Post by siralan on Feb 8, 2017 5:02:03 GMT -8
I'm getting quite a reputation where I work as the "watch guy" - I've worked on watches for 20 people now. The work varies from simple battery changes all the way to movement re-builds, dial re-lumes and new movements.
Before Christmas a colleague came over to my desk to show me a lovely gold ladies watch that had huge sentimental value - it was presented as a long service award to a family member in 1985 who recently died.
It appeared to be in relatively good condition, the crystal (plastic) was scratched and cracked, but the dial look good and the gold case and bracelet were undamaged. But .. it wasn't running and couldn't be wound.
I said I'd take a look and see what was going on. Getting the case apart was tricky - it's tiny which made prising it apart without causing any damage to the soft gold a fiddly procedure. Once the case was apart I was greeted with this
(these pictures are from the rebuild - things were a bit dirtier than this)
Flipping the movement over, revealed what looked like a very clean (and beautiful) movement
at this point I'd already removed the dial, hands and the balance (which was lovely and clean and wanting to swing)
I couldn't see an obvious reason why the movement wasn't running, so I had to dig a bit deeper.
Once I removed the dial, the problem was obvious
water damage = rust
I started removing the dial side components to see how bad the problem was
that's not good. But there was worse to come
the movement wasn't running because the gear train was rusted solid.
At this point I stripped the movement completely, to assess the extent of the damage and work out what needed doing.
I've had a good degree of success cleaning up rusted movement components, but never with components so small as these (for anyone who has not worked on a ladies movement, the components are tiny compared to a 'normal' size movement part).
But, from what I could see, there were a number of steel gears that had suffered serious rust damage and I know from experience that these won't run either at all or properly when cleaned up.
So, the next avenue was to identify the movement - its an ETA 277.001 - and look to see what parts are available. After a few hours googling, searching ebay and Cousins I was pretty sure that getting all the parts I was going to need wasn't going to be simple.
So, I went back to the owner and said we had two options
1 - put it back together as-is (non working)
or
2 - look for a donor watch/movement that I can use for parts
he was very understanding and said he'd leave it with me to see what I could do, with no pressure.
So, the watch stayed in parts and I started to search ebay periodically looking for a potential donor. For the first month or so, nothing came up. But then a couple of complete watches were listed - one with a BIN around the £300 mark (which was way out on what I'd spend) and another listed as an auction which I did bid on and figured it was worth going up to about £30 as a gamble. Anymore and I'd need to get the agreement of the chap I was doing the work for (it actually ended up selling for around the £90 mark).
While this auction was running I spotted another auction for a set of 5 ladies movements that had obviously been removed from watches that were then scrapped for their gold. They all looked good and one of them look exactly like what I needed. So I bid (as the first bidder) just to make sure the auction didn't get ended early through lack of interest and then watched the auction until the end, with a second 'snipe' bid which I was pretty sure would win if someone else did bid late hoping to win it for a song.
As it happened, I was the only bidder so I got the lot for £9.99 plus P&P. A result!!!
Last week the movements turned up, loose packed together (grrrr) but all looking good. The one I wanted was as clean as a whistle, but wouldn't run (although the balance was swinging).
So, at the weekend I set about getting a working movement - hoping that between the two I'd have enough good parts to make one good one.
Here are a few pictures of the strip and rebuild.
you can just see the fine hairs wrapped around the escape wheel - these were enough to stop the movement.
I stripped everything and gave each part a bath
this what was in the gear train
when every part was dry and cleaned with rodico I rebuilt the movement
and then it was back in with the balance
and the movement burst into life (I love this moment)
that's very healthy!!!! (before regulation).
Then I cleaned up the underside of the dial
and then polished the crystal (still with crack)
having agreed with the owner that he'd like me to fit a new crystal, yesterday I picked one up and fitted it
and I've just given the watch back to a very delighted owner.
He said it looked like new and was very very happy with it. Its going to be given as a gift to another family member.
Before Christmas a colleague came over to my desk to show me a lovely gold ladies watch that had huge sentimental value - it was presented as a long service award to a family member in 1985 who recently died.
It appeared to be in relatively good condition, the crystal (plastic) was scratched and cracked, but the dial look good and the gold case and bracelet were undamaged. But .. it wasn't running and couldn't be wound.
I said I'd take a look and see what was going on. Getting the case apart was tricky - it's tiny which made prising it apart without causing any damage to the soft gold a fiddly procedure. Once the case was apart I was greeted with this
(these pictures are from the rebuild - things were a bit dirtier than this)
Flipping the movement over, revealed what looked like a very clean (and beautiful) movement
at this point I'd already removed the dial, hands and the balance (which was lovely and clean and wanting to swing)
I couldn't see an obvious reason why the movement wasn't running, so I had to dig a bit deeper.
Once I removed the dial, the problem was obvious
water damage = rust
I started removing the dial side components to see how bad the problem was
that's not good. But there was worse to come
the movement wasn't running because the gear train was rusted solid.
At this point I stripped the movement completely, to assess the extent of the damage and work out what needed doing.
I've had a good degree of success cleaning up rusted movement components, but never with components so small as these (for anyone who has not worked on a ladies movement, the components are tiny compared to a 'normal' size movement part).
But, from what I could see, there were a number of steel gears that had suffered serious rust damage and I know from experience that these won't run either at all or properly when cleaned up.
So, the next avenue was to identify the movement - its an ETA 277.001 - and look to see what parts are available. After a few hours googling, searching ebay and Cousins I was pretty sure that getting all the parts I was going to need wasn't going to be simple.
So, I went back to the owner and said we had two options
1 - put it back together as-is (non working)
or
2 - look for a donor watch/movement that I can use for parts
he was very understanding and said he'd leave it with me to see what I could do, with no pressure.
So, the watch stayed in parts and I started to search ebay periodically looking for a potential donor. For the first month or so, nothing came up. But then a couple of complete watches were listed - one with a BIN around the £300 mark (which was way out on what I'd spend) and another listed as an auction which I did bid on and figured it was worth going up to about £30 as a gamble. Anymore and I'd need to get the agreement of the chap I was doing the work for (it actually ended up selling for around the £90 mark).
While this auction was running I spotted another auction for a set of 5 ladies movements that had obviously been removed from watches that were then scrapped for their gold. They all looked good and one of them look exactly like what I needed. So I bid (as the first bidder) just to make sure the auction didn't get ended early through lack of interest and then watched the auction until the end, with a second 'snipe' bid which I was pretty sure would win if someone else did bid late hoping to win it for a song.
As it happened, I was the only bidder so I got the lot for £9.99 plus P&P. A result!!!
Last week the movements turned up, loose packed together (grrrr) but all looking good. The one I wanted was as clean as a whistle, but wouldn't run (although the balance was swinging).
So, at the weekend I set about getting a working movement - hoping that between the two I'd have enough good parts to make one good one.
Here are a few pictures of the strip and rebuild.
you can just see the fine hairs wrapped around the escape wheel - these were enough to stop the movement.
I stripped everything and gave each part a bath
this what was in the gear train
when every part was dry and cleaned with rodico I rebuilt the movement
and then it was back in with the balance
and the movement burst into life (I love this moment)
that's very healthy!!!! (before regulation).
Then I cleaned up the underside of the dial
and then polished the crystal (still with crack)
having agreed with the owner that he'd like me to fit a new crystal, yesterday I picked one up and fitted it
and I've just given the watch back to a very delighted owner.
He said it looked like new and was very very happy with it. Its going to be given as a gift to another family member.
