WRUW Today?

Canuck · Mar 10, 2015

This "survivor" came to me from a fellow who inherited this watch after his father passed away, recently. It has a calibre 344 bumper automatic movement in it, It was a mess! When he brought it, he impressed upon me that he wanted it to run, but to not be cosmetically improved in any way! He admired the reddish ring surrounding the dial, and wanted it left, along with all the scratches, etc. When I got into it, the reddish "ring" around the dial was a thick coating of RUST adhering to the interior of the case! There was a "halo" of grunge around the edge of the crystal. The rotor post was badly worn, as were the centre wheel bearings (not jewelled), loose crown, rusty stem, and the steady pin which secures one side of the movement in the case was broken off! I phoned him and told him I HAD to clean the case to get rid of the rust, and to do that, the bezel had to come off! It was filthy under the bezel! I cleaned the case after I phoned him. Given carte blanche, this watch would look a lot different than what you see. I'll wear it long enough to test it, and then he gets it back.