There isn’t much lift angle information for pocket watches on the web.
I hope this helps a future watchmaker student who’s looking for the lift angle of a Waltham 1883 18S pocket watch.
Here it is:
I estimate the lift angle of a Waltham 1883 18S pocket watch to be 50.0 degrees.
How I derived this number:
- I used a Sharpie to mark a point on the balance wheel.
- I wound the mainspring sufficiently to achieve a 180° amplitude. Then I took iPhone slo-mo videos and iteratively adjusted the mainspring until the Sharpie mark did a 360° oscillation.
- Using a Wischi 1900 Timegrapher, I adjusted the lift angle setting until it displayed a 180° amplitude.
- The resulting value is the watch’s lift angle.
This value is an estimate and should not be taken as gospel!
- The Wischi 1900 is a “prosumer-grade” tool. It’s not calibrated by a standards organization.
It’s a good (great? decent?) tool for a hobbyist or small shop. But I think a large commercial shop or manufacturer would use something better. - I determined the 360° oscillation by eyeballing the video and not by an engineering analysis of the balance.
- I’m a watchmaker student with only one year of professional instruction. I think I did this right and it’d be hard to screw it up, but boy I’ve said that before.
It was a long, hard road to get this measurement. For the gory details, watch the grandfather pocket watch videos located in a playlist on my YouTube channel.
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