I was attracted to this watch by the dial, especially the minute hand with its gentle swell towards the end. Looking at the movement, I thought, “Oh My God – where are the jewels?”

When I received it, I noticed how dirty the case was. With toothpicks and alcohol I carefully cleaned the age-old crud from all the crevasses, improving the appearance dramatically. I thought, “With a case as dirty as this, surely the movement must need a good cleaning too”. And to my astounding surprise, the watch keeps unbelievably good time without regulation, putting my 23J Vanguard to shame.

The mystery is:

1. How can a watch with so few jewels keep such good time? What is the Waltham Traveler’s track record on reliability?

2. If it WAS serviced recently, is it possible for a responsible technician only to clean the movement and completely ignore the case which needed it so badly?
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Hi Paul

Nice find !

The watch has 7 jewels i guess:

balance pivots and balance caps 2 + 2
roler jewel 1
pallet stones 2

This are the points with the highest frictional forces.

Of course a watch with 7 jewels can hold time accurate (if propper timed and adjusted)- it is just a question how long the brass bearings and pivots of the train wheels are clean and oiled. This watches benefit from the quality and precision the parts (gears) were made.

Keep in mind:
The high end watches made the progress in watchmaking history, the success was made by timing the masses.

Someone else may chime in and tell something on the production of the 'Travelar' watches.

To your second question:
some people call the dirt 'patina' and think it should remain unchanged- I call those people 'to lazy for clean-up'

Regards
Gerald

Paul, the Waltham traveler" movement was designed for many commercial uses that demanded significantly lower production costs than the Model 1899/1908.

The most common being Folding Travel" clocks, some Auto clocks designed to clip on or be "built in" to Accessory folding sun-visors in automobiles, and low cost pocket watches for domestic and export sales.

The all-brass weighted balance wheel was only about 40% of the weight of your solid gold balance weighted 23 Jewel Vanguard * giving the regulator arm much more influence to change the oscillation frequency of the lighter traveler balance wheel making it easier to keep this watch running "on time" for general public use.

After servicing dozens of these Waltham Traveler Designs and having kept one of the travel clock styles at my desk at the shop for the past 5 years, I must concur with you they are a very good timekeeper. The factory set temperature adjustment and position accuracy is less rigorous meaning they generally need resetting for time about every week or so.

The movement is VERY robust, meaning it is harder to break things, although the balance staff remains the "achilles heel".

Yours sounds about as good as they come. A great carry/collect piece!

* If your Vanguard is not keeping as good time, I recommend a careful service and adjustment.

David,

I will certainly keep your red text in mind. Many thanks for all your replies to my posts - you are a real trooper.

Paul