Photo from the eBay ad – Yikes, WTF have I done?!!!
Here’s how the watch arrived. The glass was polished so hard that all edges were rounded and it was worn so thin I nearly put my thumb through it, seriously 🙂 The top case is still nice though with good PVD and nice sharp edges.
OK, deep breath, moment of truth, now to open up and see what’s inside!
What a relief! You can see the extent of the dirt and grime which was actually mainly superficial and thankfully not so difficult to remove. No corrosion either.
Now, this just keeps getting better and better!Looks familiar? Just like a Cal11 or 12 we’re used to without the Automatic bits.
And, despite coming from a relatively warm climate, no evidence of the dreaded gasket melt on the dial.
So after a good clean it was time to assess the job.
Good news/Bad news…Back together with a new glass and gasket it looked pretty good, but…although working, the dial wasn’t attached to the movement so only worked upside down 🙂 It also very obviously required a good service.
This next phase was beyond my scope so Nic Green (aka HeuerBoy) offered his services. He also suggested repainting the 3 chrono hands as they were in a pretty sorry state.
When you look closely you’ll see why this normally difficult decision was pretty easy – especially as Nic matched the colour perfectly.
I’m so pleased with the results. No major restoration, just sensitively brought back to life. In the end all that was required was a good clean, a service, new glass and of course the hands repainted.
Before and after
So, here we are 3 weeks later and what a beauty 🙂 Fantastic job!!!
And of course it needs to be road-tested by an expert 🙂
