1920 Elgin Grade 303 Refurbishment

It's been a while since I touched any watch projects but this was a great one for a rainy Saturday. A 1920 Elgin Grade 303 pocket watch. While strictly speaking it’s not a notable or rare watch but it has a lot of sentimental value. It belonged to my mother-in-law's father and I actually inherited a bunch of his watch making tools years ago. It's what got me interested in them.

This one got dropped recently, the crystal broke and after further inspection it wouldn't run either. The balance seemed to swing okay but no power was transferring through the gear train to the pallet fork.

I didn’t find any broken or damaged parts during the full strip down and I was happy to see that all the jewels and pivots looked to be in reasonable shape. It had been sitting for decades and all the oil had completely dried up - the likely culprit for the jammed up gear train. It's running great after a full cleaning, reassembly and fresh lubrication!