A good friend had this early KW, Back KS Lancaster and asked me if I was interested. Well when I got it, my interest went to a new level.

While a bit dirty, it is in good running order, but I took these pictures in the "quiescent" state so you can see what I saw. The Balance wheel is a compensated wheel, but with only 4 Balance weights and they are all "mean time" screws!

You can also see there are no other holes in the balance wheel for adding and moving weights about for temperature compensation, etc. I tested the timing and it (as dirty as it is) runs about 1-1/2 min fast a day.

In reviewing this with another IHC185'er we surmised that this balance wheel must have been poised and vibrated very carefully. It was suggested to me that this could be an experimental watch. Given the time frame, it was when Lancaster was in business, but shortly before Hamilton took over.

I will clean it up soon, and possibly some more pictures will help "tell the tale".

Anybody have any more thoughts?

beautiful early watch David!

I must add an observation that Chris Abell made over the phone about this. The two mean time screws that are 90 deg around the rim from the arms can actually be used to adjust for temperature. Of course that would mean making more compensation of the mean time with the other two screws.