This golden women’s wristwatch has the smallest movement I have ever serviced – the FHF59N. It’s 9mm x 21mm, and 3.45mm high.
The watch used to be my later mother’s, and she passed it on to my sister-in-law. It’s not working properly, so it landed on my bench. This was my mother’s “going-out” watch, and only worn when invited out or going to the theatre.
Quite a bit of service history scratched in here. 1997 is the last service I can decipher. That sound about right, as the balance is hardly swinging, and the watch badly needs a service.
Yes, that’s small 😉
I have to get a smaller movement holder!
This photo nicely shows the proportions – the balance and cock on a 1p coin.
With the bottom balance jewel removed, I take apart the bottom plate.
I only need one basket for all the parts – I’ve already ordered a new mainspring.
The new mainspring and the barrel.
Barrel and wheel bridge back in place, and nice and clean.
The balance starts swinging.
For a movement this size, the timegrapher image actually looks quite good. I don’t feel daft enough to try to adjust a beat error of 1.1ms on a movement this size 😉
The bottom plate completed.
The hands are tiny – no idea how you are supposed to tell the time and be ladylike and not squint!
The dial could do with restoration, but maybe we’ll leave that for another generation to do…
Is it possible to date this movement? Several of my grandmother’s watches appear to have the same one, but the styling of the watches makes me think they are from the 30s which might suggest they werent new to her…
The one here should be from the mid-sixties, as it has shock protection etc. I think these movements were made from 1950 onwards, and the first ones don’t have shock protection.