Joe P: Every man is envious. As they should be.
STeven: My hero. That's a great focus. Nutty characters!
Me: I love anything mechanical. As a coach and competitor I was always timing something. Somewhere I remembered in my youth I had a mechanical stopwatch. I wanted another...
So, a few years ago I went onto eBay and found this marvelous split second
Slava/Crobo timer from Russia. It was my first. It's substantial.
That only kindled my interest further.
Then I started educating myself on timers. Stopwatches ONLY, not pocket watches. I am knowledgable on many on brands now:
Heuer, Minerva, Lemania, Gallet, Aristo, C.L. Guinand, Berna, Junghans, Leonidas, Bulova, Omega, and more.
I learned that 90% of timers sit in a drawer unused for 50+ years, and the oils in the pivots are now glue. You can buy them for a relative song on eBay, almost all
unworking. 'Overwound' they say. (There is no such thing as an overwound watch. Just one that won't work even until you wind it to stop.
)
I once had aspirations to be a knife maker, but I've traded that for renewing dead stopwatches. (Yeah, there's a KMG grinder and a standup bandsaw in there!) I bought an ultrasonic cleaner, small tools, and my buffer. Bring a dose of patience and quiet.
Here is a short view of my basement (Watch your head. I'm only 5'6" and it works for me.)
Here are a couple of acquisitions I restored.
And I have not just these two, but now another cabinet almost full. I'm incorrigible.
Here is one as I bought it:
Disassembled to plunk into the tank and also reburbish the case.
Then finished:
Works perfectly. From the 1920's!
Unlike old knife collecting, there isn't the
taboo on refinishing watches. Make them
work and shiny!
My most valuable piece:
Heuer Mikrograph. The first timer to measure
100ths of a second.
It changed the 1916 Olympics! This one is from the twenties or thirties.
I even have three or four mechanical pedometers. I must have 10 identical Berna watches like the Gallet above.(very common for horseracing in the twenties) and I often give them as gifts.
Thanks.
Jim
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