Should you buy a pin-pallet?

This post is heavily inspired by Greg’s post Inflation hits the Dollar (Watch), which you should take a few moments to read sometime for a broader perspective on the phenomenon I’m discussing.

Greg spoke about dollar watches, watches meant to be sold for a dollar way back in the day. Westclox, Timex and Kienzle did that sort of thing. I’ll be speaking about watches that were probably sold for a buck fifty, maybe even two bucks or more. They’re still relatively cheap pin-pallets, but are marginally better than dollar watches.

I’m the pin-pallet guy on TER. Chris hates them, with good reason. I’m not sure what the rest of the team thinks, but it’s likely not going to be anything better than “unbothered.” I don’t necessarily like pin-pallets, but I have a complicated affair with them that involves something close to “love.” I avoid them, but I don’t write them off entirely.

Oris made good pin-pallets. Oris movements are the crème de la crème; Medana (while I have no hands-on experience with them) seem to be quite well-made too. Bettlach movements are very middle of the road, some are decent, some are bad. BFG movements are seldom any good and their construction is… very Roskopf, to put it that way. Ruhla movements are just plain horrible.

What’s the value in these? Maybe more than you think. Maybe not. It depends on a lot of factors. Wear and tear is a lot more prominent on pin-pallet movements, as they oftentimes have few or no jewels altogether. The constant friction causes literally everything to wear down. This is much less of an issue on Oris and other pin-pallets with higher jewel counts, where the brunt of the metal-on-metal action is reserved for the pallet pins and escape wheel. If these parts are properly lubricated, their lifespan increases greatly. Here’s a tip from Practical Watch Repair by Donald de Carle which has saved my backside when servicing pin-pallets. When it comes to oiling the pallet pins, hold the balance wheel to prevent the watch from running and oil the pins. Let it run for three teeth, then oil again. Repeat a few times until each tooth has received oil. I’ve found this to give me a lot of amplitude. It’s the reason my Westclox Big Ben Repeater alarm clock runs so well (it’s slow for some reason, but “well” means great amplitude here.)

Pin-pallets aren’t loved by collectors and it’s not hard to see why, but I believe that they are more misunderstood than inherently bad. You are not getting perfect performance or aeons-long life. So long as you grasp that, pin-pallets are okay, provided the price is right. 20 USD for my digital Lucerne was a good deal to me. Seeing watches like mine priced at 300 USD plus is just gross. It’s a cheap movement that needs a different sort of care than normal Swiss lever movements. I love them because of how unloved they are. They are pariahs of vintage collecting.

Most watchmakers refuse to work on them, because they are a different execution of the principles that they are familiar with. Think of alarm clocks; they are powered by a mainspring or two and use a hairspring and balance wheel to regulate timekeeping, just like a mechanical watch. Does this mean that any watchmaker can service an alarm clock? Not necessarily. Sure, one will not be completely lost, but there will be a few parts and techniques that cause head-scratching, trust me, I’ve been there. The same is true with a pin-pallet movement, especially those of Roskopf design. Same bits and bobs, just positioned and shaped differently.

Are pin-lever movements rubbish? No. They are generally not as good as Swiss lever movements, but they are certainly not the Devil incarnate.

Now, should you buy a pin-pallet? I say yes, but only if the price is right. Vintage Oris has long been outside the realm of good value. I overpaid for mine in February 2023 and I paid about 55 USD. That should put it into perspective for you. Avoid very low quality movements. UMF Ruhla is a no-go. Don’t be fooled. Don’t lie to yourself. Save yourself the suffering and never touch them. Same with Kienzle. I say that the golden age of pin-pallets is the 1950s. By the ’70s, they were produced in such vast numbers and so quickly that quality was essentially nonexistent. Old pin-pallets can be good. I mean, if my Oris, a watch for the working man or the child of middle-class parents, has lasted over seventy years so far, it can’t be that bad. Good pin-pallets are hard to come by, but they are out there.