Hello wonderful world of OF.

Posting here today with a question for a friend who really loves project watches...

Does anyone know if this bezel can be repaired and if so, who can do the repair?

Here are a few pics of course...

Thanks for the help!
-Jake

 

Aldo ( maybe )
Won't be cheap or quick.

What watch is it off ?

 

A Heuer Autavia “Plongeur”

 

May be possible to have it laser welded.

 

TAG does have a vintage workshop you could consult, but I think they'd just replace it. 11630P Decomp bezels aren't the hardest thing out there to find anyway

 

My thought was just finding a replacement but my friends seems to think these inserts have spiked in price. He’s hoping a repair would be significantly less

 

I would imagine a repair is the most expensive of all options, only to be used for extremely valuable watches where the replacement would greatly damage the value of the watch or if no replacements available - such as damaged or missing bakelite insert for a vintage Blancpain Fifty Fathom or variant, early reference of Omega SM300 etc etc.

I wonder what Al @Archer or Rob Horan aka @Horlogerie would say /recommend about the overall feasibility of a bezel repair.

 

or @photo500 ?

 

My initial reaction is to say find a replacement. Given that these are typically aluminum (assuming that's the case here) they present some different challenges with regards to welding. I admit I've not tried laser welding aluminum yet though, so not sure how the formation of oxides come into play as they do with "regular" TIG welding...in that process the inert gas is there to prevent oxide formation as you are welding. Welding on thin materials is even tougher, but the laser does give you a lot of control...not sure.

Might be worth a try, but then you still end up with a repaired and presumably reprinted (or at least touched up) insert...I guess it depends on what the friend is really trying to achieve here...

Cheers, Al

 

Thanks, very interesting to know what’s involved.

 

TAG has a vintage workshop?! Then why did they release the Autavia reissue the way it is...they could have done it more right...

 

This would be my concern here. Thanks for the input everyone, I’ve passed the info along... if he decides to repair I’ll attempt to share the results!

 

Well the vintage workshop is for repairs only, so they wouldn't have been able to do much with the Autavia. The new Autavia looks like it does because TAG's modern design philosophy is "First, it must look blingy for your friends at Art Basel Miami"

 

I see, I just thought that maybe they would have people who care about doing justice to vintage pieces in the modern area the reissue would have been done more properly...in fact I heard the Heuer people first consulted vintage people, and was going by those standards until some TAG corporate head showed up and said "What's this? No date? Preposterous! Add a date window! And while you're at it increase the case size too!" and that was that....

 

By the few accounts I've heard, TAG's vintage shop is very respectful of their pieces - they have a number of NOS spares that they'll use to replace unsalvageable parts.

 

Oh god...what is that abomination! I'd really like to try punching that pusher and see if the chrono works...

 

This is a decompression bezel. Extremely rare and very, very expensive. A bezel can be found, but it will cost him a lot. As an alternative, he could likely find a Tachy insert for a much more reasonable price. He just needs to make sure it if for his reference. He can also buy an aftermarket insert on eBay as a “placeholder” should he ever find another decompression insert.

Last option, have his watchmaker glue this bezel into the ring and use as-is. He can always find another ring in the future as well.

 

He already has an autavia with a tachy bezel which is why he wants to rescue this one. That glue is an unconventional but certainly bugdet friendly option. I will convey the suggestion as well thank you!