Hi All, I haven't posted for ages it seems, after the Hodinkee article on the Doxa I refinished things have been pretty crazy with lots of work coming in. So much so that I've quit my normal day job and taken up two days a week at a local watchmaker workshop who was factory trained by Rolex. The rest of my week is taken up with servicing and restorations from my own clients. This 65 Speedmaster is in a pretty poor shape and I thought you guys might like to see the first few steps of its restoration and service. Not all 321's have survived the last 50 years in perfect condition... Water has entered through the case tube at the crown, it appears as though the case back was removed and some kind of oil squirted in. The combination of oil, water and grease has created quite a mess, add to that a huge amount of fibres and dust and this will be quite a challenge. Dial is from a 64 according to MWO but could be original and the pushers are later types with the threads filed down and bonded into the case instead of the proper press in types. The stem was frozen in the case tube and I removed the dial first to make sure the set lever and associated parts were free before removing the crown and stem with a tiny bit of force. The whole movement is now soaking in a cleaning solution to get rid of the worst of the dirt.
Hey @photo500 that's a heck of a job in your hands! Is the owner a collector with specific instructions as to what you should do? Or do you have carte blanche?? Would love to see if you can work your magic here
Haha! @ ConElPueblo that's gold! Unfortunately also very true [emoji26] For this one @JohnSteed I have permission to do whatever I feel is needed to revive it, retaining as much originality as possible is always top of my list though [emoji106]
"The whole movement is now soaking in a cleaning solution to get rid of the worst of the dirt. " Isn't this method inferior to the proper method of breaking down the movement and cleaning the individual parts?
Yes, but I suspect this is a "pre-clean" to use Rolex terminology, so after the initial cleaning it will be fully disassembled and cleaned.
In on this thread! Can't wait to see the end result. I feel sorry for that 321, its lived a hard life.
At least everything has survived in a kind of oily barn find original state. Really look forward to seeing this when you have finished. Thanks for a great post.
Great thread! Very interesting to see how it goes. What is the plan for the dial? Wouldn't a PRO dial fit this one better? Since the tachy bezel has been changed, aswell as the pushers, it could be changed too?