I finally was able to finish working on my next project watch tonight. Now the fun begins of turning all of the raw footage into something watchable.
This one is 2nd in the series of 'Affordable' vintage watch rebuilds that I'm creating on the YouTube channel. I bought this as a non-runner on eBay for $20! It's actually somewhat of a less common Gruen case, and it was listed as a 'parts watch' on eBay. I won't give away any spoilers, but I'll just say that when I removed the caseback off of this thing, I got a quite a surprise (not in a good way). You'll need to watch the video to see what it was, if I ever get through all of this footage.
Nevertheless, after a bit of parts sourcing and some patience, this thing is running better than some of my brand new watches. Seriously, it's nuts how good this watch runs now! It is a pretty cool 70's timepiece, so I put a spare Speidel 'stretchy' bracelet on it that was all the rage during this watch's time. I had it from another project watch I had previously rebuilt and put on a leather strap. I have to say it is quite comfortable because Speidel made some good stuff back then.
Here's a couple of pics. It has a faceted crystal, with the facets cut into the underside so the second pic is at a weird angle try to show that.
I would've liked to have totally redone the case, but it is plated and I didn't want to take a chance going too deep with cutting/buffing compound and removing the plating. I just did a quick polish with some green Dialux compound and it turned out pretty well. It took quite a bit of elbow grease and 5 stages of sandpaper, along with some Polywatch to bring that crystal back. It was seriously marked up in the beginning.
Seriously, look how smooth this thing is running in the dial up position:
It's been regulated to 3 positions, with a delta reading (max spread between all tested positions) of 6 s/d. Amplitude drop between horizontal and vertical positions of only about 10-15 degrees. That's seriously good! It's running an INT 7522/3 automatic movement.
I figured you all would be pleased to see me post something that's not a Seiko! Haha. Don't worry though, I have lots more still do get done.
This one is 2nd in the series of 'Affordable' vintage watch rebuilds that I'm creating on the YouTube channel. I bought this as a non-runner on eBay for $20! It's actually somewhat of a less common Gruen case, and it was listed as a 'parts watch' on eBay. I won't give away any spoilers, but I'll just say that when I removed the caseback off of this thing, I got a quite a surprise (not in a good way). You'll need to watch the video to see what it was, if I ever get through all of this footage.
Nevertheless, after a bit of parts sourcing and some patience, this thing is running better than some of my brand new watches. Seriously, it's nuts how good this watch runs now! It is a pretty cool 70's timepiece, so I put a spare Speidel 'stretchy' bracelet on it that was all the rage during this watch's time. I had it from another project watch I had previously rebuilt and put on a leather strap. I have to say it is quite comfortable because Speidel made some good stuff back then.
Here's a couple of pics. It has a faceted crystal, with the facets cut into the underside so the second pic is at a weird angle try to show that.
I would've liked to have totally redone the case, but it is plated and I didn't want to take a chance going too deep with cutting/buffing compound and removing the plating. I just did a quick polish with some green Dialux compound and it turned out pretty well. It took quite a bit of elbow grease and 5 stages of sandpaper, along with some Polywatch to bring that crystal back. It was seriously marked up in the beginning.
Seriously, look how smooth this thing is running in the dial up position:
It's been regulated to 3 positions, with a delta reading (max spread between all tested positions) of 6 s/d. Amplitude drop between horizontal and vertical positions of only about 10-15 degrees. That's seriously good! It's running an INT 7522/3 automatic movement.
I figured you all would be pleased to see me post something that's not a Seiko! Haha. Don't worry though, I have lots more still do get done.
