I'm new here, so for background, I'm an amateur and only work on watches that I own. Recently I've serviced several Hamilton pocket watches s10 (917, 921, and 945) and a few s16 military watches (992B and 4992B). In the case of capstone holders that fit into a plate recess I've dealt with oiling the jewel setting by treating the capstone with Fixodrop, putting a spot of oil on them, inverting the holder and dropping it into place. The result is a set of nice round oil rings in the cavity. My problem is with the fiendish design of the upper balance capstones in these watches.

Fried says just assemble the balance, put a bit of oil in the jewel oil cup and with a fine gold wire much smaller than the pivot push the oil into the cavity between jewel and capstone. Unfortunately, I have no gold wire and have been unable to find any sort of wire small enough for this operation. Bergeon makes an automatic oiler 2917 that is supposed to work for this application, but I have never seen one.

So, finally, my questions are: does anyone have a suggestion about wire of small enough diameter for this application, or does anyone have experience with the Bergeon oiler and would recommend it for this application. Any other suggestions, of course, most welcome.

Thanks in advance, and best regards,

A tool is sold with a tip with small wire: http://www.jewelerssupplies.com/product8602.html

Thank you so much Michael. Missed that one completely and will definitely give it a try. Still interested in hearing from anyone having experience with the Bergeon automatic oiler.

Hi Ron, I use an automatic oiler 2718-1A and it's a life saver.

I clean and reassemble the hole and cap jewel, rest the (cleaned) oiler with the needle retracted in the depression in the hole jewel, and then allow the needle to push through to the cap jewel.

May take a few pumps to get enough oil in. Retract the needle and remove and then check if you have enough oil. If not, retract the needle, clean the end of the oiler on some pith wood and try again.

Link to some instructions here.



Regards

Peter

Hi Peter,

Thanks so much for sharing your experience. I've been eyeing these, but as they are a bit on the pricey side I was hoping to hear from someone who actually uses them. 2718-1A is, of course, the one I meant, not 2917 that I pulled from my failing memory for the post. I've just stripped another 4992B for service so I'll get one ordered immediately. Thanks also for the link to instructions.

Best regards,

Hi Ron, I was lucky as I got mine as part of a lot of tools, marked as unknown tool, so it was cheap. I didn't know what it was until I got it, and it had a broken needle.

Parts are readily available, so I replaced it and have been using it since. Mine has a nice turned wooden base so fits in with the rest of my old tools.

Not sure if I would invest in the other automatic oilers, but this one is indispensable for me, especially as a novice.

Regards

Peter