch’s casing is made from nichrome (not a great material for people who have an nickel allergy).
At that point I remembered that I had my grand father’s pocket watch and decided to take it into service, as it didn’t run for maybe a 15 seconds before stopping no matter how I rewinded it. The watch itself had less value than the cost of the service, but was not meant to be sold so it didn’t really matter. It also isn’t visually glamorous as it was meant for blind people and they hardly care what it looks like as long as can feel the time with it. I just wanted it to work.
The dial was designed for blind people to “feel” the time.
The local watchmaker did a great job in bringing it back to life and luckily all the parts were still pretty much fine as is (the pallet fork’s jewels were a bit cracked but didn’t affect the movement), so no replacement parts were needed. It should run fine for the next 10-20 years if not left unwinded. The movement is Swiss (Auguste Reymond) and the watchmaker estimated it being made on the 60s, which surprised me as I didn’t expect pocket watches being made that late.
The movement itself is by Auguste Reymond (or ARSA for short). Fully manual with 15 jewels.
I have to admit, there is something fascinating about winding up a mechanical watch and just listening to it ticking away with precision through a quite complicated set of wheels. Brilliant engineering and kind of an “action results in reward” thing. Scary how transforming accurate time keeping proved to be for mankind. Quite hard to live without it, these hand held watches were the true first version of smart phones I guess.