Waltham Vanguard - 19 Jewels

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This lovely Waltham Vanguard was sent in for some tlc as it was not running at its best and the casing had become a little dull and tarnished. The movement was fairly clean and running but was showing that lack of lubrication and debris was having a negative effect. The case was a nice quality Dennison Star in gold  but with lots of small surface sratches and tarnish marks, a simple two stage polish should take care of business.

​Uncasing
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The first stage is to remove the movement from the casing, simply pop off the front bezel, undo the case retainers, lift stem and out she comes. >>

Movement Disassembly
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With the movement now free from the case it could now be stripped down for cleaning, the cause of the poor timing would then reveal itself. The level of finishing is superb and a delight to see >>>

It was clear the dirt on the pallets and escape wheel were the major cause of timing issues, ive added extra picture below of the pallets & escape wheel prior to cleaning >

Assembly & Lubrication
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With the movement clean it was time to re assemble the movement, the first point of call is lubricating the balance jewels and checking the balance is working as it should ( not in photos ). As you can see the cleaner did an excellent job cleaning up the escape wheel and pallets >>

Looking much much better :)

The movement jewels were also quite dirty and the cleaner did not eradicate the stubborn oil deposits so manual cleaning with pegwood and a rinse in Renata essence finished the job. Timing once adjusted was very good and so it was ready to be re cased. Timing >>

Good amplitude and respectable timing.

​Re Casing
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With the movement complete and running well it was time to fit everything back together, the casing was cleaned up while the movement was in the cleaner. The casing was given a clean with some home made super fine diamond polishing powder and then followed up with a cotton mop buff and final finish Italian polish compound for gold.

​Finished Watch
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With the watch now complete the only thing to do is monitor the timing over the coming week and enjoy the subtle ticking in the workshop. Its been a while since ive done any pocket watches but it is always a pleasure to see them running well once more. Enjoy the pictures of the finished watch >>