This is a follow-on post to my previous one showing the Vulcain Cricket Calibre 120 Alarm watch from the 1950’s. When a customer strictly buys “a service,” without any qualification, it’s often just a promise to do the minimum to “clean” the movement without any disassembly and throw some oil into it. The majority of the time this results in suboptimal timekeeping which many collectors refer to as “vintage time.” The watches that I restore are not running on “vintage time” and vintage time is an excuse for cutting corners. Vintage watches can run reliably and well— there are watches that have limits due to too significant past wear and damage, but those can be specifically called-out and don’t need to be the norm. When working on the Vulcain Cricket, during assessment/testing, a problem was encountered showing very erratic amplitude (degree of balance swing) and accuracy. This problem was shown during long-term testing. I maintain a number of timegraphers (watch performance measurement computers) and they run for days tabulating changes in watch performance every few minutes. The graphs are analyzed as part of quality assurance and testing. In this case, the center wheel was found to have corrosion and wear (roughness on the wheel) causing the issues shown in the graph. The wheel was set-aside for special attention. The leaves of the wheel pinion where cleaned by hand and its pivots were polished on a Horia dead center lathe as shown in the picture. After performing these steps, the amplitude significantly increased and was stabilized. Damaged pivots can cause unstable and erratic power transfer within the watch. I am not focused on delivering the steps of cleaning, lubrication, and oiling. I am focused on a comprehensive process and the outcome.
