IN A TOOLBOX 100 year old omega pocket watch restoration tutorial

hello my fellow watch lovers all over the world welcome to the channel my name is Joe and I'm the naked watch maker I hope you guys are all staying safe and having a good day and today the restoration we are going to attempt is on this 1920s vintage Omega pocket watch and here's what's coming up in this video [Music] now this pocket watch belongs to a mechanic who inherited it from his father and he absolutely smells of wd-40 and oil and grease a lot - give it a quick wipe before filming as the grime was getting all over my bench on my hands the gentleman who owns it has been keeping it in his toolbox in his garage he said he kept it with him as a reminder of his father who passed away he said he started off in a safe place in his office where he would show it to others and admire it and he would also play with it from time to time but it looks like he must have left it open at some point or used some wd-40 to get it going as most problems are solved by mechanics using wd-40 or maybe I'm just exaggerating with my stereotype and so somehow he managed to end up in his toolbox on the garage floor with spelt curtains for this beautiful looking watch so let's see if we can restore this watch for this gentleman so that he can enjoy it for many more years and reminisce about all the good times he had with his father and hopefully maybe pass it on to his son this watch is a hundred years old and I don't see why shouldn't last another hundred years so now a bit about this pocket watch it's an open-faced watch made from sterling silver with a caliber 40.6 lt2 movement which is a manual wind movement with 15 joules and the Breguet hairspring and the case was manufactured by al Dennison manufactured in the 1920s in Birmingham England right by my workshop so it gives me even greater pleasure working on this watch knowing that this case was manufactured right by my home Aaron Laughlin Denison was an american-born watchmaker who founded the Walton watch company and then he later moved to Switzerland in 1863 where he helped the formation of the International watch company or as we know it IWC and it was in 1871 that he moved to England and set up home in Birmingham now I have serviced many vintage watches in my time and I have seen this Dennison hallmark on many top Swiss watch brands including Rolex - the Omega long jeans Gisella coat IWC and Zenith amongst many others the reason for working with these top brands was I think due to some tax benefits where you could import in the movements for a cheaper tax rate and then have them cased locally in precious metals and so Denison was the top choice for many of these elite brands in the UK market they also produced watches for the British military during World War one and World War two so as you can see I'm just removing the crystal from the bezel and it looks like somebody's glued ii-in previously at some point and I'm pretty sure the crystals for these bezels should just snap into place without requiring any adhesive so I can hazard a guess that this crystal is incorrect or a Dean correct size it's also pretty badly damaged then shipped so we will have to replace this the tile however is in amazing condition so firstly I'll just start off by removing the hands you can pick Xena watch me play will dis your first wrong as you can hear from the background trouble has arrived my little son asking me all sorts of questions this particular dial has three dial feet so there are three screws that you will have to undo before removing the dial I know I'm just removing this outer protective ring as made out of brass now when removing the crown we'll remember it's a reverse threaded screw also be very careful when removing the click as the clickspring could just fly off and then you'll be spending ages looking for it and please excuse the grotty thumb and nails all this manual labor and polishing etc is not kind on your nails so if there's anyone in Birmingham who wants to give me a free manicure please get in touch so the movement is all stripped and ready to go for a bath and this will all go into my alma RM 90 which has served me well for many years so in this section of the video I will show you the restoration of the case and also see if we can address the crystal situation so I'm just using a bit of soft pegwood to remove the adhesive silver itself is very soft and I risk damaging it further or scratching it up and as I mentioned previously these bezels are designed with the groove so that the crystal can just snap into place which is quite evident on this bezel oh dear this crystal is beyond help there is a large chip on the edge and also it is the wrong size so I'll look in my old box of pocket watch crystals and see if I can find something in there and the reason why I'm looking in my old stock is because I have measured the size of the crystal and have looked online and the size is a peculiar size and it is not available the size of the crystal that's required is 43.9 so it's a very odd measurement and none of the online suppliers I use currently have this crystal in stock and all these small niche bricks and mortar stores that I usually walk to are also all closed due to the worldwide lockdown so after searching through a few of the boxes that I have in store I have managed to find this particular crystal it is the correct size and also has a beveled edge so it should allow for a good snap on fitting however apart from the multiple minor scratches all over the crystal it also has some very deep scratches and some chips around the edges but sadly this is the best we have at the moment so what I'll do is I will try and get rid of some of the swirls and minor scratches with some cerium oxide and see if we can get away with that my workshop isn't set up for laboratory so I will use an old polishing motor and an old felt wheel [Music] so after about half an hour I have managed to get rid of the small swells and small scratches but as you can see the deeper scratchy still remain so it's been quite a bit of time trying to get this class looking to a reasonable standard I've rounded off some of these sharp chips and edges and I've also managed to polish out all the minor swirls and smaller scratches in many situations this crystal may be acceptable but those deep scratches are really bugging me and my OCD is kicking into top gear when the crystal is installed it should look fine against the white dial background however I personally couldn't live with it so I have to at least try and remove some of these deep scratches with my dremel and some diamond bits so in order to remove a deep scratch you have to remove all the glass around it until you get to the lowest point of your deepest scratch and so the whole crystal has to be rubbed down to the same level otherwise you will have small dimples all over the glass [Music] [Music] so I'm just using this clear plastic Ferrero Rocher tray and I filled it up with a little bit of water just to keep the crystal wet and also keep the temperature down so the flat diamond bit I was using was giving me some results but they were taking a very long time so I've moved on to the cylindrical sandpaper bit now when the crystal is wet he was very hard to see the scratches so I kept having to take it out of the water or drying it off to see what the scratches were so what I've done is I've marked the underside of the crystal where the scratches are with a permanent marker now I can see exactly where the scratches are and after about an hour I have now resorting to manually sanding it down with some dry sandpaper it would have been a good idea to go from different grits gradually without moved from a very low grit to a very fine grit as I don't have any other sun paper at the moment and so finally just to polish it all off and back on the cerium oxide and the felt wheel [Music] so after washing it down and cleaning the crystal the final result is not what I expected but if I were to spend a bit more time and use the right equipment I think I would get a better result and I feel embarrassed to show you guys a close-up of the crystal as is not to my standards so now I'm just polishing the bezel and then I move on to the case now you may remember in the introduction I showed you the case which had some dings and scratches I'll include a screenshot for you to see here on the same principle as the crystal applies here as well in order to remove these deep scratches and inks you'd have to remove all the silver around it in order to get to the lowest point of your deepest scratch however we do not want to lose all this silver and there is another way and so the theory is with soft metals with Dinks and scratches the metal hasn't actually fallen off and gone anywhere it's just been displaced so by using a felt reel with the right speed and creating the right temperature we can actually move this metal around and therefore we can rectify these deep scratches and dings without actually removing too much of the precious metal I'm trying my best here to show you guys the results but I do need to get some better lighting in my polishing room so I've been on this for quite a while now and it's almost done but you can still see there's a small ding day so that will need to come out so that was just the first stage of the polishing the cutting stage and now I will put the whole case and bezel into an ultrasonic machine to get rid of all the old cutting compound before I take you on to a final map but you guys can see the results so far [Music] so you can see all the Dinks and deep scratches are removed but there are very fine scratches now from the cutting compound which we will remove now on the final map so I've changed over my stainless steel finishing mop to this precious metal mop and after another clean in the ultrasonic bath this is the final result so this movie is getting a bit long now almost like the Irishman so what I'll do is I'll just speed up the assembly process and since I couldn't find an oil chart for this particular movement online anywhere I will just make a guesstimate based on previous movements that I serviced you you I must have a death wish here putting in the spring first before screwing in the setting lever but after years of losing Springs in my earlier career I'm fairly used to it now unconfident that I won't lose it the spring is still there you [Music] [Music] so not bad for a hundred-year-old movement and a ten-second a day gain on a pocket watch movement is fantastic but I will still regulate it to see if I can get it any better it's open but Donna I love kids hey everybody so we're nearly done I'm just gonna put the bezel on and let's see if this crystal snaps into place without requiring any adhesive and voila just like that and so there you have it guys I hope I've done this watch justice and I hope you guys approve so I hope you guys have enjoyed this video and found it useful I now realize and appreciate how long it takes for some of these youtubers to make these videos as it takes a long time to record cut and edit so if you have found this video useful and you have enjoyed it and it has taught you something then please do become part of this channel by subscribing this will help us to grow this channel together now back to the watch I hope the owner is happy with the restoration that we've done and I hope when he received the watch back it brings back fond memories of his father I also hope he continues to enjoy this watch and admire it and hopefully he will pass it on to his son and his son will pass it on to his son okay guys so please do consider subscribing to the channel and put on your notifications for up-and-coming videos and I will leave you in peace now to enjoy the montage at the end of this video so until next time guys stay safe stay happy and I'll see you on the next one [Music] you [Music]

Channel: Nekkid Watchmaker

Views: 1,540,806

Rating: 4.9226284 out of 5

Keywords: omega watch restoration, omega pocket watch restoration, omega watch service, omega pocket watch service, omega watch repair, omega pocket watch repair, omega hunter pocket watch, omega hunter pocket watch repair, omega 40.6lt2 repair, omega 40.6lt2 service, ASMR, rare watches, best restoration videos, online education, online learning, online lessons, how to change profession, learn english, how to make money selling watch, start online watch business, how to speak british

Id: iaVx5LJ7t_c

Length: 37min 6sec (2226 seconds)

Published: Sat May 16 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/[deleted]]

If you enjoy these types of videos I highly recommend checking out the youtube channel OddTinkering, he does an excellent job restoring all sorts of cool old devices, his collection and skills are something to behold.

[u/Bboyczy]

Beautiful! I recently picked up WWI-era swiss wrist-watch and it's still ticking strong after 100+ years!. The craftsmanship of these early 20th century watch pieces are fantastic and with regular service, can last a long time!

[u/ex-avite]

Wow - absolutely fantastic .. bet the person cried with joy on this pieces return