Last night, I wound and set a very nice 14k 12 size Illinois Model 1 Extra Thin. When I checked the time a little later, to my horror I found that the "open square" end of what had been the original and perfect hour hand had somehow broken off. I have attached a pre-catastrophe photo of this watch so that you can see how it used to look. The hour hand now ends where the open square end began; the open square end now is lying like a dead animal at the bottom of the dial.

Have any of you experienced such spontaneous hand disintegration? What causes it? Is there a way to prevent it?

Do any of you have a replacement hour hand or an appropriate set of replacement hands for this watch that you would sell to me, or do you know where I could buy them?

Is there any decent way of repairing the broken hand?

Many PROFESSIONAL Jewelers have a micro-laser welder that is fully capable of fixing the hand as you described.

My Jeweler here would probably add a very thin reinforcement behind the broken spot during the repair to reduce the likelyhood of a "repeat performance".

That depends on what the hand is made of, gold, plkated brass, plated steel, etc.

Thanks, David. I will look into this alternative.

Sounds to me like one hand hung up on the other and it snapped at it's weakest point.

Leon Harris of our chapter is a wizard at laser welding, if you're needing a source.

Regards! Mark

Thanks for providing Leon's email address, Dr. Debbie. I didn't have it in hand when I told him about Leon's laser skills in my post.

Regards! Mark