Servicing, Repair, and Restoration of a Seamaster Date The watch arrived in typical – old, well used, not cared for, condition, really dirty outer case, you know the kind of dirt that the ultrasonic cleaner won't even remove and that you are forced to clean off with a sharpened piece of pegwood – yeach! In any case, that was the least of the problems. Inspection Initial inspection wasn't good, one of the screws had fallen out of the rotor and was missing. A quick check of the tightness of the remaining two screws revealed why the screw fell out – the screws were loose, really loose. Which signifies botched workmanship and not tightening the screws enough. This is a very common problem, and I see it often. Screws should be tight, not snug, especially on the autowinder bridge and even more expecially on a bumper wind, where there is a lot of shock transmitted which will loosen a snug screw just through normal usage. Here is the missing screw. And thankfully the screw wasn't lodged in the train, but sitting here next to the bumper spring. Next up, start the disassembly and more evidence of botched work. No idea why there is this much dried oil in this location, more than likely the barrel/arbor were over oilled and this is the residue of that oil. If you look closely you can see a slight wear mark on the barrel bridge, looks as if the barrel arbor bushing in the barrel bridge is worn out. There is another subtle clue on the actual barrel of a problem, can you spot it? A close check of the arbor confirms the wear in the barrel bridge, this type of wear and damage is completely preventable of course with proper and regular servicing (apologies for the slightly blurry picture). Here's the other clue of the wear, the arbor was worn so much that the barrel was touching the bottom of the center wheel, no wonder the customer reported that the watch would stop overnight. Further inspection showed that the bottom bushing was also worn, so both were repaired with new bushings made of brass, installed into larger reemed holes. I won't show the process of making and replacing the bushing, because it's a duplicate of the process from my earlier post. New bushings View of the barrel bridge, the new bushing, and barrel. The new bottom bushing in the mainplate that I made and installed. The rest of the servicing went well, other than finding more loose and falling out screws. Case and crystal condition and restoration As I mentioned the case was dirty and the acrylic crystal was quite damaged. I polished and restored the original crystal, and it turned out very nice. I did nothing to the case other than clean the gunk off, no polishing or removal of scratches, best left in original condition than to over polish it. Hope you enjoyed the write up, thanks for reading. British Horological Institute Professionally Qualified Watchmaker - www.roberthoran.eu
The twin to your Omega. An older picture, but still on my wrist on the 21st. 15 seconds fast in one week!