I finally gone and done it! Cracked the egg! After watching an old time watchmaker disassemble and assemble my 16S Elgin I went home that night and torn it down to the plates. Tear down is obviously easier than reassembly. I am having a heck of a time aligning the Train plate with the 3rd. 4th. and escape wheels they don't want to stand up staight enought to place the plate on top of them. What am I doing wrong. In Kentucky or Tennessee one might say I'm not holding my mouth right!

Gregory it takes time and patience don,t froce anything or you will break a pivot,,you will need a good movement holder to hold your plate then set the wheels in place and postion your plate on the watch with the locator pins in postion (i wear latex gloves when doing this) then very easy lay your finger on the plate and very easily with your twezzers move the 3rd wheel fourth wheel then the ecaspe wheel into postion when correct it will fall in place,I have too tell you being the frist you have done it seems hard but after you have done a few hunderd it gets easier...On a lot of the elgins the center wheel also needs too be in place before you do this because ..even though the plate don,t hold the center wheel it still has too be under the edge of the plate.

Something else you need too check try the plate without the wheels in place and see if it is easy too push down into postion if not make sure the holes for the locator pins and the pins themself are clean if it,s hard too get in place without the gears it will make it very hard too put together.

Thanks I get that.... only 99 more to go!

Hey Gregory,

You have taken the leap. Congrats!

I too have problems getting the pivots in the holes on my 7J Elgins. I think it has something to do with the quality or lack thereof of these cheaper watches. Anyway, the only thing I can say is to try it for a while. If it isn't happening, put it down and come back later. You must have patience, not too tired eyes or back, and a bit of luck. The luck part probably is less a factor after you have done a few hundred, but I still think it plays a role because every watch is different.

I have the same problem now that I have tackled a full plate 18 size Illinois. There are like five things that have to line up to get the plates together. Does anyone have any tricks to getting these full plate watches together?

John III