Theoretical questions about movement sizes in GPF homages

[unreformed66]

Negative set was the standard in pendant set American watches. There are relatively few pocket watch size American movements that used positive setting. A few examples are the Hamilton 917/921/923/945 series, the Howard 10 size series, and some late Elgin and Illinois 12 size movements. I've solved the negative set problem for a couple of builds of my own but then again I've got 29 years of watchmaking experience, lots of tools including lathes and an extensive parts stash. And they weren't easy even then. As a beginner especially you need to think long and hard about using non standard movements in your builds. You're setting yourself up for a lot of frustration if you don't.

[spade_lt]

There actually is a big (16s) american movement which is stem set - Waltham 1888. If I remember correctly that's actually the first american movement with stem setting. It' s awailable both in open face and hunter configurations.
But it's really thich and with a stem, which has to be rethreaded to be usefull... so still a lot of work.

[unreformed66]

There actually is a big (16s) american movement which is stem set - Waltham 1888. If I remember correctly that's actually the first american movement with stem setting. It' s awailable both in open face and hunter configurations.
But it's really thich and with a stem, which has to be rethreaded to be usefull... so still a lot of work.

Yes, and some very early Hamilton 16 size movements also had a "positive set" stem. Good luck making one of them work in a wristwatch application though. The stems on these do not go far into the movement and do not have a pilot pivot to speak of and were supported by the case neck so that they didn't fall out. I've dealt with more than a few of them over the last few decades and I didn't mention them for a reason. If you want a 16 size American movement with a "real" positive stem set you're pretty much limited to the Hamilton 4992B and a couple of the late Elgin variants like the 616, 574 and etc. The 571 B.W. Raymond was lever set even though it uses a Swiss style stem so it's pretty much useless for wristwatch builds. And the Model '88 Waltham isn't really a standard 16 size movement anyway, it's thicker than usual and won't fit standard 16 size cases.