Got a surprise in the mail this morning, my swiss-made Baltic pocket watch movement! I noticed the extra weight of it when I took it out of the envelope, not like the regular pocket watch movements I've worked on.

Couldn't wait to get it to the bench and really see what I have! Above you can see the hands are removed in this pic.

I tried winding the mainspring, and it went so far, then slipped. Broken mainspring, but winds enough I can check to see how the watch part runs. And, the balance took off and we have a heartbeat! The balance has a little wobble to it, so I put it on the timegrapher and was impressed with the time track; even spacing and all the good stuff, except it was running fast. On the pic above, the winding stem is at 3:00; the second hand is in the black hole in the plate to the right of the hour wheel. The chronograph hand is in the center of the hour wheel, and is in good shape.



After playing with it for awhile, I found that the chronograph works just fine, which is an old style one button type, i.e., press once, wheels engage, press second time, wheels disengage, press a third time and chrono wheel returns to original position (via the heart-shaped piece on the wheel under the cock). The button is missing, so I'll have to make one I guess for the chronograph function. The gong rods just 'thunk', temper seems to be gone. They're both free and not touching anything when I tried them out. The upper one of the two seems to move too easily for something that should have some temper to it.The slider is missing to activate the repeater function.

All in all I'm quite pleased with it. I see lots of work ahead, areas that should have a jewel, lots of cleaning, checking tolerances, etc. Needs a new mainspring, shouldn't be too hard to find I'd think. I'm thinking of making a case for it, not sure whether a wrist watch or pocket watch case. If I make it into a wrist watch, its heavy enough to maybe give me carpal tunnel :)! But I will go one step at a time. Please check back often, I don't plan to let this one just lay gathering dust. Thanks for looking!..................................gfields

I just purchased on Ebay this Baltic pocket watch movement of which I was very excited about to get. I immediately noticed it was either a chronometer or chronograph by the wheels on the back, but seeing the two gong rods and one hammer visible between the balance cock and main bridge made me quite excited. I won the auction at a VERY cheap price for a movement like this, and I am looking forward to receiving it in the mail here next week to begin work on it. That's why I created this blog so you can see how this is going to be restored. Thank you for stopping by!

This blog is dedicated first to my Creator and Redeemer, Christ Jesus.

 "...and I have given to all able men ability, that they may make all that I have commanded you." Exodus 31:6

And secondly to Steffen Pahlow, from whose videos on watch repair and restoration on Youtube have been such an inspiration.