1947 Myron

One of the more common 14/0 sized tank models is the Myron.  It was introduced in 1941 and produced through 1951 so it was made for quite a while, even with a short break for WWII.  It's also one of the few models that was produced in rose gold filled and was called the Coral Myron.  That was only produced for a single year and it's much less easy to find.

I like the Myron, it's a decent sized watch considering the watches from the 1940s can be very small.  It was cased in 10K gold filled and was outfitted with the 17 jewel 980 movement.  The sterling silver dial has a two tone white and silver butler finish and features solid 18K gold numerals.

My project watch arrived in non-working order.  If I try to wind it the hands move, sort of, so it looks like it's stuck between winding and setting.  The crown will move out and in, sort of, but something is definitely going on.  The hands are a bit corroded where they attach to the cannon pinion but the beat up crystal makes it hard to see.

The back of the case is engraved with a Christmas presentation from 1947 - almost 80 years ago.  The corners of the case back and near the crown are worn through a little but that's not too unusual for such a flat-backed watch.

With the bezel and crystal removed, you can see the dial and hands a lot better.  This appears to be an original dial.  I'll try to clean it up but I doubt it will be much better other than the numerals will be nice and shiny.

I lifted the movement out of the case back and can now see that the movement is in decent shape.  I was expecting a rusty mess.  The balance doesn't move freely but it's not wobbling, so that's a good sign.

After removing the dial and hands I can check out the other side of the movement.  The winding pinion and the clutch wheel are both very rusty, as is the stem.  That explains the issue with winding and setting.

Everything is taken apart and thoroughly cleaned.  I was able to remove the rust from the stem but I'll replace the winding pinion and clutch.  This watch had a white alloy mainspring so I can reuse that to power the watch.

The reassembled movement is bright and shiny.  It's ticking away with a decent motion.  Let's see what the timer thinks.

I was initially fooled by how close the two lines are but they are actually about as far apart as they can get.  The beat error of 9.9ms is way too high.  The good news is it should be clear to see which direction I need to adjust the hairspring collet in order to reduce the beat error.

Alright, the two lines appear to be the same distance to each other but now they're actually close to one another.  The beat error of 1.3ms is well within my personal specs.  The amplitude looks fine too.

I replaced the hands since they were corroded but the rest of the watch looks fine now.  I still need to replace the crystal but I polished the plastic crystal and it will protect the dial and hands until a new glass crystal arrives.