How to bring a 1950s Rolex watch back to life

A precious antique collectible watch must be "scarred" after nearly 70 years. How to restore this watch really tests the experience and craftsmanship of the watch technician. Our case today is to restore a Rolex Oyster Perpetual Datejust Ref.6074 all-gold watch in the 1950s. The case not only has serious traces of use, but also seems to have experienced a world-class war: the case surface is severely oxidized, Mechanical failure, serious case bumps.

This watch has a special meaning for the customer, a gold watch inherited from his father who has passed away. Preliminary judgment, this watch has experienced a very humid environment, but fortunately Rolex has excellent waterproof performance and did not cause much damage to the movement. In the early stage of restoration work, professional tools need to be prepared first. This Rolex watch needs special tools to open the cover.

Opening the back cover, we can see that this is an early Rolex Ref.630 movement. The Ref.630 movement was launched in 1931. Therefore, the automatic movement at that time was thick and the general flat cover could not be installed. Therefore, Rolex developed a protruding bottom cover specially designed for automatic watches, so it was named BubbleBack. Like the shape of the oyster shell, the mirror and the back cover are protruding, so there is the Oyster Perpetual of later generations, but the Oyster Perpetual that is still produced now does not use the protruding bottom cover. The production cycle of this watch is from 1933 to 1955. year period.

The Ref.630 movement was a self-winding movement with a swing frequency of 18,000bph, with a Swiss lever escapement and no shock absorbers, which was common at the time. The Breguet balance spring is used, the main plate of the movement is engraved with 56567, and there is a G6435 mark on the automatic oscillating weight.

It is worth noting that there are two sets of model numbers "6030" and "6031" on the back of this case cover, these numbers are crossed out and replaced with "6074". Guess this may have been originally produced for an early Oyster model, but ended up being fit for Ref.6074.

Before repairing, the watch repairer probably checked that the watch had the following problems:

1. The damp environment damages the inside of the watch, causing the dial to change color and the movement parts to have rust;

2. The mirror has scratches and is not clear;

3. The case has serious scratches and bumps;

4. The movement has not been maintained for a long time, and the lubricating oil of the movement has dried up;

5. Calendar failure, calendar disc dislocation;

6. The shellac on the pallet fork fails, and the fork stone is loose;

7. The case is slightly bent and may be deeply dented by dropping and trying to force open the case during early repairs.

8. Damaged and scratched screws in motion due to improper use of tools and techniques during maintenance.

9. General wear and tear of movement components.

The watch was thoroughly inspected and restoration work included:

• Watch disassembly, cleaning, lubrication and reassembly;
• Adjustment of movement frequency and function inspection;
• Re-drop shellac on the pallet fork of the movement;
• Repair the movement gear train;
• Adjust the balance wheel of the movement;
• Correct the hairspring;
• Slight polishing of the case and replacement of the mirror;
• Repair of the calendar mechanism;
• Replace the hairspring.

Calendar repair

The date display is stuck between "19" and "20".

When disassembling the dial, it was found that the blue steel frame carrying the date dial had many scratches, which may have been caused by the rough operation of the repairman in the previous maintenance; the frame did not securely fix the date dial, but slid under the date dial instead of driving it. Calendar disc. This can be fixed by repositioning the calendar disc and pinning it.

Movement winding mechanism

Remove the movement winding mechanism, the pivot hole is worn. The pivot holes are held in place with new bushings, basically circular metal rings that fit into the enlarged pivot holes to bring them back to their original spec diameter. These bushings are turned on a lathe and then rubbed against the wall. Each bushing must be sized to match the newly polished pivots so that the pivots have little side play for precise operation.

Ratchet

Gear repair

There is visible wear on the gears, but this gear is ignored for now. If you have obsessive-compulsive disorder, you can make one.

Clean the movement surface and jewel holes

First clean the dirt and residue of the old lubricant in the shaft hole, after the gem hole is all fixed and cleaned, put the bearing with gemstone and splint into the ultrasonic machine, wash the parts with different cleaning and flushing solutions. Other movement parts are similarly cleaned.

Regrinding worn pivots

In older watches, the movement has more uneven surfaces and must be re-polished. Made the pivot on the outside stiffer, making it more wear-resistant.

In older watches without shocks, it is common for the balance staff to pivot to break due to the sudden bumps that modern shock-resistant watches are capable of withstanding.

The hairspring and balance wheel are first removed so that the damaged balance wheel shaft can be removed, then a new balance wheel is rivetted to the balance spring and, after riveting, fitted to the new balance wheel. Next, the balance needs to be trimmed on the plane and fully checked. When this is done, the hairspring can be attached to the correct position, and the cleat can be attached to the cleat, and the swing frequency can be adjusted.

Shellac is a natural adhesive used as an adhesive for the gemstone tips of the pallets of mechanical watches. In older watches it is common for shellac to come off on the pallet blocks. Therefore, the shellac must be renewed.

Adjusting a hairspring is an art in itself and requires hundreds of hours of practice. The goal is to place a balance spring (spring) completely flat and round in order to ensure accurate and reliable operation. Even some new watches have uneven balance springs, which must be corrected in order to travel accurately.

The reason why the hairspring may not be round or flat is because sometimes it is due to a violent shock, such as a watch being dropped. Repairmen who correct the balance spring usually use simple tools, such as precision tweezers, to form the balance spring by hand to make it flat and round.

Case polishing

In order to preserve as much of the original look of this watch as possible, the restoration work of this watch case polishing is critical. To keep this watch as pristine as possible, only certain areas of the watch are polished.

First cover the case completely with colored ink, then wipe off the ink with fine abrasive paper. This paper can only remove the ink on the smooth surface, after light sanding, there is still some ink left on the case, that is the concave surface we want to repair.

After grinding, the ink that has not been ground off is concave. Next, use abrasive materials to remove scratches and dents. But be careful not to wear off too much of the case material.

The final step is to polish the case to a high gloss, while preserving the original ruled surface, creating a striking contrast between the two finishes.

Because to maintain the original style of this watch, the heavily oxidized plain dial cannot be repaired, only simple cleaning can be done. However, such a watch appears to have a sense of time and has another charm.