Restoration of a Rolex Watch - Seriously Water Damaged

Ok in this video we are going to tackle some major issues because a Rolex escape wheel should not look like that. That is really crusty! And the Setting Lever is not good! The number nine has fallen off. The mainspring is stuck to the barrel lid. If I can even get this thing running we should definitely do a pressure test. But can I get t running in this state? Anyway, let's find out. [Stick with it! Tha Audio gets much better!!!] So, in this package is a Rolex that has been completely filled with water. Now I have not opened the package yet so I don't know how bad the damage is So! Let's open it up and take a look! Ok so the first good sign is that there is not a lot of rust showing through the date window because in the last one I did that was pretty hideous but let's get this back off now and see what the damage is to the movement Ok just identified that 'The Click' is not working that is this component here this should sort of ratchet up and down as the mainspring barrel turns but as you can see if I just run the mainspring ratchet now it does absolutely nothing and the mainspring ratchet is free just to come back like that so that is not going to help the watch at all beacuse it is not going to be able to store any power so we are going to have to sort that out Ok, so I have just taken the click of there and as you can see it's kind of totally rusted and was actually stuck to the post that it is supposed to pivot around so I am going to sort that out We should be fine after a good clean and lubrication Ok, so the setting lever here and its spring are looking pretty rusted but they are both pretty huge lumps of metal so once cleaned up they will be fine Ok, so we've got a litlle bit of a problem here because the barrel arbor is actually corroded to the extent that it is stuck into the barrel lid so we are going to have to prise that out and then assess the damage on the barrel arbor to see if we can make it good or if it needs to be replaced Ok so everything is out of the ultrasonic cleaner there are still some components that are gong to need a little bit of hand cleaning and some maybe that just aren't up to it but we'll cross those bridges when we get to them but for the moment let's deal with the dial because we have got to fix that up first And here I am just briefly checking the operation of the balance stopping device And this is the point now where we are really on 'a wing and a prayer' because this is the cleaned up escape wheel going back in and all over Switzerland there are watchmakers in the canteen having a god laugh at this. Now this is the original pallet fork that I have just cleaned up and the chances of getting the watch to run with this are small but we are going to have a go anyway So! Let's have a go! Urhmm ... You can't beat a nice cup of tea when you've been harding hard on a Rolex But here's the thing. A lot of you guys, right. You've been watching my videos and you're not subscribed and I can't figure that out because because it's ... it ain't hard! And it's free! All you gotta do is There's a subscribe button it's red right? It's down there You've not got to think about it you've just gotta Subscribe There! On the red button Subscribe You've got to do that Now. And that would be nothing then This is not working And so it's time to get rid of the old pallet fork which you can see at the top here and replace it with a new one Ok so the watch is now running and remember we still have that very rusty escape wheel in there and you can see that athough it's running it's running like a dog really And so it is also time now to get rid of the old rusty escape wheel and fit this nicenew one instead For whivh I haveto strip back to the power train. Ok so we are Dial Up [DU] now and this is what we have got which is, you know, not a bad staring point for finishing the regulation.

Channel: Richard Perrett Watchmaker

Views: 138,461

Rating: 4.9073682 out of 5

Keywords: Rolex Restoration, Rolex repair, restoration video, restoration, Rolex Datejust, Rusty Rolex, Water Damaged Rolex, Rolex 3135 repair, Rolex 3135, Watch Restoration, Watch repair, Wristwatch repair, Pressure test watch, Timegrapher, watchmaker, watchmaking, Richard Perrett, Richard Perrett watchmaker

Id: TKF4awsOVI4

Length: 25min 17sec (1517 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 26 2021