premise: Now you can picture the part out of a watch how small this is and for a guy that in his probably sixties at that point difficult for him to see, lighting in that day and time not being what it is now, of course he'd lose his part and he'd say, Tootles, well first he'd have his fit, Nothing but damn junk, junk, junk!
hypothesis: This guy was getting old and losing his eyesight, and he'd have a hard time seeing the small parts.