I have over the years refinished a few Speedmaster MkII cases for friends. They are fun to work on as they are,usually quite beat up och the surfaces have been polished a few times to many. A few months ago a friend of mine told me that there was a 1970 MkII for sale on a Swedish auction site. I was born 1970 so this watch I just had to have! On Sunday when the auction was about to close the website where the auction was held started to act up and I could not log on......... About thirty seconds before the listing closed the webpage finall loaded and I was able to submit my offer....then it was down again......did I win or not!!??, I waited for the usual confirmation mail when you have won an object and five minutes later I had mail, -Yesssssss..... The watch arrived and looked like this: Not to bad, but the sunburst was gone and the top surface had......"straight graining" .....I guess the previous owner used a abrasive rotating mop or something! The case was practically free of deeper scratches and dings so a good prospect for a lapping session! The case was stripped and I started with the sides: I do this part in my small Boley lathe with 90mm discs that I have made and a small tiltable table to set the angle. Depending on the geometry of the case you can either slide the case directly on the table or use a adaptor to get the right angle - in this case no adaptor was used. First run on one side done: First disc is 400P so you have to be careful, especially with the start/edge where the case can grip the disc - and you do NOT want this as you will have a case with scratches in places they where not intended to be! After 400P I move up to 1000P and finally a last run with 2000P. This usually gets the surface almost up to mirror finish and a quick final touch with a mop gives it,that final bright shine. When the surfaces are flat and when needed polished, it is time to grain the sides and lapp the sunburstpattern on the top. This is done in a small mill I have with a tiltable spindle using a 305mm rotating disc and another home made tiltable table. For this case I use a 120P paper so you really have to take it slow and be sure all the angles are set up correct or the disc will chew material in places you do nor want it to! The result I was not 100% pleased! There where some spots there the graining did not go all the way up to the grained edge around the glass. This was obvious in the pictures and reflections in some angles on the wrist - I relapped to top surface.... Some grease from my fingers on the chamfer in the pictures but the graining is better now! As the crystal, hands and pushers had been replaced by the previous owner, I got a new dial so that the orange on the dial would match the colour of hands and I also got a new crown. Movement was overhauled - a butcher had had a fieldtrip on it before so it was a challange but with a pile of new parts and some made in the shop she was fit for fight again with a inside that matches her new dress!
Looks amazing! I have to say, I would have aged the new hands and kept the original dial, rather than sourcing a new dial, but apart from that, very impressive!
Looks fantastic I'm would love to know the weight of a case like yours after all the previous butchering and your own restoration compared to one that is untocuhed.
I am going to do both - have the old dial and I am sourcing old matching hands! (if some one knows a source, please let me know)
When you say " rotating disk" do you mean a small drum? I'm struggling to understand how you get such straight graining from a disk.
No, it's a disk...using the outer radius and the length of the lines produced means that the arc really isn't visible...so in other words a very short and slightly curved line looks pretty straight. Cheers, Al
I think I have original Tritium hands for this watch, or may be Flightmaster? If you tell me the length I can check. I have the main orange hand the match for your original dial, but will have to check and see if I have the small hands to go with it?