I recently acquired a 333, not working... Seems the balance is off its jewels? While the watch is in fair shape, just in need of a thorough cleaning. I'm looking for opinions on whether or not I should have it repaired. The local shop said 150$ for repair and cleaning, but, did'nt open it to see what was wrong. I also could'nt find this dial pictured anywhere.

All info is much appreciated.

Very nice watch Courtney,
If it is simply overbanked the repair estimate would seem a bit high but based on the fact that it appears to need a good cleaning as well, the 150.00 cost would certainly seem reasonable. I would suggest you join the IHC 185, for a very small fee you have access to a great club and some fine watchmakers who are not only very good at what they do but "Trustworthy" as well. They could help you out and you could be assured that the job was done right the first time.

Regards.
Ray

Forgot to add...If you join, just follow the link to the Members Business Directory for watcmakers services.
Hope to see ya here on the board.
Ray

Coutney:

We wold love to have you as a member. Your south Bend 333 is a nice watch and worth fixing. The made 12,000 333 grade South Bends between 1908 and 1909 which accounted for only 1.41% of South Bends total production of 852,750 watches.

Yu can find additional information under "South Bends Catalogs, Literature, & Pictorials" (the first topic in this forum).

I would agree. The watch is definately worth fixing. The $150.00 to repair sounds high, probably what the watch is worth redone and running if it were sold on ebay. I would think someone would be able to fix it up for $50-$75, but you would need to find someone doing the repairing as a hobby, not paying bills by repairing (I understand why they have to charge what they do, rent, heat, etc. on a shop is very expensive).

On another note, it sounds like the balance staff is broken (should be an easy repair) and the watch would need a good cleaing before that as I am guessing the hands are bound by the rust shown on the face and tells me a very deep cleaning would be the start of the process with this watch. Very nice dial that should clean up well also.

If you have troubles finding someone to repair it, let me know. We typically do not repair other people's watches (we do it as a hobby and fix a few watches for local people mostly), but we do repair watches and have plenty of South Bend parts available.