CWC 1983 Royal Navy Quartz Divers Watch – Service and restoration

Today under the loupe is this CWC 1983 Royal Navy quartz divers watch, an iconic British military watch. A new incarnation of this watch was released by CWC in recent years, but the watch I am featuring today is the original, as issued in 1983 to a member of the Royal Navy.

CWC Divers before after

 

As you can see, the watch is in a pretty sorry condition: Not running, missing crown, stem broken and stuck in the tube, bent bars, heavily scratched crystal, and decaying lume on the hands. I also notice that the bezel does not click as it should and feels very loose in both directions.  All of these issues will be taken care of as part of the movement service and sympathetic restoration of the watch.CWC 1983 Royal Navy Quartz Divers Watch

 

The first thing I do is extract the remnants of the screw-down crown to remove the broken stem.CWC 1983 RN Quartz Divers Watch

 

The movement can then be removed from the case, the dial looks great in comparison to the hands.CWC Divers watch dial

 

The case is stripped down. There is no bezel spring present, which explains why the bezel feels loose and does not click. It should be able to rotate unidirectionally with a positive click.

 

I removed the case tube which had a damaged thread.CWC divers watch case

 

Inspection of the case reveals some rust and pitting, which I will clean up as best as possible.

 

A new tube is fitted, the case is cleaned ultrasonically, and  a new crystal gasket and crystal are fitted, and the bars are unbent. This is starting to look promising.CWC divers watch new crysal

 

I make a bezel spring from spring wire, unfortunately I have no original spring to take dimensions from, so it involves a bit of trial and error.CWC bezel spring

 

I then turn my attention to the movement. The watch is powered by an ETA 955.114 movement. It is fully stripped down for cleaning and inspection of all the parts.ETA 955.114 service

 

After cleaning, the movement is re-assembled, lubricated as per manufacturer specification, and various tests are carried out – checking movement consumption, circuit consumption, and daily rate. The latter can be adjusted by means of a trimmer on this version.CWC on Witschi Q test 6000

 

A new screw-down crown and stems are sourced, and the stem is fitted after trimming to length.CWC screwdown crown

 

Meanwhile, I receive the hands back from James Hyman, a lume restoration specialist (@thealchemistrelumer). CWC RN diver hands

 

As always James did a perfect job with the colour match with the dial. The dial remained untouched as it was in very good condition.

 

Bezel and spring now ready for final assembly. I make final adjustments to the length of the spring now the dial is in the watch, to ensure that the bezel aligns with the markers with every click.

 

A new caseback gasket is fitted.

 

The watch is successfully vacuum and pressure tested after the service. CWC pressure test Witschi-ALC-2000

 

And here is the completed CWC 1983 Royal Navy Quartz Divers Watch. Sympathetically restored, in very fine mechanical condition, in all its character and history. I would like to thank my customer Tony for entrusting me with this very interesting restoration project.CWC 1983 diver serviced