Germinal 0900 Silver Pocket Watch. Is anyone familiar with this?
I'm really hoping there are some real horology nerds (high praise) out there that can tell me what I have here. I won this in a giveaway. It isn't running and it just winds and winds without ever reaching a point of resistance. Also the balance will kick up a little when the watch is in hand setting mode. I'd love to get it cleaned up and running, but first I'd like to hear any information that anyone could possibly offer about it.
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J. Paul Bradshaw II
Welcome to my WatchCrunch profile.
Lanett, AL, USA
Member since
Last active: 2 days ago
19.05 cm
Upon I spection, it seems that there is a problem with the hairspring. When the balance wheel moves the hairspring does nothing. It's as if the hairspring has become disconnected from the balance wheel.
You might wanna consult @MrBloke @Aurelian and @GasWorks
If you are not getting resistance then I suspect a mainspring is the culprit. What happens is that the oil gunks up and then the spring breaks while winding. Germinal is a nice old brand and parts should be available.
It's a nice Art-Deco piece, my guess would be 1920s or 1930s.
Not much about the brand, apparantly owned by one of the numerous members of the Picard family in watchmaking, though it could well be some Picard unrelated to that Picard family, it's a relatively common French (and French Swiss) surname.
https://mikrolisk.de/show.php?site=280&suchwort=germinal&searchMode=exact&searchWhere=trademark
As for the movement, it's by Unitas, of the 8X/14X family of calibres:
http://www.ranfft.de/cgi-bin/bidfun-db.cgi?10&ranfft&2&2uswk&Unitas_143
It's a nice Art-Deco piece, my guess would be 1920s or 1930s.
Not much about the brand, apparantly owned by one of the numerous members of the Picard family in watchmaking, though it could well be some Picard unrelated to that Picard family, it's a relatively common French (and French Swiss) surname.
https://mikrolisk.de/show.php?site=280&suchwort=germinal&searchMode=exact&searchWhere=trademark
As for the movement, it's by Unitas, of the 8X/14X family of calibres:
http://www.ranfft.de/cgi-bin/bidfun-db.cgi?10&ranfft&2&2uswk&Unitas_143
Wow! I appreciate all of the info?
I have something like this..