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If possible, how would I restore this?
Found what I believe to be an old stopwatch while bottle digging!
Show & TellProbably not much as this is a broke activity for me❤️ But thank you so much for the positive ID! I it's so super cool and i shall treasure it!
Possibly using electrolysis, similar to how people clean cast iron? Unsure about the chemistry of all the watch gunk, likely lots of calcium, but it may work to get a large amount off with little effort. Then at least it could look pretty again, although it will never tell time.
Edit: it might also make it worse, I have no idea, but then again could it really get worse?
It's cool the way it is.
Can metal watch components be 3D printed? Have an old broken pocket watch myself
As a watchmaker, I can tell you that there is really no standardization for older pocket watches like this (there is within major manufacturers to an extent, but even then sometimes the parts were only semi interchangeable with modifications.) even if you could find the correct caliber of movement (doubtful it would even be recognizable) you would need to find the same caliber and then recreate it exactly which would be extremely expensive. Realistically you would want to find the same caliber and swap it, because this watch is toast, so really the only thing likely salvageable would be the dial as it is likely made of copper coated in enamel. So this is better served as a cool object, because even if you were to go to all the trouble it really wouldn't be considered restored as it would be effectively entirely replaced.
Understood. I was mainly asking about my own watch, not the watch above. My own is form the 1830s form a small artisan in England (MI (or MJ) Tobias). The center pin is missing along with some face gears behind the dial and hands and who knows what else. Thought that this may have been a cheaper route than dropping a few grand to have 200 year old parts remade, lol
Got it. Yeah theoretically it could be cheaper, but in practicality I don't think it would be feasible. At least not at this point in time.
Understood. Well, I am not coming up with The money or making that trip to England for repairs anytime soon and I am only 22 so who knows? It might be repaired with 3D parts in my lifetime. Most of it is there still, and things like the balance and fusee chain still seem to work, it is just the center pin, the gears under the dial, and maybe a few Broken things
I agree, this might become a cool conversation piece is cleaned lightly and encased in epoxy to preserve it.
Considering that some particularly desirable cars have been "restored" from what was practically just a rusty chunk of firewall with the VIN stamped on it, Ship of Theseus restorations seem like they count at least to some people! But, yeah, I imagine every part of the mechanism that matters is going to be unsalvageable. You could reduce the watch to a shell though, restore that, and then have someone build a new custom mechanism to make it work again. It wouldn't be worth it, but that's probably at least technically feasible, right?
Technically feasible absolutely!
Technically, but not practically feasible.
Absolutely correct. I was actually just thinking that the dial is about the only thing left of this watch- but it looks pretty good on this side at least. If this was my find, I'd keep it just the way it is.
I have one with all the parts and its running, restored it from rust took a year. But not sure this will ever be restored.
Not with a hobby grade printer. The components are much smaller than the resolution of most printers. You'd need to find someone with access to a very very expensive printer and a boss who doesn't mind that printer being used for non work/research
Understand, thank you!
Nah, that watch is definitely stopped, so surely that makes it a stopwatch :D
False. This is far beyond any sort of restoration It looked like a super expensive one too with all those extra movements
It’s in French, at least the days of the week seem to be.
Aha, I wondered what language that was!
Where would you go to restore something like that? Or a knife cause I found so many things I'd liked to get restored
A watch maker would be the first person I would try.
And for knives? A blacksmith?
Short answer: A tub of evaporust, a file, and time.
Long answer: There are also forty gazillion YouTube tool and machine restoration channels and about 10 quintillion blacksmith channels. Alternatively find a local blacksmith and ask them to look at it.
Knife maker?
Hm Sound pricey but thank you anyway
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1mo
Give me some of what you take
If it’s a stop watch, it must have been used for verrrrrrrrrrry long races.
There are several youtube channels that restore pocket watches. Nekkid watchmaker is my favourite.
I enjoy him and also Wrist Watch Revival. This watch seems in pretty rough shape.
It's super heavy! I absolutely love it as is but restored would just be amazing!
It's super heavy because it's full of mud...
It does, but you never know!
Guys, it s à cool find , but op will spent 10 Times its value to résurrect it.there s probably nothing left inside except agglomerated rust.
Why did your apostrophes jump out of their contractions on top of random letters?
Maybe he is one of those french Humans
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1mo
Lol, to distinguish from bots??
I don't see a white flag yet, so it's still up for debate.
il est français, juste comme la montre de poche
Some languages have diacritics, the little symbols that appear above or below letters, like à, â, ã and so on. The grave accent (`) in that guy's comment is one of those diacritics. If you use a standard US keyboard, there obviously aren't individual keys for every potential combination of letters and diacritics, so your OS has various built-in shortcuts that allow you to type diacritics easily. The way you type a letter with a grave accent on a US keyboard is you hit the grave accent key (the one with the backwards apostrophe and the tilde, top left underneath the Escape key) to signal that the next letter you type needs to have a grave accent, and then you type that letter.
However, depending on which language you speak, not all letters will have diacritics, and the shortcut won't activate for letters that don't have them. In this case, my guess is they hit the grave accent key intending it to use it as a regular apostrophe, but the OS interpreted it as them intending to type a diacritic, but the letter s cannot have a grave accent in their language, so the next available letter was the letter a, which can have one.
Note that these shortcuts only work when you set your typing language to a language with diacritics, it doesn't apply when your language is set to English. Also, you can bypass the shortcut by hitting the grave accent key twice, which is presumably what this person meant to do.
Having said all of that, you can also type various diacritics by holding down a letter long enough for a little selection box to pop up. Maybe this person just held the a key down for too long, and since the grave accent is usually the first diacritic in the list, that's what it defaulted to.
They're accent marks, not apostrophes
That’s a grave mistake
this happens when you have multiple keyboard languages, it adds words of those languages to your phone vocab. i have a french and english keyboard, and even when i’m using the english keyboard, some words with autocorrect to french, eg. à, hâte, y’a, etc
This thing is stunning. I found a similar one listed on ebay purporting to be 1890s swiss made with no brand. Believe its called a calendar pocket watch.
That would be a superb age for this town dump!! I have found a few bottles dating to the 1800s but they are scarce :))
this would likely cost an insane amount of restore, but it is a rather expensive watch. in good condition id guess this would got for two or three grand. its worth hanging on to, the case and parts of the movement are possibly solid gold. i would avoid scrapping it tho, it’ll be worth more as a watch case than as bouillon.
As a watch restorer/reseller, this watch would not be worth that even if it was in excellent condition. They were not too uncommon and were not too exceptionally expensive unless they were by a distinguished company or private watchmaker. This is almost certainly one of the more generic made ones especially since it was likely a gunmetal case as opposed to a previous (edit-precious) metal case. Here's mine (partially disassembled - I couldn't find a pic from after I restored it) bought it for $250 and could likely sell for around $1000 now that it's restored (if I didn't wanna keep it).
However I can tell that OPs watch is sadly definitely toast and likely the only thing salvageable would be the dial. So to go through the money and effort it would basically make no sense to restore. It would sort of be like taking an original hood and putting it on a kit car and calling it restored.
OP’s was definitely a “previous” metal case.
Lol, meant to say "precious" but previous does work here
Don’t you go changin’ !
How much would something like this even be worth lol? I wouldn't even know where to start🤣🤣
honestly in that condition? probably around 300 to the right buyer. i’d look into ways to clean it up just a bit (do not touch the dial at all) to figure out the exact brand and material. then check sold listings on ebay, chrono24, etc. you won’t get anywhere near the asking price of a nicer condition one, but it is a decent starting place.
Thats kind of crazy! I don't have the time or money to put into restoring it at the moment unfortunately. So im thinking of taking it to a watch person then a pawn shop? I'm not 100% sure. I unfortunately can't go the restoring way :(
that’s totally valid! a pawn shop will give you shit prices, so i would encourage selling yourself elsewhere or directly to a watch/jewelry expert. given that it’s a high complication watch that’s well over a century old, i am inclined to believe that it is solid gold and will be worth something.
Its so cool that you can see and pinpoint that it might be 100 years old!!! Can i ask what the telltale sign is? This dump rarely produced stuff this old 🤭 so i'm really excited because this came out of a promising hole for 1800s bottles too!
the porcelain dial is a good telltale sign of a piece from about the 1850s thru the 20s, though it isn’t surefire. this watch would’ve been incredibly expensive at the time, so it is unlikely to be depression era. also, by the 20s, pocket watches started to fall out of style in favor of wristwatches.
Drop the watch in a bowl of vinegar for a few days. Don’t scrub it, just let it sit and the corrosion will fall off. Nice find.
That's it? a bowl of vinegar? Goddamn i'm doing it.
Late 1800s-1910s calendar pocket watch. Most watchmakers would flat out refuse to work on this (almost impossible to repair), and complete ones sell for 300ish. It would probably be worth 25-50 bucks as a historical curiosity in its current state. Heres what it would look like new https://www.ebay.com/itm/235516930493?itmmeta=01HWJQWWEB35E0D5AX9KYC4H8B&hash=item36d5e729bd:g:KDUAAOSwnv9lu~96&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAA8IR76olbPTkZxeG5XDX2XKIv6vLWpocL3HYB%2FLvjY8vS5v73WyA5SObTwsRnDT5ToAhEEFbT6qZqwqKvzbOr8EY31yTCl2qC0dfUS9%2FIwwmwQPrWMW89FgJFBlrFy0LFeEceOdbogsB1q5AsKfIl2TLt9rkTkiDzzc3l0FWUoPQ%2FVRwfw06Z%2FxuV6M65O17tQXIhOdts6xlKqdQ4PmO9S7hgHQpEnwbepC3nFxQj38WGSrtVIi6T5TKhd%2BJPdIe5bIgGbTtMvU2%2F5EUP96rdyEAYHyPkQqhFxF5qFP4vGiTA3So6n%2FEILqH8t6fgZMVOCw%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR7bH89fkYw
Really cool find!
Honestly, that would look so bad ass (as is) hanging from a chain off of some other piece in your living room
Amazing find! I'd display it as is. Congrats
There's a chance the case is gold under all that crust. Might not be but complicated pocket watches are usually housed in gold.
I don't think you'll be able to restore this with really any original parts, even the dual looks rusted through. It won't be cheap for certain.
Its French
I'd mount it on acrylic stands and put it in an acrylic case to display. It's awesome as is.
r/pocketwatch would love to see this!
annual calendar pocket watch. nice complication.
That is not a stopwatch. It’s a watch with a calendar.
Great find! Lots of complications!
This is a moon phase pocket watch with a calendar, this was a very expensive movement when it was new, they’re still very desirable now, since it’s likely the movement is toast, that dial alone is probably worth $100-$150, possibly more if it has a manufacturer name on it somewhere.
How do people even dig stuff like this up? Lol I'd 100% smash it by mistake in the process while still thinking it's a can
It’s an antique pocket watch. Are you interested in selling or trading?
Defintley selling bahahaha, i'm broke as a joke right now and I do this as a hobby :)
Well it’s certainly not new!
Wow. I've never seen one with a full calendar. Too bad thr case was steel and not gold.
Days of the week are in French
And the months
Put it on a steampunk website! Someone will buy it in the condition it is in!
Is that mud caked on or concretion?
This man is a detective.
Nice find!
hmmm close but i think it’s a new stopwatch actually ;)
Its a grand complication (keeps time in 5 different readouts from one mechanism) this item wouldnhave been incredibly hard and expensive to make if its particularily old
It’s definitely stopped!
given all the corrosion, not likely any gold on it as gold will not degrade like this has.
Go on YouTube and watch a video on restoration
Nice! We found our first old pocket watch a few weeks ago.
Cool AF
I've seen other uses for a old relic like this one I saw was a painting in a shallow rectangular box with glass front like deep picture frame with some old real objects related to the painting or drawing or even a picture there's a name for this type of artwork I've forgotten forgotten what it's called but done well they bring good $ good luck
What a cool find
Looks like a watch with second hand, hour hand and month and date hand
That is such a cool look!!
Very cool find. This is a 19th Century Triple Calendar, Moon Phase Swiss Pocket Watch with an enamel dial.
I can tell you it’s French: month and date are in French. Nice find!
How can you tell??
That watch is totaled. BUT. A lot of those old watches were made of gold or silver. There could be some gold under that corrosion.
You could drop it in a gallon of acid and see what's left after an hour.
Where do you find the time to do that.
Whoa, that's a find. It's a pocket watch that also shows the day, date, and month. Looks Portuguese? Italian???
French. Source: degree in French
Sweet find
Awesome Pocket Watch find. Congratulations.
Not a stopwatch, just a pocket watch. It's beyond restoring.
I believe, if it is possible, your goal should be to identify the manufacturer and model. That being said, restoration is not realistic.
It's already been clarified that this is a pocket watch.
Wristwatch Revival could do a whole series on this bad boy!
That is awesome as it is.
Pocket watch not stop
Looks like a chronograph
I kinda think it’s cool just the way it is! Nice find
That's a shame a perpetual calendar pocket watch is a great find.
That’s pretty cool! I’d rather keep it like that than fix it if I found it lol.
That is absolutely cool as it is! What a fucking find OP! Keep it as it is, would almost be a shame to clean unless its worth it
This is a really nice find!!! Nice work.
Thingamabob. I’ve got twenty.
See if marshal from wristwatch revival would take it.
Antique calendar Moon phase 1890s
Looks right out of a pirate movie or fantasy story. Really cool find!
A perpetual calendar watch! Neat as heck!
Bottle, digging?
Idk what bottle digging is but that’s cool as duck
Three fifty, lap 10 seconds.
R/goblincore would love this
send it to wristwatch revival
it's a soilwatch
What was it in to cause such a reaction?
I’d either keep it as-is, or do an electrolysis bath. Nothing more.
That has a lot of complications I would recommend getting it professionally cleaned and get a list of the problems it needs fixed
Swiss calendar pocket watch
From the one guy who refused to put his pocket watch on a chain.
Check google images for Swiss Gunmetal Pocket Watch with moon phase.
That’s cool as shit dude
I bought a Powerball ticket tonight. If I hit I will put 300,000 to restore it. My guess it’s oxidized.through. But I am a skeptic that likes to be proven wrong. Just to know the maker marks and origin would be fun
well, its certainly not a new one
Anything can be restored of its worth the time and effort . A lot will depend on thr materials used and what there is left to work with. Enamel can be repaired but it needs a specialist to get a good colour match. You don't want to know what they charge. The rest is straightforward enough. I can make any missing parts but, again, it's the cost that is the determining factor.
Mount it in a shadow box for display. I’m sure there is a little bit of silver inside, but nothing too valuable. I think you should display it.
You've found wants left of a nice pocket watch. At most you've got a nice dial and that's it.
This is a pocket watch not a stop watch. It's always possible to restore something it just depends on how much you are looking to spend.