Waltham 1908-640

This is one of a series of posts illustrating the main grades of Waltham size 16 watches, primarily the 1899 & 1908 models.

The 1908-640 grade is rare; only 5,000 were made all were open faced, 4,000 were lever set and 1,000 pendant set of which the watch shown is one.

It is essentially a Royal but with the addition of a steel escape wheel, a double roller and with the more precise screw type micro adjuster replacing the simpler star type.

The movement has 17 jewels, a Swiss lever escapement with cut compensated balance and Breguet Spring with screw micro adjuster. It is adjusted for temperature (and probably isochronism - the grade is not documented) and in three positions. It has gold jewel settings and centre wheel.

Very unusually the signed two piece dial is marked as being English Made - most are unmarked or Swiss, it being cheaper to import the basic movement and case it in UK, it also fitted with the way watches using the "standard" watch case could be configured locally as described in this blog post.