Recently saw a post on another forum about someone who was wearing their Speedmaster when they were attacked by a German Shepherd. The watch helped save his arm from significant damage, but was damaged pretty badly in the process. The owner contacted me, and since I really like these projects, I agreed to take a look to see what could be done. Here is one of the photos he sent me - the bracelet had snapped as he pulled his hand from the dog's mouth:



The dial side of the watch didn't fare quite as well as the back did:



You can see that the dog's teeth had pierced the crystal, and badly dented the dial. Now the owner didn't come out of this completely unscathed, because the underside of his wrist had a couple very deep gashes in it - he sent me a photo but I'll refrain from posting it since people may be squeamish, but I can confirm it was nasty.

When the watch arrived, the chronograph seconds hand had gone AWOL:




Two problems - the watch head damage, and the bracelet damage - the link just before the end link had bee ripped apart:



Movement is out of the case:



I had reassured the OP before he sent me the watch that there would be no movement damage from the dial being distorted, because there's really not much there to damage. The winding and setting parts are under that part of the dial - side view of how much the dial is distorted:



Underside of the dial:



The movement would run, but full wind dial down was not great:



Started on the movement service, which was mostly straightforward, so I'll only include a few photos along the way:











We had talked about trying to save the dial, and if it was possible the OP said he would like that, so he sort of had a memento of how the watch saved his wrist from more serious damage. So I set about seeing what could be done to fix this:





Fixing this damage isn't something I do all the time certainly, so I had to sort of improvise - first thought was using a pin vise on the dial foot, but I realized that wasn't going to press on the right spot to remove the severe distortion:



So I got out my staking set, and set about gently (as possible) moving the dial's material back into shape:



It was a lot of light tapping and checking...more light tapping and checking, taking it slowly and methodically. Then with some of the more acute damage flattened out as much as it could be, I started general shaping of the dial using my fingers (with finger cots) with the dial in a block did the rest:



This is the result, and I was pretty happy with it:






Carried on with the assembly:



New pushers, crown, crystal, and case back seal were installed:



The damage is still there as a reminder:



More to come on the remainder of the job...

Cheers, Al

 

Great plan and great result.

 

Bloody hell… and great job Al. Knew there was a reason the police employ those dogs. Good job there aren’t alsatians in space otherwise NASA’s certification might have turned out very differently…

 

You can moonlight doing paintless dent repair.

 

Great job from you Al
Great idea from the owner to leave this uncommon mark of like on its dial, will definitely make it a unique watch to him

 

Amazing work, Al. I suspect that if the dog needs reconstructive dentistry that you could pull that off just as well.

 

Anything can be fixed at Al’s station?

Sorry, I will get my coat.

 

This one wins the 'every watch has a story' contest.

 

So, this begs for the Japanese practice of kintsugi, where imperfections are repaired functionally but beautifully, to emphasise the journey the object has been on:

 

I think that dial was as good as it was going to get without flaking the paint off. Well done, sir.

 

I was actually just reading about that a few hours ago in the other forum (gentleman was in Houston maybe I think). Pretty awesome that he reached out to you and you are handling that particular speedy. Keen to see how it all ends. Cheers.

 

The damage to the crystal and dial really blew me away. I was not expecting that. That was not a half-hearted bite.

 

Wow thats an excellent repair.
Can believe how damaged that watch was, from a dog !!

 

maybe he was escaping a K-9 unit.. hm

 

I'm generally not a fan, but a sapphire version might have held up in this case.

 

Beyond cool, thank you so much for taking the time to share that with us!

 

I hope the dog’s owner footed the bill for this.

 

Now that's a Speedmaster worthy of having a cartoon dog on it's dial

 

I hope the dog is okay.

 

Or mayhaps wabi sabi?

This is a rather fascinating case of destruction. I'm glad the gentleman wearing this piece was spared any further damage. Must've been a hell of a bite to shatter the crystal like that. Just the thought of biting something that hard makes my teeth hurt! Dog must've been real pissed...

Strange timing as today I was installing a mailbox for a customer as a side gig. Went up to the house to tell the homeowner the job was complete and that the concrete should be set up by X time. When she opened the door a large German Shepherd darted out the door. The woman was really nervous but I just let the dog smell the back of my hand and proceeded to give him copious pets and ear scrunches. Dog's name was Johnny (an homage to Johnny Cash because his coat is all black). The homeowner said she was shocked he just leaned up against me and allowed me to pet him so quickly because he doesn't typically like men with hats on. Naturally, I made a remark about having done the safety dance before entering the garage...she didn't get it right away. Music people will