Hi there I'm after some info on my Dad's old Seamaster, I believe that he got it for his 21st birthday which would have been December 1963. Not sure where exactly the watch would have been purchased but the family lived in the Sheffield area of the UK back then. Sadly my Dad passed away 4 years ago so I cant ask for more info! The watch has lots of sentimental value and I'd like as much info as possible about it, I've attached a few pics if anyone can help.... The watch was originally fitted with a stainless steel bracelet which I'll post pics of tomorrow when I've dug it out. Sadly this was damaged many years ago, one of the bits that mounts the bracelet to the watch is bent.... Ideally I'd like to get the watch restored to former glory including the bracelet so if anyone can recommend the best place for this (preferably in the UK) that would be great! On the inside of the case back there are some numbers\letters that appear to have been scratched in at some point, I cant make these out with the naked eye. I'll try and get some better pics of this with a friends DSLR..... Matt
You have a classic hand wind Seamaster reference CK 14759, with a caliber 600 movement. Serial number dates this to ca 1962 which fits with the gift date in 1963. Whoever you have clean it up for you, don't let them touch the dial or over polish the case. The bracelet parts should be fairly easy to source, either locally or on eBay. There are several UK members who should be able to recommend someone to perform the necessary work.
Thanks for the info, Some more pics attached - on the one of the inside of the case you can make out the crudely engraved markings to the left and right of the triangular logo..... You can also see the damaged end of the bracelet. When you say not to have the case polished, does this refer to just the stainless steel body? is it ok to have the scratches in the glass removed or reduced? is it possible to do this myself?
Hi Matt, welcome to the forums. If you are looking for someone in the UK to perform the work on your watch, Steve Burrage from Ryte Time is very good and highly recommended on other forums in the UK. Give him a call first to discuss the work and what you want and post a little card specifically what you want and don't want done.
Correct, do not have the "body" polished. The plastic crystal can be polished with a product called Polywatch (some people use toothpaste!).
Cool..... I'm happy to give polishing the crystal a go.... does anyone have any info on the best place to get replacement end pieces for the bracelet? I found the correct items on ofrei.com but I also need the pins which attach it to the lugs on the watch case. Other than that I think that the watch is possibly only due a good service, My Dad didn't use it for a long time and has been sat in my watch box for the last 4 years... wound it up last night and it seems to be keeping pretty good time so far! Can anyone tell me if there is any correct procedure for winding? how often etc?
Manual wind watches should be wound every day at the about the same time. Some have power reserves of two days or longer, so no big deal if you miss a day. It would probably be best to take the watch to a qualified watchmaker and have the movement serviced. At the same time, the watchie should be able to unbend the endpieces and replace the missing pin. I think these are generic and pretty easily repaired. It may be possible to get new endpieces, but they won't be easy to find or cheap. Polywatch will work to take out the smaller scratches, but the larger, deeper ones are going to require several applications. You probably need to sand down the crystal with extremely fine sandpaper before using Polywatch. The object is to remove the plastic down to the lowest point (deepest scratch) then polish it all smooth. It may be that the crystal is too far gone and must be replaced. Here's an illustration. http://www.old-omegas.com/cryspol.html Hope this helps, gatorcpa
So, there was nothing on TV last night and I didn't fancy going to bed at 21:30..... So I decided that I would clean the crystal up a bit... This then lead to me carefully attempting to repair the bracelet as well as giving everything a very gently cleaning..... The crystal still needs a little bit more work but the below was achieved solely with the aid of some toothpaste!
Nice job! Toothpaste is OK for the first pass at this. If you look closely at the crystal with a loupe, you'll see very fine scratches from the toothpaste. Polywatch will take care of this when you are ready to get serious about the clean-up. gatorcpa