South Bend Grade 411
Description
At the beginning of the 20th century, the South Bend Watch Company from Columbus, Ohio, USA, reached its peak, producing a total of over one million watches of varying quality until they ceased production in the late 1920s
The 1910/1920s South Bend Grade 411 caliber from the “Chesterfield” series, in size 12 (American measurement), model 1, is one of their highest-quality movements, both technically and visually.
base plate
The silver-colored base plate is a feast for the eyes with its almost complete pearling and clean engravings, and of course, all important bearings are fitted with jewels, even the minute wheel has got a jewel-bearing.
gear train
The gear train is completely classic; its design, with a barrel, central minute wheel, third wheel, decentral seconds wheel at 6 o’clock, and escapement wheel, was absolutely state-of-the-art.
fake cocks
The gear train bridge, on the other hand, is a bit disappointing, because even the use of chatons cannot disguise the fact that there are no individual cocks for the escape wheel and seconds wheel. Rather, these two cocks are merely indicated, and in reality, a gear train bridge is used that supports both wheels simultaneously.
Of course, this does not detract from the excellent appearance!
side view of the gear train
The balance wheel is a bimetallic screw balance, operating at 18,000 A/h. These are adjusted using a swan-neck fine regulator, which certainly enabled excellent accuracy at the time.
caries on the winding sliding mechanism
This particular example is unfortunately quite worn, with the winding mechanism in particular showing significant signs of wear, and the sliding mechanism is suffering from a kind of caries. Whether this is due to the material being too soft or too brittle is unknown.
South Bend Grade 411: Dial side
On the dial side, you can see the then-modern yoke winding mechanism with its long springs; here, the available space was well utilized.
Furthermore, at the 5 o’clock position, you can see the two adjustable, eccentric, banking pins – a detail found almost exclusively in American movements, but in these, it is found almost everywhere.
Technical data
| Manufacturer: | South Bend |
| Caliber: | Grade 411 |
| Caliber base: | South Bend Grade 407 |
| Size: | 12s (measured: 39,5mm) |
| A/h: | 18000 |
| Number of jewels: | 17 |
| Escapement: | Pallet lever |
| Balance types: | bimetallic screw balance (two legs) |
| Shock protection(s): | none |
| Balance bearing / direction hairspring: | Clockwise |
| Moveable stud: | no |
| Adjust mechanism: | Swan neck |
| Construction type: | solid construction |
| Winding mechanism: | yoke winding system |
| Setting lever spring: | 2 holes |
| Attachment of setting lever: | screwed |
| Features: |
|
| Production years: | 1910 - 1928 |
| Production figures: | 47.000 |
| Inventory number: | 24031 |
Usage gallery
South Bend "Chesterfield" pocket watch