The hunter cased pocket watch was unique. It was said that men of distinction wore them. Ladies adorned themselves with them, but few understood them. These cases kept the bench jeweler in business.

The thin glass crystal was prone to breaking and worse yet, the delicate lip of the cover that flipped open was always being damaged due to improper closing of the watch case.

Improper case closing, sounds horrible! Well it is and it was. It is expensive to rebuild the lip that catches the steel spring that holds the hunter case closed. Here is what is supposed to happen. You press in on the crown and the cover flips open. You see what time it is and close the cover. Here is where the problem comes. Many owners simply snapped the cover closed. When this was done without pressing in again on the crown, the steel catch would wear against the soft gold or silver lip. Over time, this would wear away the lip and the cover would not stay closed.

This resulted in another problem. So jewelers would adjust the lid by bending it to compensate for the wear. So now, not only was the lip damaged, but the hinge was also distorted.

We get many hunter cased pocket watches sent to us where both of these problems need to be corrected. It is not cheap. The movement needs to be removed from the case along with some springs to avoid annealing them when the new hinge assembly is soldered into place. So now you can see why it is very important to properly close your hunter cased pocket watch.

Remember....always press the crown in when closing your watch. Press it in far enough so that the lip on the cover clears the steel catch. When the cover is all the way down, release the crown and the catch engages the lip and locks the cover into place. Doing this will allow your watch to be used for years without the need for case rebuilding. It is also a good idea to apply a very small amount of oil on the hinge assembly. This keeps the hinge in perfect working condition and allows the cover to fly open.

A small amount of care can prevent a hundred dollar repair.

Courtesy of Horologist.com and Timebuilders.com.