Many people that start showing intrest in vintage watches are doing so because they are lucky enough to receive a nice vintage watch from a relative. But here you are, with a used watch, mostly not running and in need of a little attention to it's appearance. The scratched up or even broken crystal (glass), the steel flexible outdated strap and a non (correctly) running movement are amongst the many things in need of attention.

Well if you are in need of some help, just let us know. We love vintage watches and we like to get your heirloom back in shape, for you to enjoy! And in most cases for a really apealling amount of money also. Perhaps best to give some examples.

This one is classic example for many vintage fleamarket watch finds. I did not get it cheap, but I thought it had enough potential to pay 90 euro for it (even got it down 10 eur). We have here a BWC watch made by the Swiss Company Buttes Watch Company from the town of Buttes in the Jura. It has a not so good chronograph function, but it is running decently. It has an inscription on the back a name from some German fellow. The crystal is cracked and the crown is worn. The case is dented and scratches, the steel band is broken. NICE!

There is only one way to start a restoration. That is deviding the watch into it's parts. So the band and the back come off. Reveiling a very nice Landeron 248 movement. The crown and stem can be removed and then the ring that holds the movement. The rubber in the back can be thrown away, since it is best to be replaced after several years. The movement with dail and hands is now free and can go to the watch maker for a good cleaning. In this proces will the hands be removed and refitted correctly. It seemed the chrongraph hand was a bit of centre. Then the crystal comes off by a little push from the inside. The tension ring is not giving much tention to the cracked crystal. Fortunatelly the crack was not completely through the crystal, so no extra damp has build up inside. The pushers are screwed out. It seems one pusher has been replaced since it is a little smaller then the original one. But it is working fine and new pushers are very hard to get equally sized and well fitted to the movement. So...we just leave that.

Now that everything was apart, the restoration to the case and back can begin. First are the dents made less obvious by smoothing them out and making the corners on the case sharper. Most scratches can be buffed. The back is pretty beat up, but with buffing out the inscription, most scratches can be buffed out, leaving most of the words and numbers intact. It is always a search as where to stop. I always think that you can better stop at a point that leaves all intact, rather then going all the way, losing distinc features. Afterall new scratches are easily added. After the buffing, the entire case and back is grained and the side of the case and back is polished. Then the crystal side is rebrushed again to get a satin finish. The crystal side can be mildly grained/brused.

Time to start putting things together. The pushers are refitted and a new crown is found. A new crystal and nice quality leather watch band are fitted. The movement, dail and hands are inserted, the crown put in place and the back gets a new greased gasket before being screwed in. Nice suprise...the crown is sticking out. So the stem has to be shortened to the exact correct length. A folding claps makes the picture complete.

The final outcome is pretty good. We turned a 90 euro watch into a 300 euro watch with a 6 month garantee on the correct function of the movement. The entire costs are 100,- euro for cleaning the movement, 40 euro for band and clasp and a total of 25 euro for polishing, new crown, casket and crystall. So I think we can easily conclude that it was a job worth doing. EVEN NICER.