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WestCoastTime
·Acquired out of an estate sale for an old vet, Benrus DR 2F2 MIL-W-3818B service watch.
Crown & male half of the split stem missing, hands not advancing at all in response to jiggling, lifetime of not-too-gentle use.
1964 service date. Don't have any way of knowing if this piece was on tour in Vietnam, but the calendar lines up.
With the crystal off, the watch actually starts running, seconds hand was fouling on the underside of the crystal.
From the factory, the hands were lumed but the dial was not, but then at some point in its past the watch had lume added to the dial. See this a lot in this vintage of service watch, & looks like a pretty amateur application in this example, 6 gets a double helping & 5 gets nothing...
Now I have to make a decision about what level of restoration to apply on this project. Normally I would prefer to do a sympathetic restoration; try not to add anything, try not to remove anything. But, some other guy beat me to it this time, so now need to figure out what it means to unbastardise this piece...
ETA 2372 base movement with hacking added in the conversion to the DR 2F2. Little bit grimy, but running & looks complete (but for the crown & stem :-p).
Getting it broken down for cleaning.
The DR 2F2 hacking lever. When the stem is pulled out to setting position the hacking lever rotates & presses the hacking pin into the side of the balance wheel (looks pretty crude, compared to the crafting & finishing of the rest of the components...)
Fundamentally it's a pretty basic watch, 3 hands, hacking, & that's it. Doesn't fill up very many cubbies in the parts tray. Off to the cleaner.
Now to deal with the cosmetics for the dial & hands. Not something I have much expertise in, but ready to try something new & learn as we go...
The Geiger Counter was quiet for the dial & hands, so whatever was applied before was not Radium. Gently scraped off the grotty looking old lume, but that still took off the paint for the hour index underneath. So, let's see how some flat white acrylic model paint looks.
It's not perfect & it never will be, but looks like an improvement to me at least.
More to follow...
Crown & male half of the split stem missing, hands not advancing at all in response to jiggling, lifetime of not-too-gentle use.
1964 service date. Don't have any way of knowing if this piece was on tour in Vietnam, but the calendar lines up.
With the crystal off, the watch actually starts running, seconds hand was fouling on the underside of the crystal.
From the factory, the hands were lumed but the dial was not, but then at some point in its past the watch had lume added to the dial. See this a lot in this vintage of service watch, & looks like a pretty amateur application in this example, 6 gets a double helping & 5 gets nothing...
Now I have to make a decision about what level of restoration to apply on this project. Normally I would prefer to do a sympathetic restoration; try not to add anything, try not to remove anything. But, some other guy beat me to it this time, so now need to figure out what it means to unbastardise this piece...
ETA 2372 base movement with hacking added in the conversion to the DR 2F2. Little bit grimy, but running & looks complete (but for the crown & stem :-p).
Getting it broken down for cleaning.
The DR 2F2 hacking lever. When the stem is pulled out to setting position the hacking lever rotates & presses the hacking pin into the side of the balance wheel (looks pretty crude, compared to the crafting & finishing of the rest of the components...)
Fundamentally it's a pretty basic watch, 3 hands, hacking, & that's it. Doesn't fill up very many cubbies in the parts tray. Off to the cleaner.
Now to deal with the cosmetics for the dial & hands. Not something I have much expertise in, but ready to try something new & learn as we go...
The Geiger Counter was quiet for the dial & hands, so whatever was applied before was not Radium. Gently scraped off the grotty looking old lume, but that still took off the paint for the hour index underneath. So, let's see how some flat white acrylic model paint looks.
It's not perfect & it never will be, but looks like an improvement to me at least.
More to follow...
