Ooof. I have this WW2 clock from a Spitfire that I acquired back in the late 70s. Looks in pretty good nick for its age and also seems to be in reasonable semi-running order, as in it almost keeps ticking when you set it off. I guess it needs a clean and some watch oil.
It's marked "AM" on the back, which stands for "Air Ministry".
The movement is Swiss but the watch was manufactured by "Smith and Sons (MA) Ltd" in London. The date is 11th November, 1938, which ties in.
That spring and lever allow the time to be set by rotating the bezel, rather than wind it up.
That looks like an adjustor for the timekeeping, possibly missing a nub? The curved thing connects the external button to the sprung lever which allows time setting. Once released, the bezel defaults to winding it up. This is an "8 day" clock.
Anyway, what about those suspicious looking "luminous" hands? Out with the Radiacode radiation detector.
Hmm. Should I be worried? I'm seeing perhaps 6mR/h, which is about 60uS/h. Sounds as if I shouldn't crush up the paint and put it on my cornflakes. However, once it's a few feet away, the count rate falls right off.
I need to get some watch oil and lube it up a bit. It almost works but stops ticking after a few seconds. I guess 90 year old oil possibly isn't quite as effective as it was when it left the factory.
Well that was a bit of fun. Finally I have something to wake up the Radiacode with.
No comments:
Post a Comment