Reviving An Old Mechanical From The Dead

[Adrian-VTA]

Hey Guys,

I've been working on getting this piece running again. What makes it Japanese is that I replaced the old Swiss movement with a Miyota quartz. The balance staff was broken in the old movement, probably because it's from 1948 and doesn't have any shock protection!

Anyway, It's not worth a lot but it's for sentimental value only and is going to my sister as an Xmas gift when it's done. It belonged to my grandmother and was a gift from my grandfather. The case is a nice 9ct gold case, It was probably expensive at the time. It is a generic Swiss movement which was cased here by the "Handley Watch Factory".

So to fit the quartz movement I had to make up a spacer, and thought the 3D printer would be perfect for this -

[philsinclair]

Hi. My info suggests that Viceroy was a Rolex sub brand at that time. I have a number of parts for that watch and will check to see if a balance staff is there. That would give you the option to go back to standard in the future. Cheers Phil

[Adrian-VTA]

That's correct. The movement is badged with "SYMBOL" in a triangle.

I'd be really appreciative if you had that balance staff!

Nov 28, 2014 15:10:16 GMT -8 philsinclair said:

Hi. My info suggests that Viceroy was a Rolex sub brand at that time. I have a number of parts for that watch and will check to see if a balance staff is there. That would give you the option to go back to standard in the future. Cheers Phil

[Deleted]

I did a similar transplant on a watch my sister in law had. The mechanical movement was an FEF of some sort that had a tangled hairspring. At the time I didn't know if I could find a replacement but had several quartz modules that fit nicely. I put in a Miyota that didn't even need a spacer. I also managed to fit the original hands as the holes were small enough. I think I had to open the hour hand up a bit.
She passed it on to her daughter who wears it almost exclusively. I get it back every three or four years to put a fresh battery in.

[philsinclair]

Hi Pete. Probably have the parts for that one as well. Cheers Phil

[Deleted]

Nov 28, 2014 15:53:40 GMT -8 philsinclair said:

Hi Pete. Probably have the parts for that one as well. Cheers Phil

Hi Phil,
Since doing that job, I have acquired probably a dozen of those little gems...
www.ranfft.de/cgi-bin/bidfun-db.cgi?10&ranfft&0&2uswk&FHF_69_INT

[philsinclair]

Hi mate. Can you post a pic of the original movement, I have about a hundred of them sitting in front of me and they break up to 9 different ones. If I can identify the right one there are thousands of new parts or can send a complete movement. It gets interesting as the FHF 52 box for example contains identical movements branded Rolex,Peerless,Viceroy and Titan. I suspect they were plundered for gold content in the past.If you pm you mobile number, I would send photos once I narrow it down a bit. Cheers Phil

[philsinclair]

Yeah Pete. A pile of that stuff here. Cheers Phil