This is one ugly dial but it is on a KW Railway so I'd like to do the best I can. I know the Polident method, but I am wondering what suggestions anyone might have about the hand painted 24 hour numbers.

Would you leave them alone, presuming these were added in the watches early life?

Or, would you try to clean them off, possibly ruining an otherwise acceptable dial?

Here's a closeup of a portion. You can clearly see the gloppy paint job.

BTW, the dial has pin feet making it a bit rarer than the typical old Hampden dial.

Ron, A good soaking should clean that dial up well. Either use polident or comet liquid. Either soaking agent will probably take off the hand paint. Any residue of the red hand painted numbers left can probably be removed by scraping the paint with a wooden toothpick.

BTW, a nice early Hampden dial. This was probably on a Springfield Hampden. What is the SN of your watch? Your dial is what is called a hand painted dial as compared to a later stamped dial. If you look at it under a powerful loope, you can see the small imperfections in the seconds register and all other applications on the dial.

Tom

Serial 69264. I believe Hampden.

Unfortunately, it's got some problems. The biggest (to me) is the ratchet (i'm sure it has a more official name, it's under the cover on top of the barrel bridge) is broken into several pieces. Unfortunately, one of the screws holding the cover down was stripped at one time and someone in the past decided to pretend the screw would work better as a rivet and peened the backside down. As of now, I can't get the cover off to replace the ratchet.

Then there are those mismatched screws:

Tom

Chalk another one up for the "Polident method."

In this case, I used Chlorox household cleaner with Bleach as we didn't have any Comet cleaner on hand. The red paint just melted away. I really thought it would take something stronger than that.

I did get the cover off and now the movement is in the cleaner. What I need though is a replacement for the broken ratchet wheel. I have an ebay search for a parts watch and will cruise the local marts.

Ron, Nice job on the dial. I specifically collect these early prestandards RR grade watches. Your early Springfield Hampden "Railway" grade as a KW is very desirable and collectable. It books high, ie somewhere in the $700 range. It is definitely worth any work you put in on it.

BTW Check with Brian Cavanaugh for the parts you need. He has supplied me with several other early Hampden parts that I needed.

Tom

I could not really tell by the photo, but does not the case have a back dust cover?

Ron,
E-mail me, I should be able to help you with the ratchet wheel.
Brian C.

So, how is this project going? It's like following a good movie serial, and suddenly they forget to run the next reel!

Regards! Mark

Not much has happened Mark.

I have been traveling and missed Brian's post until now. I have sent off an email and hopefully he can help me with at least the ratchet wheel.

Mark Estep:

The case does have a dust cover. That is what you see in the photo.

Thanks for the interest. I will post any progress if and when made.

Ron

Brian Cavanaugh thought he had a wheel for me but as the photo below shows, his was quite a bit larger than the one on my watch.

Thanks for trying Brian!

Still looking for that ratchet!