Chrome-plated cased pin-pallet lever centre-seconds wrist-watch with expanding bracelet strap

Description — British Museum

Centre-seconds wrist-watch. 3/4 plate movement with pin-pallet lever escapement. Printed card dial with Arabic hour numerals and minutes numbered every fifth division; at centre, within green circle is portrait of Babe Ruth holding three baseball bats with signature below. Hour, minute and centre-seconds hands. Chromium-plated case with snap-on stainless steel back. Chromium-plated expanding bracelet. Complete with original presentation case in form of baseball.

Curator's comments — British Museum

Comment from Richard Good, Catalogue of Watches in the British Museum. Vol. V (Unpublished manuscript) Maker anonymous Switzerland, c. 1960 "Babe Ruth" keyless wound wrist watch with pin pallet lever escapement. Signature: On the dial 'Babe Ruth' and 'SWISS'. On the movement back plate 'EXACTA TIME CORP and SWISS ONE 1 JEWEL UNADJUSTED' Case: A chrome plated two piece case with a snap on bezel. In the case back 'SWISS MADE' The case has spring bars and is complete with a chrome plated bracelet. With the watch is a presentation box shaped as a base ball and separating in the middle. The "seams' are decorated with red chevrons to simulate stitching and the ball is inscribed also in red 'OFFICIAL Babe Ruth WRIST WATCH SPORTS WATCH OF CHAMPIONS'. Dial and Hands: At the dial centre is a polychrome portrait of Babe Ruth with three baseball bats. The centre seconds hand is red and there are blued steel luminised skeletonised hands. The dial is secured by screws one at 12 o'clock and one at 6 o'clock. Movement: Ebauche marks: On the inside of the front plate is Brac in an oval cartouche and the number 40. Frame: Nickel silver plates, the back plate is supported by three pillars and secured by four screws, it covers the train and the barrel, there is a cock for the pallets and one for the balance. Barrel and mainspring: A going barrel with a steel cover which carries a slipping minute wheel. Barrel I diameter 15.8 mm., height 1.5 mm. Mainspring height 1.3 mm., thickness 0.15 mm. Arbor: Diameter 4.05 mm., snailed. Hooking: Pressed from the barrel wall. Train Wheels: not gilded the centre third and centre seconds wheels with 5 crossings the escape wheel with four. Jewelled: One jewel only; a ruby endstones in the balance cock. The jewel pressed in. Escapement: A pin pallet lever escapement with an obtuse angle layout. A long lever. Effectively a double roller with a brass impulse finger. The lever is brass and the pallet pins are steel. The escape wheel is brass with four crossings. An equidistant locking escapement. The number of teeth embraced 4 ½. Balance and Spring: A monometallic balance of brass with three arms. Balance diameter 10.6 mm., thickness 0.56 mm. A Ni-Span C balance spring with 9 ¼ turns. Means of regulation: An index on the balance cock registers against a centre mark and a + and -. Train Counts and Beat Rate: Great wheel (barrel) 112 (rotates once in four hours) Second wheel 84 pinion 7 Third wheel 60 pinion 7 Centre seconds wheel 48 Escape wheel 18 pinion 6 Beat rate 18,000 Motion work: cannon pinion 12, minute wheel 48, minute pinion 14, hour wheel 42. Winding system: Conventional positive set keyless work. Dimensions: The ball diameter is 75 mm. Case diameter 32.5 mm., height 12.3 mm., over the glass. Movement diameter 30.0 mm., height 7.3 mm. Provenance: Donated by the Heron Corporation Ltd. in 1983.