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Rare 1864 Waltham Pocket Watch Restoration Review (many pictures)  Rating:  Rating
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 Posted: Sun Jun 3rd, 2012 01:06 am
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mcwright
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Presented here for review is my Waltham Pocket Watch. Also known as the American Watch company, Waltham began making pocket watches in 1850 in the U.S. The model I own is an 18K gold model manufactured in 1864. It requires a key to wind up the movement and it also requires a key to set the time (by opening the front crystal and placing the key on the nut and bolt the turns the two hands).

I have had this watch for a number of years and it basically just sat until recently when I decided to find out more about the watch. I had no idea that it was rare until I did some research on the Internet. I stumbled across a Web site called http://www.watchrepair.cc/  and I contacted the watchmaker, Mr. Terry Nelson about possibly restoring the watch to a fully functioning timepiece.

I was so impressed with Terry Nelson through his emails that I decided to finally send the watch in for cleaning and repair a few weeks ago. Terry Nelson is the most professional person I have run into in a long time. I can’t sing his praises high enough. His emails to me inspired the utmost confidence in the work he would perform to bring my ancient (old bugger as he calls them) pocket watch back to fully functioning condition that I knew I had found the right watchmaker for the job.

Before I sent it in, the movement was quite dirty and dry as a bone (oil wise). The balance shaft was bent or broken and there was a missing screw or two. The watch ran laying down, but it stopped if you held it up. So, it was in need of some TLC. I got the watch back two days ago and it now runs like a top. It winds smoothly, keeps good time and looks way better than when I sent it in. It is amazing to me that this timepiece is 148 years old and it still works like new.

It runs for about 24 hours on a full wind makes a wonderful tick-tock sound while it runs. You just want to hold it up to your ear all the time.

Below are some pictures. The first two are the before restoration and the rest were taken after the restoration.
I do have the original chain for it also (now shown in the pictures). Thanks for looking.

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 Posted: Sun Jun 3rd, 2012 10:23 am
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oagaspar
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amazing Mike...what and awesome restoration...Congrats!ThumbsUp02.gif

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 Posted: Sun Jun 3rd, 2012 10:31 am
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Skipdawg
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I knew a Navy Chaplin that had one allot like that. Awesome time pieces!

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 Posted: Sun Jun 3rd, 2012 04:37 pm
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mcwright
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Thanks! I'm enjoying it.

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 Posted: Mon Jun 4th, 2012 07:45 am
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garydusa
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...VERY VERY NICE RESTORATION!

....SOMETIMES I PUT MY WALTHAM IN MY POCKET TO
OFFSET THE QUARTZ I'M WEARING. ( AND EVEN POST A WRIST CHECK OF IT ( "TIC - TOC IN MY POCKET" )

THAZ A NICE " TICKER " ! thumbsup.gif

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 Posted: Tue Jun 5th, 2012 10:05 pm
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BA211
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That is a real beauty.

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 Posted: Thu Jun 7th, 2012 05:27 pm
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Dragnattck
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absolutely stunning grats and awesome job

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 Posted: Fri Jun 8th, 2012 12:38 am
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mcwright
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Thanks all. The watch has been running beautifully for a week now. ThumbsUp02.gif

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 Posted: Mon Jun 18th, 2012 09:53 am
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rustle
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How's the timekeeping?

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 Posted: Tue Jun 19th, 2012 06:48 pm
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afc14284
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Not really my type but can appreciate the work done on the restoration...

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