He can't keep getting away with it (a Lanco story.)

I bought a watch. Shocker, right? It was December 21st and I managed to find myself in Pretoria. Next week I will find myself in Pretoria for the next four years. In other words, I'm studying there. That Saturday, I wasn't there for anything academic, I was there for watches.

I saw a listing for some watches on Facebook Marketplace earlier that week and decided that I should stop by and look for Christmas gifts. I already gave my parents watches (for mother's and father's day respectively) more as a symbolic gesture than something intended for them to use, as they are both avid smart watch people. I wasn't going to buy a gift for myself, as I was already saving for a big watch purchase for my graduation, 18th birthday and Christmas combined. I wasn't there to spend much. Most of what was there was on the cheaper side, which was exactly what I wanted. Think Mortima and Prim, to name a few; watch brands that are decent, but not all too costly.

My thought was to get a quality, but affordable mechanical watch for my younger brother, the sort of watch I broke my teeth on. Watches like these populated my collection in vast numbers in early-mid-2023. I know exactly how to scratch a bargain Swiss jobber out of a rubbish bin and get it looking and running good. My eyes are perpetually peeled for names like Roamer, Rotary, Lanco, Camy, Edox/Delfin and so many more. I had my caseback knife and rubber ball with me. I was like a bargain-hunting watchmaker Schwarzenegger.

The initial look at the seller's items was a bit disappointing; a lot of pin-pallet and a lot of pristine watches. I was worried I might have to leave with an '80s quartz Prim, which was nice, but not exactly the old mechanical thing brought back from the dead that I had envisioned. Then we spoke some more. As we spoke, more watches revealed themselves. Yes! A box of watches in various conditions, ranging from, "kill me, please" to "alright" came out, promptly causing me to get my fingers dirty digging through it. I found two Jewelette Hornets, simple watches on the lower end that I've been perplexed by forever. Maybe they're unique to South Africa, because I don't see many around. Even Mikrolisk doesn't have any record of them. They were both too far gone for a four day restoration in time for Christmas. I continued digging. The seller even showed me an Accutron he had got running. It was in decent condition and came at a bargain price. It was just too much for me to spend that day, due to my strict budget limitations. (Much to my chagrin, he sold the Accutron the next day, which was roughly when I discovered that I could have afforded it.)

Eventually, he brought out an almost spotless Lanco. I'm familiar with Lanco. I love Lanco. They are the sort of watches that can still be found for a bargain, but aren't always taken care of. This example was new old stock, according to the seller. It had an issue however: it wouldn't hold a wind and would sometimes run briefly,

but backwards. At this point, my younger brother left the equation. If he wanted a NOS Lanco from me, he wouldn't be such an arse.

The seller told me that the cannon pinion was faulty. I knew that something else had to be wrong if the watch ran backwards. I went ahead and bought it along with another, very, very abused Lanco for spares. The movement is a Ronda 1235. Ronda is a big name in movements, mostly known today for their quartz movements. Modern Ronda movements are good quality for the price, but I was hesitant about vintage Ronda movements. They made pin-pallets, a lot of pin-pallets, actually. Some were, um, what's the word again, oh, shit. The 1235 was made in many variations, both with pin-lever and Swiss lever escapements. The Swiss lever movements were signed "RAX" or "RL." I think the pin-lever movements were signed "RL" or "RE." The movement in my NOS Lanco was signed "RAX"

When I got home, I immediately began dissecting it. It was clean. Not one part was scratched or stained, so I really do believe the seller that it was NOS. If it isn't, then it was never exposed to the elements to any meaningful degree. The fault was in the leaves of the pinion on one train wheel (although they looked fine to me) and, as mentioned, the cannon pinion.

The cannon pinion on the Ronda 1235 is funky. Firstly, it's two pinions. One smaller pinion is friction fit to the inside of the larger pinion. I tried tightening the original as I would a normal cannon pinion and fucked it up excellently. My donor's cannon pinion was shorter, so that meant I had to find a replacement that used the date version of the movement series specifically. I asked my watchmaker and...

shock horror. He had nothing.

Already feeling tired of what was supposed to be an in and out job turned into a very long ordeal, I scoured eBay. No exact matches. I would have to hope that a day-date movement shared the correct cannon pinion.

I left the watch still in a few pieces to go celebrate Christmas with family. The day before we left, a Christmas miracle happened. The watchmaker messaged me saying he had the right cannon pinion.

If I was in an autobiographical film, that damn Mariah Carey Christmas song would have started playing, because I felt like dancing like the ladies from sanitary pad commercials. Once I got the part and fitted it, I was faced with the same issue. I tightened the pinion carefully and re-fitted it. It worked. I cased it up and showed my mom my latest trinket. I then decided to set the date. The movement has no quickset, which means you have to move the hands back and forth past midnight to advance the date. This isn't ideal, because it wears out the cannon pinion. I had nothing to fear, because it was tight and oiled properly to prevent this sort of wear.

Would you be surprised if I told you the pinion basically instantly became loose again and the date stopped changing?

I was tired. I decided to hammer the smaller pinion out from the larger one and tighten it. Guess what... Nothing. So I figured out after actually looking at how the movement functions that the larger pinion needs to sit tight against the smaller one, which needs to sit loose on the movement. If I had realised that the movement shared some Roskopf design features, I would have come across this sooner. So getting the watch going again was as simple as tightening the larger pinion. I didn't have the right size reamer to fit the larger pinion. I had to call my Superman again and ask to borrow his set. Happily, he obliged and I used them. Writing this made me realise that I have in fact forgotten to return them. Oops. Finally, after two weeks, my Lanco was running and keeping time perfectly. Did I wear it? Once, before servicing it so that it would roll around and get damaged in my car on the way to the watchmaker. This one's on the chopping block. Maybe I have a subconscious tendency to want to get rid of watches that give me a hard time when servicing. The only watch I have sold this far was my Bucherer Chronometer, which also had to sit for a while while I sourced a replacement escape wheel. I also think that this watch is very '70s. Some like this design, others hate it, but I'm on the fence. It's less than 36mm in diameter, but the squareish case makes it wear larger, too large for me and my penchant for 33mm dress watches. Someone will like the presence that this watch has. For better or worse, I have too many watches and this one is just (and only just) not different enough to keep a stable place in the... erm... stable. I did miss my blue Edox for a very long time after cannibalising it. Maybe this will be the same, because I don't have another blue dial watch. Maybe I just won't care. I guess we'll never know.