Stephen sent this Moeris watch in – it’s not running, and looks a bit sorry for itself.

My guess is that it’s 80 to 90 years old, and it has a silver case, which is quite unusual for watches, as it’s not the best material to make cases from, as the silver reacts with sweat.

There is a lot of dirt, and the balance staff is broken.

The bottom plate looks ok.

Look at all the dirt on the pallet fork!

Look at the balance jewel – there is a piece of metal that somebody put in there instead of the cap jewel. Nice work …

On the top plate, somebody punched grooves into the plate to make the balance cock tilt a bit. How about changing the balance staff instead? Just an idea …

And here is the little metal plate that somebody put in instead of a cap jewel.

Someone also punched some grooves into the balance cock – all to make the cock tilt.

After a bit of searching, I manage to find a second movement (also with broken balance staff) and a new balance staff.

Now I can put the movement back together.

I’m happy with that!

Thanks to the donor movement, we now have a proper cap jewel, and not a piece of tin 😉

I clean the case, and put the movement back in.

With a new crystal, this sure looks better than before.