“My watch has stopped - Why?”


The purpose of these pages is to help the watchmaker explain to the owner of a watch, which is not running satisfactorily, what has gone wrong.  Few watch owners fully understand the intricate, delicate construction of a watch movement. The following illustrations of those flaws usually found when a watch is brought in to be fixed should simplify the task of explaining what repairs are needed.

When a watch has been jarred or dropped, the Balance Staff and Balance Jewel are likely to have been damaged.  Illustration No. 2 shows a perfect Balance Staff.  A Balance Staff which has been running in a cracked Jewel is shown in illustration No. 3. No. 3 and No. 4 depict bent and broken Balance Staffs.  Number 6 depicts a perfect Balance Jewel No. 7 and No. 8 show a damaged Balance Jewel might look like .  Defective Balance Staffs cause a watch to run too rapidly or too slowly.