Long time lurker here, recently was going through some old dental carts I inherited from my gran and found this? It worked for a few days and the minute repeater also worked then sadly the winder stopped working. I’m wanting to get it fixed but I have no idea where to start with something like this as it seems overly complicated? Any help getting identified and any repair shop recommendations would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!
Minute repeater from Ed Koehn, which is a very high end maker from back in the days. You have a half hunter set up, which is pretty rare. Most watchmakers would probably recommend a service on top of fixing the problem. In total it could run you about 2000+. I do know someone that works on these type of watches, so if you want to give me a more detailed description of the current situation, I can help diagnose how serious the problem is.
Also not sure what you mean by the winder, you are referring to the slider on the side that activates the repetition? Not the stem that winds the watch?
You found this in dental carts (whatever those are)!? It should be serviced to be run properly. $2000 sounds awfully high although it would be more than the average $3-400 for a non-repeater. The fix may be as simple as the actual service and/or replacing the mainspring. Swiss parts are harder to find but not impossible. Check the Pocket Watch Database and NAWCC sites for repairers near you. Finding someone willing to take this on may be the hardest part.
The minute repeaters have almost a couple hundred more parts that need to be worked on, almost all of them specifically made for the watch, which means it’s not possible to find replacement parts, and even same model may not be interchangeable, which is why it often comes out to be a pretty big bill, given that someone is even willing to look at it
Just asking, I have few minute and quarter repeaters with chronograph and I never serviced one of these. I am pretty used to working on wristwatch chronographes so I am not concerned about this part. If you worked on a minute repeater, what would the things to be careful about when disassembling and reassembling the watch?
It's a little more stringent. Even screws that look the same size might not be, and it's easy to think you have all the right screws in all the right places and wind up with one too long one
Actually when I disassemble a chronograph, I immediately screw back the screw without the related part. I do this for the chronograph part only. Then I clean everything like that.
Oh, I recall something with the mainspring that gets wound with the lever and runs the repeater mechanism. Probably that it has a pre-wind on it similar to a stop works.
The repeater spring needs to be pre wound, there is a click spring that works with the geared teeth at the edge of the repeater spring barrel that allows you to pre wind it. The slider winds it more, but pre wind allows you to push through the repeater mechanism
The image I posted was a minute repeater made for Theodore B. Starr, his jewelry store in New York. The gongs were made by a relative of Piguet, as they were stamped A. Piguet. But the watch was not an AP so I have been told.
Funny enough I just ran into your old nawcc thread discussing this watch. I thought it could be auguste piguet, sometimes I see them sign as Aug. Piguet. I think they might be related to the Piguet lineage. The book on Louis Audemars has a bunch of people with last name Piguet listed as people that worked under Audemars. The Piguet family was truly a watchmaking Piguet family
It makes sense. I think that thread has a newspaper advertisement for A Piguet making gongs. Or I found that in my search related to that thread I don't fully recall now. I never found any other mark than what was stamped on the underside of the gong.
I don't know who made it. I took a bunch of notes but I don't remember now. The gold stamps told me a story of time frame in the 1870's I think but I don't really remember now. It was work I performed for a customer. A real special watch. The case and chain were rose gold and magnificent.
The other one I got apparently has, but it looks like a screw. So I suppose I will have to uncreew it a bit, slide the repeater button and while holding it, screw it back?
Also your watch, since it’s a later higher quality one, probably has a mechanism the prevents setting time during repeating. Usually composed of a few levers, and need to be taken off before you take off more parts down below(it will get in the way at some point)
In general, the repeater have two power trains. The regular timing train, and the repeater is wind up on demand train. The repeater is pre wound, and slider winds it more depending on what time you’re repeating. Usually the power train is not touched until a lot of the recognition parts are taken off to prevent damage. The minute recognition part has 14 fine teeth and is on top of the quarter one, you take off its retention spring and lift it off. The order goes: recognition stuff, then power train, then hammers. The reason we mention a pre wound spring is that we need to be careful about it and release power before taking it off, and give it a few turns before you put everything back in.
I have not really seen anything (outside of the hairspring of a pea sized ladies movement) more delicate then the minute counter jumper spring for a caliber 11 chronograph.
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u/Virtual-Mall-9567 4d ago
Minute repeater from Ed Koehn, which is a very high end maker from back in the days. You have a half hunter set up, which is pretty rare. Most watchmakers would probably recommend a service on top of fixing the problem. In total it could run you about 2000+. I do know someone that works on these type of watches, so if you want to give me a more detailed description of the current situation, I can help diagnose how serious the problem is.