Watch Servicing, Restoration & Repair
This Omega Calibre 1030 was in need of a service. The watch was manufactured in 1978. It has a 9ct solid gold case, which is a “front loader” design with no removable case back, like many Omegas of the era. I think Omega produced some of the best dress watch designs in the 1970’s, and this one is a very good example, elegant and timeless.
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This Waltham pocket watch required a service and crystal replacement. It was running, but not very well at all, timekeeping was out by several minutes a day and the balance wheel had very poor amplitude.
It was approximately 81 years old at the time of writing: Production dated year 1936, according to the Waltham “Gray Book” List.
The watch is in very good condition given its age. It is cased in a gold filled case by British maker Dennison. This particular case is made of a base metal sandwiched between two plates of 0.036mm thick 9 carat gold. It is their “star” grade which at the time was guaranteed for 10 years. The quality of the plating by Dennison has stood the test of time as it is still in good condition, with very little base metal visible.
Continue reading “WALTHAM Pocket Watch 9 jewels model 1908 16S – Service & Repair”
This week I decided to feature the restoration of this Blancpain Calibre R540 watch. I could not resist a “before and after” shot in the introduction, but the transformation on this watch is far from being just cosmetic. As you will see there was quite a lot of work required to bring the watch up to a fine condition. It has been a very interesting project, and it has been a pleasure to work on a vintage piece by such a prestigious manufacturer in the history of horology.
Continue reading “Blancpain Calibre R540 9ct dress watch Service & Restoration”
This week I have decided to feature another vintage Longines as they are such a pleasure to work on. This particular watch has a 9ct solid cold case and caseback, and it is powered by a Longines Calibre 284 movement. Very much like the Calibre 12.68Z I featured on the blog recently, this movement is from an era when Longines were very much at the high end of the market. The level of finish is very high.
When my friend and fellow horology enthusiast Andy showed me this old Jaeger cockpit clock I was immediately intrigued and interested. It was a complete non runner, and I had not worked on one of these before, but being a classic car enthusiast myself I was very keen to work on this piece.
Continue reading “Jaeger Cockpit Clock for Classic Car, Repair & Service”
This lovely vintage Omega Seamaster came in need of a service. The watch was not running very well.
It is powered by Omega’s Calibre 752. The serial number dates the production of this watch to 1968, it looks well preserved in appearance.
Continue reading “Omega Seamaster Automatic Calibre 752 Service”
The Seiko 6309-7040 diver’s watch is one of my favourite watches. I have worked on many of them before, and have owned several myself. When my friend Ed got in touch a few months ago about a project involving a large number of 6309s and a box of spare movements, donor watches and other parts I was of course very interested indeed.
Ed and I met up and we went through all the watches and movements on my timegrapher to get an idea of the health of each individual item, and decide the best course of action.
Unfortunately due to the magnitude of this project I have not had the discipline to take enough photos to do a detailed walk through of the work, it is so easy to forget when you get stuck in.
I do however have some photos, so I thought I would publish them to give you an idea of some of the work involved. After all it is not often you see so many 6309s in one place!
Here is a photo of the project once completed:
CWC (Cabot Watch Company) is a British company established in 1972 and was contracted to supply watches to the Ministry of Defence.
This watch was produced in the 1990’s. It is the GS model (General Service). It is a modern version of the mechanical hand-wound model issued to the British troops in the 1970’s up to the 1980’s when the quartz movement arrived (G10).
This model is still available today from CWC. The current model (at the time of writing) has a similar design, and is also powered by the Swiss made ETA 2824-2 movement. However it uses Luminova instead of Tritium as the luminescent compound for the dial and hands. This is identified by the letter L or T on the dial under the CWC logo.
This watch arrived in need of a bit of TLC, and looked like it had a pretty hard life. That is what military watches are designed for!
Continue reading “CWC GS Automatic Military Watch ETA 2824-2 Service”
The SBDC007 is a great divers watch by Seiko. It is extremely light thanks to its titanium case and bracelet. This particular one had already received a sapphire crystal upgrade, making it a very handsome watch indeed.
Continue reading “Seiko 6R15-01D0 SBDC007 SHOGUN Titanium Service”
This Longines Calibre 12.68Z watch dates from the 1950’s. It is entirely original. During this era Longines were very much at the high end of the market, and from an horological perspective I find these older models much more interesting than their current offering. This is a “before and after” photo.
Continue reading “Longines Calibre 12.68Z Service (model 7033.5)”