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On day 73 of the virtual pocket watch museum, in responce to Tonny's posting
of a steel cased IWC Pocket Watch, I shared this this steel cased watch with
you, and laid out a challenge to Jeroen. In short, can we save this bit of IWC
history and restore it ?
Being the watchmaker he is, he accepted the challenge.
During the life time of the project, come good times or bad (as is the case
with most restoration projects that start out like this), we will share the
progress, trials and tribulations with you.
This will be in the form of a photo essay.
Day # 5 - An early return of the Original dial
So, many of you saw that we had the plan to temporary replace the original
(and very rare blue & white dial) with a black and white dial which fitted the
movement and case. Namely, this dial.
So with the re-assembly of the movement, and the clock works intact (so to
speak) all that remained was for master watchmaker Jeroen to complete the
restoration of the original gunmetal case (the original Rust Bucket) and mount
the movement.
We had already made the decision to not fully sand down and laser fill any
extreme deep rust pit marks on the case - but rather opting to keep the cases
original scarring (patina) as a reflection of its long and hard working life.
So after Jeroen had bead blasted it, we needed to complete the work with some
sort of a surface
treatment - otherwise, in the shortest of time it would start to rust again.
Now, you may think that the how and what on treating the steel was a no
brainer - but it is not so. Some research we did in the past during
restoration projects of other pocket watches which were cased in gun
metal cases, we had learnt that these gases were marked up in the archives in
Schaffhuasen - in the so called "case books", as 'OXYDE". As in this example
here for watch number #22 which also has a gun metal case.
However, while the heat treatment process of "blueing" (which is a fine art in
itself) is well documented, these cases were originally not blued, as in the
tradional form of blue steeled hands and screws.
Rather they (the Swiss watch case makinging cottage inductry) followed a
mysterious process whereby the cases actually came out
with a dark black almost mat like finish, as opposed to a deep blue sheen (as
one would find say on a firearm). So we opted for a cold chemical treatment
process as opposed to a hot blueing one,
Once this descion had been made, there remainded the question of what to do
with
the "gold" inlay parts.
When Jeroen intially stripped the pocketwatch down (all the way to undoing the
hinges), he took a look at this aspect. However, he was unable to remove from
the steel bezel and case the gold inserts and as a result these too went along
with the case, into the bead blasting. This left us with a clean steel case,
and rather sandblated and matt finish gold inlays.
I accepted this, given, if we then tried to buff them up again, it would leave
us with a steel case with smooth shiny edgings (where the rest was matt and
aged).
But then in a stroke of luck, during the chemical process - the ring actually
lossened up and Jeroen was able to remove it completely. This allowed him to
then buff it smooth and polish it up!
After this he commenced the chemical blackening process. This, involves a
thourough cleaning of the bare metal, bead blasted case followed then by the
application (by hand) of the chemical layer. After the allocated time period,
the chemical residue was then cleaned off, leeaving the case looking like
this.
Note: the patina patterning - the pitting and blemishes left on the case back
.
After this, the entire case was then lightly rubbed down with a fine stainless
steel based "steelwool' pad. This removed most of the dark black coloring, and
brough a silvery sheen to the metal.
Following this intial blackening and rub down, Jeroen then painstakenly
polished up by hand the gold pin set seat.
as well as the gold case opening lip and the hinge tubes. Note : Jeroen
believes that the hinge tubes are of brass (as gold would wear down to
quickly) and we think that these were then gold plated. However, I balked at
his suggestion to file a corner down and actually check this!
Post this Jeroen tells me that he then repeated the entire process of
degreasing, re-applying the chemical layer and then yet again wiping it all
off - folowed up by another rub down with the steelwool. This, he did in total
another 2 times until the desired dark black, matt finish color was achieved.
He then re-assmbled the case and _ _heat fitted__ a new 1.3mm mineral crystal
class to the case.
Note: As his watchmaker, despite his relavant young age does not believe in
gluing in the watch crystals as do most modern watchmakers. He opts to mount
glass by adopting the original old method of affixing the crystals. Whereby,
he accurately measures up the bezel inner diameter size, and then selects to
the exact size the correct mineral glass lens (down to 0.1mm). He then uses a
heat gun to heat up the bezel so it expands just sufficiently enough so that
he can then "drop" the glass into the bezel openinh and then allow it to
slowly return to room temprature. The bezel then shrinks tight around the
glass. He has over the years perfected the art of measuring the diameters of
both bezel and glass, and says that it's rare these days for the glass to
crack on him. This used to happen from time to time in the early years of
these projects. Today, he has probably replaced just over 90% of the crystals
on my entire collection (he has this habit of imeadiately taking a metal
object to the lens and listening to the sound it makes - each and every time I
show him a new timepiece. If it sounds like acrylic had been fitted - I then
somehow dont manage to get the watch back in hand, until he has replaced it
with ancient mineral glass.
The restored and re-assembled Case
Refitting the Movement
Just as Jeroen was about to fit the watch (with it's tempoary black and white
dial on it) back into the newly done up case, Jeroen exitedly messaged me,
that the postman had deliverd a parcel to his watch repair atelier (studio).
And he sent me a "tease reveal" photo!
Well, lets just say that by polpular demand (by many of you as well as my
cousin Ray), I had put some pressure on our enamel dial restore expert - to
try and save that original dial with the blue 13/24 inner ring.
Remember what it looked like (shattered) to start with?
Well our lady didnt disappoint (especially given the limited time and budget
we allocated her).
Ladies and gents, Jeroen and I are pleased to present the end result of the
Rust Bucket Restoration Project.
The movement is refitted into the blackend case. All parts that are meant to
shine - shine!
The completed pocket Watch dating from 1916 anno July 2020
You cant save them all - or can you?
I believe we succesfully saved this beauty. We initially decided on conducting
a partial restore project, with limited budget in line with the value of this
watch - with the movement getting the full restoration focus so that she can
continue to please it's owners for the next 100 plus years. This goal has been
achieved IMHO.
I want to thank Jeroen Blonk, master Watchmaker and friend - for the passion
and dedication he has shown once again to help bring back these legacy
timepieces to their former glory. Jeroen, I salute you and once again stand in
awe of your skills. Thanks you for a job well done.
What say you fellows?
