Picked up an early sixties 30ls in a gold case, non running but at the price I reckoned to use it for practice.
First hurdle, feet screws had seized but freed them and still the dial would not come away.
Some bright spark ( f****** idiot) had glued it on . Off now and some work tomorrow and hopefully
Takes me back to the title, why do this to a nice old watch

 

When you don't know how to really fix something, super glue, duct tape, and a hammer are the tools you use. I think you'd be surprised at how many even nicer watches had some part superglued on. Say, like an 18ct 145.006 caliber 321 Seamaster with an 18ct dial.

 

My line of work is certainly far from high tech, it may be old age but I get really p****d off when I see things like this

 

If you work on watches long enough, you will see some things that certainly just make you shake your head - glue is only one of them - a recent example:



Fortunately I was discarding the dial on this one, so it was no biggie. BTW the dial feet were intact, but the dial feet screws were missing, so rather than simply get the screws, they glued the dial on. Oy!

Cheers, Al

 

Lovely work Al. Sure you will understand If I don't post images of my resurrection piece

 

I agree - if you can source the part. Omega bascially refuses to sell any Cal. 321 parts unless it's carried over into a later caliber (some 321 parts are used in the 861/1861). Other than that, you are left to the open market to find the parts, and it's hit and miss. Even if you do find it, everyone who is selling these parts knows that they are rare, so it usually ends up being expensive. I could see the brake (blocking lever) going for $150+ easily. Some clients just don't want to spend the money.

Certainly not condoning it, and I would hand the watch back if someone doesn't want to fix it peroperly, but I can understand how something like this would get done.

I have had people give me second looks about spending $15 total on a watch they brought me...quartz, but still...

Cheers, Al