Most of the smaller sizes that are sent here for restoration are family heirlooms, usually from someone’s great-grandmother, but any collector who concentrates on these smaller pieces can find some impressive examples. W…

Hats off to one of my Florida customers for outbidding the competition to bring home this stunning 21-jewel Elgin hunter in a solid gold case from a popular auction house that happily sells to scrappers despite knowing f…

Another fantastic family heirloom, and this time a 21-jewel 999 Ball, made by Hamilton and based largely on their popular 992. It was sent in by a new customer just down the road here in New York.

The San Jose Watch Co had one of the shortest runs in American horology. Using the equipment from the failed Otay Watch Co in late 1891, the new factory was in operation for less than a month before an investor brought l…

The rarest regular-production pattern made by Seth Thomas was this one, incorporating a square center (the rarest of all pattern elements) with a two-tone four-leaf clover and blocked in a single run of seventy. This pat…

A new contact once asked if replacing the mainspring was standard practice on every watch restored here, and when I replied that it was not he said he would go elsewhere, which is fine because replacing the mainspring wh…

There are several variants of Ball watches with Brotherhood plugs and matching dials, some colored and some with black-only signatures. They are coveted among collectors and usually do well at auction.

One of the best two-tone full-plate patterns is the Model 6 Bunn Special from Illinois, IMO. There are several variants, and the gilding ring came in yellow or rose gold but the gilding seemed to be especially thin, sinc…

Elgin’s 16-size Model 1 was known as the Convertible because of the moveable winding pinion that allowed it to function as either open-face or hunter. Several grades had higher jewel counts and clip-on dials, which was u…

Very early surviving examples are rare and the smaller the numbers get, the more exciting they are to work on. A new customer from Rockford, Illinois sent in this two-digit Rockford Model 1, serial number 80.