Jaeger-LeCoultre
Calibre 222 Mantel Clock

Jaeger-LeCoultre is famous for their very high end & very expensive Swiss watches,
but they also have a two-century long tradition in fine clockmaking.

Lucky to have here a nice Mid Century Modern Model 358 mantel clock.

Lots of patina (grubby fingerprints), & the scars of some not very sympathetic restoration & service work over the years.

Hopefully a good cleaning & movement service will breath some life back into it.

Listed in an estate auction as "Not Running", but took a chance & got lucky.
This 358 is actually complete, intact, & running, although not keeping time particularly well.
But, the pessimistic auction lot essay at least served to drive away competing bidders
(hence able to bring this piece home at a nice discount...).

Rear view.

The reverse view through the clear glass clock face always looks a little strange.

Can see the wing-nut key for winding, the knob for setting, & the portal hatch for allowing access for timing adjustments.

Also starting to see some of the messy prior restoration work that we can now look forward to cleaning up. Glue smeared around & oozing out from under the collet ring securing the movement housing to the clock face (certainly did not leave the factory in Switzerland like that...).

The winding key is threaded on, & the setting knob is friction fit. These need to come off before the movement can be removed from the housing.

Lots of set screws holding the outer assembly together. Need to get the case taken apart & moved out of the way before we can have a clean shot at getting the movement housing separated from the glass clock face.

There's our '358' model number.

Let's start getting this old clock broken down for cleaning & service.

The case housing is solid brass, & all together weighs close to three pounds, so the end caps are not just ornamental but do help quite a bit in handling & manipulating the clock when it needs to be wound & set. (Wouldn't want to drop it!)

Case taken apart.

The clear pane of glass rests in front, with the hands, numerals, & dial medallion in between.

This is not Lexan, tempered glass, or anything of the like. Just a pair of plain old 3/32" sheet glass squares. Kind of impressive to see the whole thing survive intact for 60-plus years.

Removing the hands

Set screw fixing the collet ring to the movement housing.

More set screws, these ones fixing the dial medallion to the movement housing. Number 1 comes out without issue.

Well that's not good...

Number 2 snaps in half mid-shaft. Looking closely, number 1 & number 2 don't really look like they match for size & shape.

(ie: someone was improvising last time around...)

At least one, & I'm going to go ahead & guess two, incorrect set screws holding the dial to the housing, & then a mess of old glue holding the dial to the clock face.
Not sure which came first, but it's looking like there are two competing hack jobs from back in the day
holding this old clock together.
But, that's all OK, now we know what we're up against...

The broken off screw shaft still has purchase on the movement housing. Need to get the dial off, so one way or another that screw shaft needs to get backed out.

Will give it a go with the wafer-thin screw slot file & attempt to cut a new screw slot into what very little bit of the shaft protrudes up out of the dial collar.

It's not much, but that's as deep as I can go without cutting (further) into the dial collar.

Good enough!
Screw shaft is free of the dial collar & dial
is free of the movement housing.

And with that done the clock movement is now
finally free of the housing.

Compared to working on a watch it does seem like of a lot of work to get to this point of finally
having the movement free of the case.
There is a lot more complexity in the case compared to a normal watch, although now that it's out the clock movement itself looks & feels quite simple in construction in comparison to a watch movement.
Just a difference in the feel & difference in approach between the watches & clocks, but nice to have some variety among these restoration projects.

Dial washer, hour wheel, & cannon pinion.

That amount of dirt & grime would certainly contribute to the poor timekeeping performance.

Up until the late 1800's, clocks & pocket watches would typically have been key wound & set. For this clock & others like it the winding key & setting key are permanently fixed on the rear of the movement.

Some similarities & some differences in this clock movement compared to pocket watch movements of the same era.

This is called an "8 Day Clock", as the movement is designed to run & keep time for up to 8 days on a full wind. This achieved by having a wide, long, & stiff mainspring capable of storing 4x to 5x the amount of power as would be expected from a normal pocket watch mainspring.

That added size for the mainspring results in a very big mainspring barrel, & then also what looks like a huge amount of empty space inside the interior volume of the movement. Just something different compared to what the watchmaker is used to seeing.

Towards the end of the 19th century the "Keyless" pocket watch became popular, the winding key dispensed with & the watches now being wound & set via the crown, like we would see on any modern watch today.
Making that winding / setting operation possible was the newly developed "Keyless Works", as seen on many of the other restoration projects here on WestCoastTime.

This clock movement follows the old fashioned key wound tradition. This works fine for this application, & also has the effect of reducing the complexity & overall parts count for this clock movement compared to the other more
modern "keyless works" watch movements.

Upper plate removed.

Can see the ratchet click & spring on the underside of the top plate. This allows the mainspring to be wound via the key on the back, & then not unwind on its own once the key is released.

Getting the balance out early on in the breakdown process helps to keep the very delicate hairspring out of the way of accidental clumsiness.

Pallet bridge & pallet removed.

Can see the progression of the going train of wheels. Second wheel to third to fourth to fifth to escape wheel.

A pocket watch movement would not typically have a fifth wheel, but the power from that big mainspring needs to get stepped down one more time before it reaches the timekeeping organ of the escapement.

The second wheel arbor is fixed to the setting wheel on the other side of the mainplate. I can't tell if it's threaded or friction fit & I don't want to guess wrong in trying to force it apart, so this can stay together just as it is for the cleaning process.

That's good for the breakdown.
Now off to the ultrasonic cleaner for 2 cycles of cleaning, 3 cycles of rinse, & then heat drying.

All cleaned up & ready for reassembly.

Small drop of lubrication for the balance cap jewel.

Going train & pallet.

These clock parts all feel very tall & top heavy compared to a conventional watch movement, everything feels ready & eager to fall over & out of alignment...

The ratchet wheel shows some corrosion & pitting, but the part is still very serviceable
(and good luck finding a replacement, even if we wanted one).