Hello I recently found a Excelsior watch co from Bedford Mass. The watch looks like a copy of a Waltham model 1857.I was wondering what the details were on this watch. Thanks Wayne

picture will help but as far as I know Excelsior was made by New York Watch Co,Waltham and few others picture will help big time.

Thanks Peter. i will get a pic up soon. having problems with printer and computer.first did not want to print now will not read the card from camera.by the way where in Arizona are you located? Thanks Wayne

Im in town call Maricopa

This New York Std. triple signed 16s Excelsior passed through my collection recently. It is a 16s. There were several watch Companies that used that name, but a picture showing the "New Bedford" on yours may help identify it better.

Thanks David That is a beautiful watch.Peter i thought we might have met somewhere. i lived in Prescott valley yrs ago.

here is a pic

Wayne, you have a "Swiss copy" (fake) of the 1857 Waltham. The giveaway are the false jewel screws for the train jewels.

ok thanks David. I found that in a bunch of stuff that i bought from a retired watch maker. Thanks again Wayne

These can be fun. I bought one last year because it had a really cool S-shaped balance cock with interesting hand chased tool work.

It had a good balance, staff and hair spring, so I took a stab at the COA.

This watch was so crude in its fit and finish, it had no reason to run, let alone keep good time. Brass pivots, Pallets made from tool steel... The amazing part was that as crude as the materials were,,, the clearances and angles on all the mechanicals were spot on.

Turned out to keep time within 30 seconds a day... I carried it for a week just for fun before I sold it on the bay.

As it turned out... there is a following for these watches in running condition.

As Paul said, good condition examples of these are restorable. The surprising part of these is that many were actually hand-made movements with varying degrees of skill. On some, after disassembly, you can still see the layout compass scribe lines on the plates that defined the train pivot hole positions. The train jewels themselves are pressed in to the plates and the things that look like jewel mounts are contoured countersink shapes plunge-cut into the plates. Hence the dummy Jewel Screws are positioned at the edge of those details with no actual intersection to the fake contoured jewel mounts.

Dave, It sure sounds like it would have been the same work to use real settings.

Paul,David and George I will prolly disassemble the moment to to inspect and see what it would take.I have several 57 movement to compare with.

Wayne,

It would be fun to see a couple of detail photos of the internals for contrast to the real thing.

Paul I will keep that in mind when i get to do that