With Built-in ‘First Aid Kits’ of Spare Parts
The purchase history of this device is trivial – once it was a broken stopwatch with an oxidised body and low-quality glass cover:
A hand is missing, the balance staff is broken – the appearance is unpresentable. But: the dial and case are intact, and the mechanism has not lost its details. It definitely makes sense to restore this watch!
Eventually brought back to health – the watch turned out to be a two-hand split-stopwatch with unusual 1/100-minute scale markings.
The case is made of cupronickel, is a metal easy to polish to a very shiny state. A new glass cover and hand complete the picture. The stopwatch is started and stopped by pressing the crown. The second hand is stopped and started by an additional knob.
Below is a photo of the plates underneath the dial, with the Excelsior Park branding. The lever system for switching on and putting the counter values back to zero is visible.
The appearance of the watch isn’t great, but the mechanism is fairly simple, and everything works well.
In addition to the superstructure of the ‘split’ second, a trained eye will immediately notice something unusual!
Note the small bridge with the inscription “ci-dessous fournitures de rechange – heironder reservedeelen”. It has no functional use, and does not cover any jewel with a wheel, so why is it in the mechanism?
We remove the bridge:
… And turn it over:
… And remove the plate:
And we see a selection of the most commonly needed replacement parts!
At this moment of discovery, I had no words. The broken stopwatch contained original spare parts. The axis of the balance was perfect, and now it works.
The dial markings are another unusual feature. The minute scale is divided into 100 divisions and the balance frequency is adjusted accordingly. The 1/100-minute counter was used for various purposes. For example, for navigation or calculating the time of technological processes. It is more convenient for performing calculations in hundredths of minutes – multiply, divide, add. It is much more difficult at 1/60th of a minute.
Excelsior Park mainly specialised in chronographs and stopwatches:
The advertisement shows a similar stopwatch with 1/100-minute markings.
Additional Materials:
Information about Excelsior Park.
