Last autumn I concluded a long negotiation for a one owner watch, that had lain unused for some time. There was considerable baked on dirt:
This photo was the one I took once it arrived to me - and the reason I ended up paying the owner more than we agreed initially, as the colour of the flawless dial was not apparent in his pictures.
It came with a 1039 bracelet. This bracelet had some issues, and it is still with the watchmaker being restored.
Here we see the back - the danger with these cruddy private watches is corrosion.
Let's see under the back:
Original dust cover, and crud everywhere. Gasket is just mud.
The movement looks untouched:
Here is the inner case back, which shows no pearlage or watchmakers marks.
Here are a couple more shots during the process:
The case does show some decay, once dismantled and cleaned, but less than I was expecting
The dial is one of the best I know of.
Under the bezel is absolutely awful:
Finally, a couple more shots pre-work. The sides look fantastic:
The crystal is heavily marked
So I spent a long time on this. I quickly realised the watch is so good that it might knock out one of my permanent collection, so I was excited to get going. Obviously, the untouched movement was serviced. I replaced the crystal and crown with vintage ones in better condition - the pushers were cleaned.
Here is the result:
Finally, the watch is not going to knock out the brown 69 from my collection. Why? Because about a month ago, the owner contacted me. Initially, he wanted to buy a vintage speedmaster for his son, and that he regretted selling his. I said why not have your watch back? So he paid the restoration costs and once the bracelet is back it will be headed back to him.
Oh I forgot.
Its a full set
Last autumn I concluded a long negotiation for a one owner watch, that had lain unused for some time. There was considerable baked on dirt:
This photo was the one I took once it arrived to me - and the reason I ended up paying the owner more than we agreed initially, as the colour of the flawless dial was not apparent in his pictures.
It came with a 1039 bracelet. This bracelet had some issues, and it is still with the watchmaker being restored.
Here we see the back - the danger with these cruddy private watches is corrosion.
Let's see under the back:
Original dust cover, and crud everywhere. Gasket is just mud.
The movement looks untouched:
Here is the inner case back, which shows no pearlage or watchmakers marks.
Here are a couple more shots during the process:
The case does show some decay, once dismantled and cleaned, but less than I was expecting
The dial is one of the best I know of.
Under the bezel is absolutely awful:
Finally, a couple more shots pre-work. The sides look fantastic:
The crystal is heavily marked
So I spent a long time on this. I quickly realised the watch is so good that it might knock out one of my permanent collection, so I was excited to get going. Obviously, the untouched movement was serviced. I replaced the crystal and crown with vintage ones in better condition - the pushers were cleaned.
Here is the result:
Finally, the watch is not going to knock out the brown 69 from my collection. Why? Because about a month ago, the owner contacted me. Initially, he wanted to buy a vintage speedmaster for his son, and that he regretted selling his. I said why not have your watch back? So he paid the restoration costs and once the bracelet is back it will be headed back to him.
Oh I forgot.
Its a full set
