I would like to know if any Seth Thomas experts could lend some help with this watch. It is a Seth Thomas 18sz #75577, which makes it a Mdl 3.. I am not sure of the grade and as I was looking thru Ehrardt's 1980 price guide it has on page 83 pictures of many Seth Thomas's.. My example appears to be a grade 201 per picture 6 but mine has 17 jewels. The center jewel is pressed in, the rest are in gold screw down sets..The balance cock on mine is the exact same as the pictue 5 which is a Henry Molineux..
The lettering on the plates matches the style of the Molineux.. again my example has differnt demaskeening but is also has demaskening on the under side of the dial plate, around the lower balance jewel, under the center wheel,and is also marked adjusted on this plate... The movement itself is quite stunning to view.. Would anyone have a clue to the grade of this watch..Did Seth Thomas make any of those famous "UNMARKED" Molineux's.. One last clue I have noticed that the unique hairspring stud is the same as the Molineux and different than the grade 201..

Thanks,
John Pavlik

John,
According to my Seth Thomas book, the only other model 3, nickel movement, besides the Molineux 18s with 17 jewels, was grade 179. The book says, model 3, 18s, 17j, adjusted, micro reg., full plate, lever set, open face, nickel movement.
Hope this helps.
Brian C.

Hi Brian,

That helps very much..Your description says full plate ?? Is this considered a full plate ??? Shguart's lists this as a hunting movement ??? Have you seen this type of hairspring stud on other Seth Thomas's ??? Brian do you know if there is any other research, information avalible somewhere ??

Thanks Much....
John

The 3/4 plate Molineux that looks like your watch is an open face model. The highly cut away model is hunting case.

I need to get a picture of my open face model, but here is the hunting case 20 jewel example. The 17J open face Molineaux that I have is not jeweled in the center. It has cap jewels on the pallet arbor.
.

testing the picture.
Full plate means the plate covers the gears right? 3/4 plate is divided?
Open face means that the face or dial of the watch is uncovered, only has the crystal and the Hunting Case means that the watch has a cover over the dial too.
Check me on this one please!

Yes, full-plate movements have the entire gear train covered by the top plate, plus the balance wheel is usually on top of the plate and held by a separate balance cock on the top plate. A 3/4-plate movement has the balance wheel down with the rest of the wheels and the balance cock is attached to the pillar-plate, like on the movement shown above. There is also a 1/2-plate configuration, used on some watches, where the escape wheel and fourth wheel are also under separate cocks (such as this 1/2-plate Tobias movement.

Technically, open-face and hunting refer to the cases as you have described. Stem-wind movements designed for these cases have the winding stem opposite the 4th wheel (which carries the second hand) or at 90 degrees from the 4th wheel, respectively, and are usually referred to by the open-face and hunting designations. However, hunting movements often appear in open-face cases (with or without conversion dials). Open-face movements are rarely in hunting cases, except in some modern atrocities and some old Waltham's I have seen with conversion dials (seconds bit at the 9 o'clock position).

Jerry, Perfect explanation!
Now I understand why I was confused about some of it. I understood most of it, learning from everyone here, but parts of it, I guess didn't register until now.

I think understanding that parts of a watch a little better has helped some.
Thank you!