It Worked...And Now...Not So Much

I was looking for a prop for an upcoming show. Truth be told, I'm not really sure if I have the prop--probably not, but that didn't stop me from looking. We don't have a lot of places to stow things, so I was looking in a chest of drawers. That's when I came upon a little plastic bag full of old non-battery powered watches. One caught my eye--a beautiful Seiko Automatic 17 Jewels, blue-on-blue with an oval face.

I decided to see if I could open it up and clean it a little to see if I could get it to go. I took out my make-shift tools and tried to unscrew the back. It didn't budge. It didn't surprise me--many times they don't. No big deal. I set it aside thinking I would put it back when I noticed something.

It was running.

I couldn't believe it. I don't know the watches history--I'm sure I bought it at a thrift store years ago. But there is was...running. It made me happy. And the original band even fit. That was very cool.

I should have left it alone. But I didn't. I noticed after a few days the watch ran a few minutes slow each day. I've had several wind-up watches in my day and many of them have a small adjustment on the back that allows a person to either speed it up or slow it down. I thought if I could just open it up and fiddle with it, I could set the time and not only would it keep running like it was, but it would be a more accurate timepiece.

Today I took it apart.

And it stopped working.

Bummer!

And the worst part was, after I took it apart, I was unable to reach the adjustment movement. The mechanism was encased in metal. Bummer, again!

Then I had an idea--maybe the pressure of it being all in one piece caused it to work before. I quickly put everything back together and...nothing. I could not get it to work. I suppose it's fitting. I had no idea why it suddenly started working and I have no idea why it stopped, other than it needs servicing. 

I suppose I could take it to my sister-in-law's brother. He's a watch/clock repairman. Maybe one day. Then again, maybe I could hide it in my drawer for another decade and see if it suddenly works.

It could happen...