Another Sillidar...

So, after thinking that my original Sillidar was some kind of assemblage, a couple of months later this watch came up on eBay. The pictures were terrible so no interest and I won with a single very low bid (less than £10 IIRC). I wasn't exactly sure what I was going to receive, other than a cheap West End watch, so I was somewhat surprised to open the package and see it was almost identical to my first Sillidar.

Clearly the dial is a different style to the first and it has a different crown but in all other respects it is identical. The serial number however is over 100,000 higher, so presumably quite a bit later.

I don't know at what point plastic glasses began to be used but the one fitted here very closely matches the curve of the case so I'd like to think that it may be the original.

I actually prefer this dial to my other one and it keeps very good time, even without servicing, but it really needs a new glass and the lume in the numbers is very much worse for wear.

The case is again some alloy I can't identify but there is quite a lot more of the original surface left than on the other. It looks very much like gilt.

This crown is ridiculously fiddly to wind. It looks slightly better than the other version but it no where near as practical. I don't know if it's original or not, but I have seen other watches about this age with this slim style.

Update 15/08/2012 -  I took this apart to clean it. Unfortunately it's been used as a practice piece I think and the movement is covered in scratches and full of gunk. For reasons I can't see the teeth in one quarter of the centre wheel are very worn. Perhaps something was stuck in there once? One of the banking pins is also bent. It's amazing it's keeping as good a time as it is!

Update 6/09/2012 - Cleaned, re-glassed and re-lumed. The lume on the dial must have been printed on. As soon as I can work out a way to do that I will.

Update 10/04/2014 - I recently acquired a watch timing machine and properly adjusted this watch. More by luck than judgement I'm sure but it now keeps time to within a few seconds a week being worn daily. I am astonished that a watch that is nearly 100 years old and (as far as I know) has had no major work carried out on it is capable of such accuracy and consistency. This movement is noticeably better finished than most of the watches I own, eg the winding wheels are polished to a mirror finish and the whole movement is gilted, so I assume this is one of the higher end models of the period. I'm very impressed.

A Matchless Trench Watch

Quite by chance, very soon after I started wondering about the age of my first watch, this one came up on ebay and attracted very little attention so I managed to get it very cheap. (Apologies for the poor quality photos, I've lost my tripod, I will take better ones when I get a new one).

 Although it's a Matchless model, it has an otherwise almost identical dial but without the sub-seconds ground out. The movement is very similar too but finished to a lower quality (I believe these are Revue movements). The style of the case would suggest at first glance that this is earlier than the first watch, yet the serial number is nearly 40,000 later. (The caseback has the serial inside and also the two four digit numbers on the outside).

 The glass appears to the original very thick flat mineral glass, something that seems to be specific to West End Watches. There are quite a few scratches in the surface but the glass is so thick that they could very easily be ground out and still have plenty to spare. Perhaps that is by design. I think this is the original crown too.

This particular watch consistently runs 10-15 minutes too fast. At first I thought the cause of this was that the hairspring was twisted so that it hit the centre wheel when it rotated one way. However twisting it slightly to fix this, and a thorough cleaning etc, does not seem to have made much difference. I suspect now that unfortunately the hairspring is a little short.

The difference in aging between the stainless back and the rest of the case, (made of some alloy I can't identify that was probably chromed) is very apparent. I imagine the back looks pretty much the same as it did the day it came out of the press.

Update 6/08/2012: After much fiddling, I've managed to lengthen the hairspring using the excess and it's now back into the realms of the reasonable timekeeping. I've probably managed to mangle the spring into a less than ideal state, but it's better than being 20 minutes a day fast. Opening this one up again it struck me what a beautiful movement this watch has and how good a condition the dial and hands are in.