Horological Meandering

Issing San
10

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A few answers...

1. What's the story behind the NOS movement modified by Andersen? Is it an old ETA movement? How durable and dependable is it and why?

The SpidoLIte SA is fitted with a New Old Stock A. Schild ref. 1876 movement (NOS), meaning an unused, vintage movement. A. Schild was one of the major movement manufacturers in Switzerland up until the 1978, when several small movement manufactures and A. Schild merged into what is today known as ETA. For more info on ETA and A. Schild, please read here:

watchescorner.blogspot.com

This movement is then re-polished with Cotes de Geneve pattern, calibrated and regulated to modern standards. Additionally, a 0,2mm blue gold rotor plate bearing the “ANDERSEN GENEVE” and LW logos is added to the rotor. The movement can be said to be the grand father of the ETA 2892 of 2894 movements that is widely used today. It has Incabloc shock resistance and nonstop seconds hand (which means that the seconds hand does not stop when the crown is pulled out to the time-setting position).

The same movement is used in several of Svend Andersen’s watches, including the World Timer Sanford Fleming.

2. What has been done as action on Melvyn's remark about "rough burrs and manufacturing marks still present". See the editor's note at the bottom of the Basel 2010 report on Linde Werdelin

The “rough burrs” and manufacturing marks of the vintage SA movements have actually only occurred on a few of the movements. Given that the movements are NOS vintage pieces, they do not come with the same finish as some new movements will have today (this is because of the technical limitations of the 70s). This is simply not possible to achieve with a 30-year old movement. Furthermore, as these movements are partly manually re-polished and decorated by Andersen Geneve, you will see variations on the different movements. Just like you will on the blue gold rotors, because of the different impurities in the iron oxidation of the blue gold. However, we have long discussed the “manufacturing marks” with Svend Andersen and we are looking to decorate/modify the movements even more (on the dial side)... although it could be an interesting undertaking to pursue, we didn’t want to give the watch a bigger price tag as our first signature piece. It’s a price vs value thing. We can certainly look to decorate/modify the movements even more (on the dial side) if this is what our customers want...

3. Can you describe the quality control process of LW for the SpidoLite?

There are several steps in the QC process of the SpidoLite watches. Svend Andersen checks the movements before disassembling them into pieces before the decorations and cotes de geneve
engravings. After the different bridges have been polished, they are QC’ed again. Then the movements are assembled and tested/adjusted in 5 positions. Menwhile, the incredibly complex cases are being finished with the case maker. A very resource heavy process because of the many hours of milling from the CNC machines. The CNC machines leave milling tracks on the “inside” of the case (“inside” not being where the dial, mvnt etc is...). After the QC of the case finish is done, the cases are assembled and tested for water resistance. After approval from the case maker, the cases, dials, hands etc are sent to Svend Andersen and he cases his movements. After casing, the full watches are tested for 4 days in different positions. After Svend Andersen’s approval, the watches are sent back to the case maker for a final QC and water resistance test. Once the watches are received at our HQ in London, the watches are tested for its amplitude and accuracy before sent out to retailers and customers.

I hope I was able to answer your questions in full and look forward to reading your comments online once you take the plunge and acquire one of our creations

Have a great weekend

Best,
Martin