Risks of reusing old Speedmaster hands

Hi,

I'm looking for a set of tritium hands (hour + minute) for my 861 Speedmaster (-85), but I'm a bit worried that they might be hard to reuse since my (authorised) watchmaker told me my old hands would be hard to refit and still guarantee that they wouldn't fall off. I've read that some watchmakers consider Speedmaster hands a part that needs to be replaced regularly for this reason, but I find that hard to understand considering most vintage Speedys have been serviced many times through the years. I have found a watchmaker (not authorised) that told me he could tweak the "loose" hands to fit again.

Any experience with vintage hands? How do I know if vintage hands (from ebay or forums) can be reused?

Thanks,
Tomas

It is bollocks. I have a 1975 and a 1965 speedmasters and they both have the original handsets. Obviously you have to check that they are not bent for instance, and the luminescence aspect will be less effective than a more modern one, but there is no reason that a 30 year old hand should "fall off" if it has been installed correctly

Old watch hands, for any movement or model, can become loose over time. If hands are reapeadetly removed and installed it's inevitable that they will become loose. However, just because that's happened, doesn't mean they can't be re-used. Bergeron make a tool that is specifically designed to tighten the seating for the hands. It grips the base of the hand and applies even pressure all the way around. It has a variety of sizes and can tighten everything from a chronograph sub-dial hand to an hour and minute hand (assuming you have enough pipe to grip on).

Here's the tool pictured below:


Having said this, it should be done correctly. If the correct tool is not used and the proper care isn't taken, the pipe for the hand can become bent, or worse still, crushed. So make sure you head to an expert in vintage work.

Some watchmakers will say you have to replace, others will be happy to accommodate. I personally like to give my clients an active involvement in their service, assuming that the functionality won't be affected, and everything is running as intended. However, astheticaly, the choice is yours.

We wouldn't have much of a vintage watch market today if 2998 hands were being swapped with every service, or Paul Newman hands were being changed for the hell of it.

Hope that helps.

Some people tighten hands in a watchmakers lathe by choosing the correct collet and lightly tightening down which is more difficult than using the Bergeon tool as noted by @ATracyWatches. Here it is in use (it happens to be out because I'm tightening an Omega Admiralty hand). You have to be very light with the touch as it's a huge tool for applying very small forces. It would be very easy to tighten it carelessly and crush the pipe.


I can't remember if all the Speedmaster hands have pipes (I think so) but on a hand that just has a hole, tightening is a different matter....

Cheers, Chris

I have had hands repaired in this way. In my personal experience, the subdial hands are the ones that are most prone to being damaged during service, likely just because they're small. It's also relatively easy to replace them as there's no tritium to worry about.

I think what is more if a risk is damaging the lume, not the hands. The old lume can crack and chunks can fall out. I've had this happen on a few, but generally for me, reusing old hands has not been a problem with a watchmaker who understands that you want to preserve the originality of the parts.

Thank you all for excellent replies! I'm disappointed to say the least that my authorised (trained in Switzerland) Omega watchmaker encouraged me to not refit the old hands which led me to sell them and look for others. He is one of those watchmakers who sincerely believe that new parts are always better and more reliable, even with hands and dials. So obviously not a vintage guy 🙁

My other watchmaker has offered to paint modern hands to match the dial, but that also feels wrong.

I've managed to get a hold of a chrono sweep, but hour and minute hands are pretty rare on ebay.

and not cheap.

You could go with the artificially aged option as a stop gap while you hunt down a proper vintage set...

I was offered a complete set in decent condition (some chipping) for 200 EUR, but was too slow so they got away. The kind of stuff that keeps me up at night…

I had to go to a different watchmaker to replace the pipe as it fell off when removing the hand (chrono second) and the first watchmaker just installed a service hand instead.