First attempt at clock repair
Discussion
I know this is a watch forum but...
My mum asked me if I could fix my (long-departed) grandparents' clock so I chucked it in the car a couple of weeks ago and took it home. I've watched a few Wristwatch Revival videos on Youtube and have messed about with a Seiko so I reckoned I was qualified to have a go
My expert diagnosis skills were limited to 'it's not working' so I proceeded to take it to pieces and see if I could work out what was wrong. It's (I think) an early 20th century Duverdrey & Bloquel, which is what the lion stamped mark seemed to suggest.
The obvious fault was that it wouldn't take a wind, so I reseated the arbor in the mainspring and re-assembled it.
Nothing doing, so I had a close look at the balance mechanism: It would wind up, which was a step in the right direction.
It looked like the balance wheel shaft and the escapement wheel shaft were both bent and/or broken so at that point I almost gave up, as the repair cost would have exceeded the value of the clock by some margin. I spent a few evenings looking on eBay and came across a replacement balance mechanism (is that what they're called?) that looked like it might fit with some modification. I bought it and it appeared about a week later.
I fitted it but couldn't get it running. When I looked closely it seemed that some of the spiky bits were bent so with some trepidation I bent them back into shape, oiled the crystals and bushes, and gave it all a bit of a clean.
The hands were flapping about so I disassembled the dial and pushed them back on firmly.
It seems to have worked! It's been sitting on my bookshelf for about 3 hours and seems to be keeping good time. A great diversion from doing anything more useful on a bank holiday...
As you were - back to the Rolex popcorn debate!
My mum asked me if I could fix my (long-departed) grandparents' clock so I chucked it in the car a couple of weeks ago and took it home. I've watched a few Wristwatch Revival videos on Youtube and have messed about with a Seiko so I reckoned I was qualified to have a go
My expert diagnosis skills were limited to 'it's not working' so I proceeded to take it to pieces and see if I could work out what was wrong. It's (I think) an early 20th century Duverdrey & Bloquel, which is what the lion stamped mark seemed to suggest.
The obvious fault was that it wouldn't take a wind, so I reseated the arbor in the mainspring and re-assembled it.
Nothing doing, so I had a close look at the balance mechanism: It would wind up, which was a step in the right direction.
It looked like the balance wheel shaft and the escapement wheel shaft were both bent and/or broken so at that point I almost gave up, as the repair cost would have exceeded the value of the clock by some margin. I spent a few evenings looking on eBay and came across a replacement balance mechanism (is that what they're called?) that looked like it might fit with some modification. I bought it and it appeared about a week later.
I fitted it but couldn't get it running. When I looked closely it seemed that some of the spiky bits were bent so with some trepidation I bent them back into shape, oiled the crystals and bushes, and gave it all a bit of a clean.
The hands were flapping about so I disassembled the dial and pushed them back on firmly.
It seems to have worked! It's been sitting on my bookshelf for about 3 hours and seems to be keeping good time. A great diversion from doing anything more useful on a bank holiday...
As you were - back to the Rolex popcorn debate!
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