Post by pollythecat on Mar 24, 2015 22:46:22 GMT -8
Hi Chronofreaks, I posted this on TOF (boo,hiss) thought you would like to see it here.
Welcome to another installment of Polly's 'the hard way' series of watch acquisitions.
After adding a white 6139-7100 to the 6139 collection that was in original condition it got me thinking about a black one too. A black 6139-7100 had been on the radar for a few years but I never seemed to get round to buying one, several good ones must have slipped the net in the mean time. You know what it's like when you finally decide to getting something, its out of production, gone rotten , no longer in fashion etc. Well I could not find an example that looked right as they all seem to be polished to death or loaded with aftermarket crap.
So I decided I needed a project to make the best I could without paying a fortune for a mint one (if I could find a minter that it). So, Ahem....darws in breath...I found this on Ebay
Why the bloody hell did you do it? well the case was nasty with deep dents and had been polished before by an 'expert' but I was mainly looking for a half decent dial to use as a starting point. BTW: this was the watch I was shill bid on.
What did I have to do?
First off the easy part the movement was not working but a full COR sorted that and the only part that needed replacing was the automatic framework that had a 'loose' bearing.
Then to the case, bezel and caseback. The original plan was to use the case from my no.2 white 7100 because I thought the case on this on was too far gone but after experimenting with an idea I had for a long time I tried some restoration using a belt sander. I covered this in a post a couple of weeks ago.
Duly bolstered by better results than expected perseverance prevailed and it was decided to do a full refurb on all the case components. As the educated among you will know the machined finish of the case is its one of its defining features, this was all gone on this one and badly dented so with nothing to loose I got out the files. I have a lathe in the shed but resisted spinning it because I felt the hand finish with a file and emery stick looked a little better.
Moving on to the bezel it was a similar storey of dents and previous bad polishing and it was deprofiled. Once again it had to be filed flat and finished with emery sticks before polishing trying to get it as flat as possible. I have done a few 7100 bezels now and they are time consuming to do but usually respond....eventually. The caseback had the usual caveman open it with a hammer and chizel marks that also required filing out.
The dial was a bit grubby and needed a bit of spit and polish and the indices were stripped and repainted and lumed along with the hour and minute hands. During the process I experimented with adding paint into the lume mix to adjust the tone of the luminous compound with reasonable success. I use clear lacquer as the binder so had a though, why not add acrylic paint. It worked and still glows pretty well.
The chronograph sweephand had to be stripped and repainted and I rummaged around in Polly's draws to pick out a suitable minute recording hand and also painted it to match.
A NOS dial ring was acquired from Anthony Plaza and crystal is a new Sternkreuz. New gaskets fitted and finally the fishbone bracelet is a reproduction that came from Seikosis. So ready for assembly.
I wore it to work yesterday and took some pictures.
Finally a lume shot, there is not much on the indices
So far this has been the most comprehensive restoration I have carried out.
Welcome to another installment of Polly's 'the hard way' series of watch acquisitions.
After adding a white 6139-7100 to the 6139 collection that was in original condition it got me thinking about a black one too. A black 6139-7100 had been on the radar for a few years but I never seemed to get round to buying one, several good ones must have slipped the net in the mean time. You know what it's like when you finally decide to getting something, its out of production, gone rotten , no longer in fashion etc. Well I could not find an example that looked right as they all seem to be polished to death or loaded with aftermarket crap.
So I decided I needed a project to make the best I could without paying a fortune for a mint one (if I could find a minter that it). So, Ahem....darws in breath...I found this on Ebay
Why the bloody hell did you do it? well the case was nasty with deep dents and had been polished before by an 'expert' but I was mainly looking for a half decent dial to use as a starting point. BTW: this was the watch I was shill bid on.
What did I have to do?
First off the easy part the movement was not working but a full COR sorted that and the only part that needed replacing was the automatic framework that had a 'loose' bearing.
Then to the case, bezel and caseback. The original plan was to use the case from my no.2 white 7100 because I thought the case on this on was too far gone but after experimenting with an idea I had for a long time I tried some restoration using a belt sander. I covered this in a post a couple of weeks ago.
Duly bolstered by better results than expected perseverance prevailed and it was decided to do a full refurb on all the case components. As the educated among you will know the machined finish of the case is its one of its defining features, this was all gone on this one and badly dented so with nothing to loose I got out the files. I have a lathe in the shed but resisted spinning it because I felt the hand finish with a file and emery stick looked a little better.
Moving on to the bezel it was a similar storey of dents and previous bad polishing and it was deprofiled. Once again it had to be filed flat and finished with emery sticks before polishing trying to get it as flat as possible. I have done a few 7100 bezels now and they are time consuming to do but usually respond....eventually. The caseback had the usual caveman open it with a hammer and chizel marks that also required filing out.
The dial was a bit grubby and needed a bit of spit and polish and the indices were stripped and repainted and lumed along with the hour and minute hands. During the process I experimented with adding paint into the lume mix to adjust the tone of the luminous compound with reasonable success. I use clear lacquer as the binder so had a though, why not add acrylic paint. It worked and still glows pretty well.
The chronograph sweephand had to be stripped and repainted and I rummaged around in Polly's draws to pick out a suitable minute recording hand and also painted it to match.
A NOS dial ring was acquired from Anthony Plaza and crystal is a new Sternkreuz. New gaskets fitted and finally the fishbone bracelet is a reproduction that came from Seikosis. So ready for assembly.
I wore it to work yesterday and took some pictures.
Finally a lume shot, there is not much on the indices
So far this has been the most comprehensive restoration I have carried out.
Did that work take three days?? 
