Homage Forum

As museum pieces go, here’s a Perregaux, 175-200 years old



It is 37mm and has the Breguet parachute shock system, so it’ll work as a wristwatch. It works great but needs a service and a good cleaning. I’m working on a case design for it, kind of like an ultra thin Egi but with wire lugs and a crown guard that holds the winding key.

It smells a bit like whale oil and still keeps good time.

Hypnogagia wrote: ↑July 14th, 2023, 1:19 am As museum pieces go, here’s a Perregaux, 175-200 years old



It is 37mm and has the Breguet parachute shock system, so it’ll work as a wristwatch. It works great but needs a service and a good cleaning. I’m working on a case design for it, kind of like an ultra thin Egi but with wire lugs and a crown guard that holds the winding key.

It smells a bit like whale oil and still keeps good time.

Thats something Historic for sure !! Movement is like a 3D model!

I’m a bit nervous about tearing it down for restoration, every part was hand made. Thankfully, old movements like this go for ridiculously cheap on eBay (non-parachute models at least), like $20 and often less. I picked up a few to practice on before I rebuild this one.

I can’t wait to see what it looks like when it’s all cleaned up. The jewels are completely clear, and pre-date synthetic gemstones so who knows, could be clear sapphire or even diamond.

Hypnogagia wrote: ↑July 14th, 2023, 2:40 pm I’m a bit nervous about tearing it down for restoration, every part was hand made. Thankfully, old movements like this go for ridiculously cheap on eBay (non-parachute models at least), like $20 and often less. I picked up a few to practice on before I rebuild this one.

I can’t wait to see what it looks like when it’s all cleaned up. The jewels are completely clear, and pre-date synthetic gemstones so who knows, could be clear sapphire or even diamond.

You are not doing this yourself?

In theory I’m doing it myself I’m working on some of the more common versions of this era to get to know the architecture and idiosyncrasies of the design. When I’ve gotten a few or a dozen of those working properly, and my wife and son go on a vacation for a week I’ll dive into this one.

At the moment it works beautifully, I only ran it for a short time though. Don’t want to cause any issues with the old oil wearing things down. If it still had a case I would just restore it to original, but it’s just the movement so it’ll be resurrected as a wristwatch.

Also Yoda, if you have any words of advice, insight or ancient horological rituals I would be most thankful. Chronoglide glide has a video of one of these being torn down, and I’ve got a book from Levin and the book by Daniels for reference. My biggest concern is that I don’t break anything or add any new scratches

I am not familiar with the shock protection and I can't see clearly how the hairspring is attached, but I don't think it will present any problems when taking it apart.
I know that some of these barrels are fitted with what is called a Maltese cross to avoid breaking anything when winding it, it should be underneath the barrel.
Also, be careful with the center wheel, some of these old movements and fitted with a pretty weird part and it can be tricky to remove the center wheel. Longines had that particular system back in the days.

The shock protection is a Breguet design, I’m not sure how well it functions but I love the look. I think you’re right about the center wheel, the book says to remove the pin from the back to remove the cannon pinion (standard method from the front may break the leaves). I need to read up on the Maltese cross part, that sounds interesting!

The part that really blows me away is the beveling on the steel bits, I’ll post up a teardown/build thread with macro shots when I get into the project.

Hypnogagia wrote: ↑July 15th, 2023, 2:10 pm The shock protection is a Breguet design, I’m not sure how well it functions but I love the look. I think you’re right about the center wheel, the book says to remove the pin from the back to remove the cannon pinion (standard method from the front may break the leaves). I need to read up on the Maltese cross part, that sounds interesting!

The part that really blows me away is the beveling on the steel bits, I’ll post up a teardown/build thread with macro shots when I get into the project.

Interesting times ahead.