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Unplanned morning project...

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watchpalooza
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Unplanned morning project...

Post by watchpalooza »

I was not planning to take any watches apart today. Silly me...

This morning I grabbed one of my Wostok’s (Vostok, Boctok) to wear. It has a copper dial that is pretty incredible in the light. As I was putting it on, I noticed that the crystal was not totally clear. Grabbing the loupe, I could see quite a few scratches, some pretty serious. Definitely not up to my usual standards for clarity, and a shame for this particular watch as it has an amazing patina’d copper dial. I remembered that on this particular watch I had not done my typical cleaning and glass polishing. I thought, “ok, I will give it a quick polish. I have time for that.” After a 2-3 repetitions of polishing-rinsing-drying, it became apparent that many of the scratches were on the INSIDE of the crystal. I also saw a bit of dust inside. “@%#!!!.” And also, “ $@!#!!.”

OK. So I took off the straps, grabbed the case opener and proceeded to open the back. Inside was a black gunky, dirty mess. <deep sigh> Alright, so out came the tweezers and I popped out the crown. The crown stem was also full of gummy black stuff. The case seal was so gunked up that the movement would not budge from the case even with the crown removed...so I gently scraped under it and took it out to free up the movement. Now with everything removed, I polished the inside of the crystal and re-polished the outside as well. Quick rinse. Some of the scratches were gone, but a couple deep ones remained. Experience told me that polish alone would not remove them. <another deep sigh>.

Out came the sandpaper. Starting with 2000 grade, then with 5000, I gently sanded out the scratches and watched as the crystal became totally opaque and white. My phone alerted me that a spammer was on the site, so I put everything down, banned him and deleted his post before returning to the task at hand. I rinsed the dust off and followed with acrylic polish before again rinsing. With the loupe, I could now see a nearly perfectly scratch-free glass. I used a toothbrush to scrub and remove the gunk from the case, back, ring and crown/stem assembly and then threw everything into the ultrasonic cleaner. Some gunk still clung to a seam on the case, around the holes in the lugs, and also around the crystal. Out came the toothpick...in my experience nothing works better for removing this type of case gunk. One final rinse and then a fresh lint-free microfiber cloth to dry. Another spam alert, another ban and delete before moving on to the next step.

[img]https://picr.me/i/2019/05/07/Vxp8Cf.jpg[/img]

Next I put the seal into the silicon sealant box to lubricate while I began reassembly. The watch was missing a stem sleeve, so I added one from my stock, put some silicone on the stem, and pushed in the crown before flipping the watch over.

[img]https://picr.me/i/2019/05/07/VxpwTQ.jpg[/img]
[img]https://picr.me/i/2019/05/07/Vxpg3X.jpg[/img]

A light coating of silicone on the spacer before dropping in the seal and then I seated the back and sealed it up with the ring. Finally, straps back on and final inspection.

[img]https://picr.me/i/2019/05/07/VxphEs.jpg[/img]
[img]https://picr.me/i/2019/05/07/VxpSGp.jpg[/img]

Project complete! I am very pleased with the outcome and happy to have it on my wrist today. Now I can finally sit down for breakfast. Ahh, the life of a WiS’er...

[img]https://picr.me/i/2019/05/07/VxpHUD.jpg[/img]
[img]https://picr.me/i/2019/05/07/VxpdTh.jpg[/img]
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ShoreFire77
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Re: Unplanned morning project...

Post by ShoreFire77 »

That dial is amazing! Definitely worth the pre-breakfast restoration job. :D

Great strap choice too. Is it a Barton?
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Re: Unplanned morning project...

Post by watchpalooza »

ShoreFire77 wrote: Tue May 07, 2019 6:42 am That dial is amazing! Definitely worth the pre-breakfast restoration job. :D

Great strap choice too. Is it a Barton?
Thanks! It is indeed a Barton.
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Re: Unplanned morning project...

Post by TheJohnP »

That would be an entire weekend project for me, not a get it taken care of before coffee kind of thing.

Either way, turned out great!
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Re: Unplanned morning project...

Post by watchpalooza »

TheJohnP wrote: Tue May 07, 2019 8:38 am That would be an entire weekend project for me, not a get it taken care of before coffee kind of thing.

Either way, turned out great!
Well, to be completely forthcoming I did drink two coffees during the operation.
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Re: Unplanned morning project...

Post by MAAHHH THE FRENCH! »

Cornify?


CORNIFY???
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Re: Unplanned morning project...

Post by watchpalooza »

MAAHHH THE FRENCH! wrote: Wed May 08, 2019 4:32 pm Cornify?


CORNIFY???
A friend here who is a UX designer is the one responsible for this: https://www.cornify.com/

He was bored one evening and decided to create a script that does this. At one point it was so popular that he was invited to speak at MIT about it.
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’There is a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.’ - Leonard Cohen, Anthem
’One man's faith is another man's delusion.’ - Anthony Storr
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