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So I've had people ask a lot of questions about how you take these apart and what you can do to them. There are some bonesey tutorials on doing vintage work on watches, but I didn't see one specifically aimed at how to take these apart. I'll try to tell you what I've learned (the hard way). This will look at breaking down the watch, drilling the lugs, bleaching the bezel, and replacing the plexi. I posted this in process over in the repair and mod section but I thought it would go well here.
Doing the dial stuff deserves its own tutorial. Let's get started. Here is a perfectly adequate and sound Comex vintage sub (why are we messing with it?)
I work on a desk with a very good light source, with raised edges to catch stuff that flies away. I also use a microfiber towel to stop stuff when it flies away. I use a visor with magnifying lenses on it that costs about $8 on Amazon. It and the light are my most valuable tools. I still crawl around on the floor a lot looking for stuff that flew away
Take the bracelet off
Take the case back off. I use a sticky ball. You could use a ball of wadded up duct tape or a real case back tool.
Case back is off, lets remove the gasket and put it away in a storage container.
Now we will remove the stem. Unscrew the crown and pull it out to the time setting position. Notice the round button to the left of the stem beside the gear wheel. Take the red screwdriver 1.2mm, or slightly larger and, while gently pulling on the stem, slowly depress the stem release button. By using at least a 1.2mm screwdriver you will have a hard time depressing the button too far. If you use a sharp pointy thing you will be exponentially more likely to screw the keyless and you will cry.
Now we can remove the movement. If I was going to remove the dial and hands I would take off the rotor by removing the screw holding it, but I'm just going to store it. I need to unscrew the movement screws and retaining tabs.
Remove the screws and tabs with tweezers
Now remove the movement by turning it out onto your fancy movement turnout thingy. I use a spool of thread.
Turn it over
Remove the dial spacer and place the movement in an appropriate holder. It is a good idea to reinsert the stem to keep everything in place. To do this just insert the stem and give it a slight twist as you press it in. A light touch is nice here. Notice that this gives you another opportunity to screw up the keyless so if you want to skip this step just set the movement in a safe place and move it as little as possible.
Now we can remove the bezel. Take a single edge razor blade and work it under the bezel all the way around. To lever it the rest of the way off use a case knife.
Notice you have the bezel and the ring that provides the tension off now. You have the crystal retaining ring and plexi left. We need to remove them.
Work the razor blade under the retaining ring. Once you have it up a bit you can use the case knife as you did with the bezel.
With the retaining ring off you should be able to push the plexi out from the inside. It should just pop off. It should not be glued. If it is hard to push out you can run the razor blade under the edge of the plexi to loosen it up. Now you have the disassembly of the case complete. You can remove the bezel insert by running the case blade under the space between the insert and the bezel. It is glued in about 4 small spots.
And its all apart!
Next up we will drill out the lugs, bleach the bezel, install a better plexi and put it back together.
OK lets continue. Let's drill out the lugs so we can fit 2 mm gen spec springbars. Some people like to say that you can drill these out with a dremel tool or with hand drill and I guess you could if that was all you had. The problem is that it is very difficult to keep the bit perpendicular to the case and the bits are small and easily broken. I bought this press, which I can use both to drill holes and polish the finished cases.
I have a drill press vise and some soft jaw inserts. At Harbor Freight in the US those 3 items run less than one ruined 21j watch. The press is $60, and the vise and jaws together run about $25. It is a very good investment considering that you can use it as a polisher as well.
As far as drill bits go, you need to use a High Speed Steel drill bit. If you are buying 10 bits for $8 on ebay those probably are not very good. The ones I use are gold colored and cost about $2 each on Amazon. Some people use 1.25mm bits for the holes. That will work, but I prefer 1.3mm. You are going to be trying to mount a bracelet on this watch later and just that little bit of play will make it easier to do later. I set up the drilling like this.
You spend a lot of time lining up the bit and just a few seconds drilling. You will need to drill slowly, so with this type drill I set it for the slowest speed, about 750 rpm. You will need to use an oil to aid drilling. This is called cutting fluid and you can get it at the hardware big box store.
I put a couple drops of oil on the hole, and some on the bit.
Lower the bit slowly and steadily, and voila, you are through.
Repeat 3 more times and you will have this part done. Don't worry about those scratches, we will be sanding and polishing later.
Now that you have drilled the hole it really looks better if you can chamfer the sides of the hole for a smooth finished look. I bought this set of dremel bits for about $8 on ebay and it has been very useful for shaping.
I use one of these to chamfer the hole.
Just put it in the hole and spin it a bit.
Now you have a nice smooth edge that will polish up nicely. Next time we will look at trimming down those crown guards that everyone thinks are soooooo thick and ugly. (Doesn't really bother me but it is part of this) I'm going to put it in my vise and use the drum bit on my dremel. Stay tuned.
To continue, the CGs are a bit too wide on these. Measuring a stock case CG:
I have a friend with a relatively unmolested gen of this model that he inherited. I measured his and the tippy top of the CG is 1.35mm. So we are going to take a bit off with the drum attachment:
Go slowly, be deliberate. You can't add metal back on. If it is your first time measure frequently. It takes me 5 minutes now to do both sides. I took 30 minutes the first time I did this. A couple hundredths is close enough.
Now the other side.
Lets take a look
But it is all scratched up. We need to sand. How slowly you work up with your sandpaper will depend on how you plan to final polish. I do it mechanically so I only use these 2. You may want to work up to wet sanding with 2000.
Once done sanding I change my drill press to its top speed and put the polishing wheel in. I have been using white compound on this. Two wheels and a couple sticks of compound was under $10 at Harbor Freight.
Zoom, zoom, this makes fast work of a mirror shine.
The streaks are from the compound, it will clean off.
Still dirty, but in better light.
I put it in a cleaner called purple stuff here in the US. Real strong degreaser. Eat your hands up. Let it soak for an hour or so to minimize my manual work.
BEZEL BLEACHING
Ok the cartel bezel inserts seem at first impenetrable to bleach. The first time I tried this I just kept putting it in bleach and it would not change. I left it in bleach overnight and still nothing. Tough insert. The secret is bleach + sunshine. This may be hard for some of you UK guys as I hear the sun does not shine there. I submerge the insert in bleach and put it in the sun.
I don't particularly care for beaten up or heavily faded bezels. I want it to look used but night. For me that translates to about 30 minutes in the bleach/sun. That will give you what you see closest to you in the pic below. Just faded, not ghostly. I would suggest you pull it out and look at it every 10 minutes. Don't trust it.
THIS DOES NOT APPLY TO NONCARTEL BEZEL INSERTS. I've had ebay inserts that all the paint came off in 5 minutes.
NEXT UP: Put it back together and mod the bracelet to fit the new 2mm springbars.
Lets finish this up. First lets do the insert. You need an appropriate cement add some way to secure it till it dries. I do this.
While that dries lets modify the bracelet so that the 2mm bars will fit. First I have t enlarge the end of the bracelet, I use a 2mm screwdriver or hexdriver to slightly enlarge the end.
OK that fits
Now we need to enlarge the endlinks. You can buy ones to fit but they are $50 freakin dollars or so. I don't think so.
I use these 1.5 and 2 mm burrs in my dremel to ream out the hole. Go slowly, it is easy to rip out the end links or tear up your fingers.
And it fits.
Bracelet done.
New towel and all the parts laid out.
I am using a different plexi with a different profile. I like this type. It is a lower profile Tropic 19. The tropic 19 comes in a lot of different sizes, this is why you will see a lot of people talking about their "gen spec" or Clark plexi not fitting. It came in a lot of different sizes so that is not surprising. This one is three tenths of a millimeter too large for my retaining ring. I used my dremel to increase the size of the inner diameter of the retaining ring to fit. Leave it a bit small so it will be tight. I used a crystal press to install the retaining ring. This snug fit helps with water resistance.
ring installed, it just presses over the plexi
Put the movement back on the spool, lower the case over it.
Movement ring goes back in
Insert the stem while twisting slowly
Install the movement tabs and screws. I position the tabs with tweezers then I stick the tiny screws on the end of some rodico and use that to screw it into the holes Much easier
Buttoned up, ready for the gasket and caseback.
Silicon on the seals
Nudge it into place with the tweezers
Grease the caseback threads and crown tube threads with this stuff (thanks Rolie)
We need to snap the bezel back on. This tension ring controls how tight the bezel is when it turns. The more you bend it the firmer it gets. Bend it, place it over the plexi and retaining ring, then snap the bezel assembly back on.
Snap its done
Bracelet back on
Different plexi profile
Hope you enjoyed the show.
This is a very basic modification. It is quite easy to fall down the rabbit hole and spend tons of money on this. The insert isn't quite right, the crown is too tall, the tube should be countersunk into the case, the endlinks are not right. And we haven't even talked about the dial and hands. I personally think this gets me pretty close to where I am satisfied. I could relume the dial and I think it would be 95%. It will never be "right". You decide where you will stop.
I had fun, never tried to do a tutorial before.
Doing the dial stuff deserves its own tutorial. Let's get started. Here is a perfectly adequate and sound Comex vintage sub (why are we messing with it?)
I work on a desk with a very good light source, with raised edges to catch stuff that flies away. I also use a microfiber towel to stop stuff when it flies away. I use a visor with magnifying lenses on it that costs about $8 on Amazon. It and the light are my most valuable tools. I still crawl around on the floor a lot looking for stuff that flew away
Take the bracelet off
Take the case back off. I use a sticky ball. You could use a ball of wadded up duct tape or a real case back tool.
Case back is off, lets remove the gasket and put it away in a storage container.
Now we will remove the stem. Unscrew the crown and pull it out to the time setting position. Notice the round button to the left of the stem beside the gear wheel. Take the red screwdriver 1.2mm, or slightly larger and, while gently pulling on the stem, slowly depress the stem release button. By using at least a 1.2mm screwdriver you will have a hard time depressing the button too far. If you use a sharp pointy thing you will be exponentially more likely to screw the keyless and you will cry.
Now we can remove the movement. If I was going to remove the dial and hands I would take off the rotor by removing the screw holding it, but I'm just going to store it. I need to unscrew the movement screws and retaining tabs.
Remove the screws and tabs with tweezers
Now remove the movement by turning it out onto your fancy movement turnout thingy. I use a spool of thread.
Turn it over
Remove the dial spacer and place the movement in an appropriate holder. It is a good idea to reinsert the stem to keep everything in place. To do this just insert the stem and give it a slight twist as you press it in. A light touch is nice here. Notice that this gives you another opportunity to screw up the keyless so if you want to skip this step just set the movement in a safe place and move it as little as possible.
Now we can remove the bezel. Take a single edge razor blade and work it under the bezel all the way around. To lever it the rest of the way off use a case knife.
Notice you have the bezel and the ring that provides the tension off now. You have the crystal retaining ring and plexi left. We need to remove them.
Work the razor blade under the retaining ring. Once you have it up a bit you can use the case knife as you did with the bezel.
With the retaining ring off you should be able to push the plexi out from the inside. It should just pop off. It should not be glued. If it is hard to push out you can run the razor blade under the edge of the plexi to loosen it up. Now you have the disassembly of the case complete. You can remove the bezel insert by running the case blade under the space between the insert and the bezel. It is glued in about 4 small spots.
And its all apart!
Next up we will drill out the lugs, bleach the bezel, install a better plexi and put it back together.
OK lets continue. Let's drill out the lugs so we can fit 2 mm gen spec springbars. Some people like to say that you can drill these out with a dremel tool or with hand drill and I guess you could if that was all you had. The problem is that it is very difficult to keep the bit perpendicular to the case and the bits are small and easily broken. I bought this press, which I can use both to drill holes and polish the finished cases.
I have a drill press vise and some soft jaw inserts. At Harbor Freight in the US those 3 items run less than one ruined 21j watch. The press is $60, and the vise and jaws together run about $25. It is a very good investment considering that you can use it as a polisher as well.
As far as drill bits go, you need to use a High Speed Steel drill bit. If you are buying 10 bits for $8 on ebay those probably are not very good. The ones I use are gold colored and cost about $2 each on Amazon. Some people use 1.25mm bits for the holes. That will work, but I prefer 1.3mm. You are going to be trying to mount a bracelet on this watch later and just that little bit of play will make it easier to do later. I set up the drilling like this.
You spend a lot of time lining up the bit and just a few seconds drilling. You will need to drill slowly, so with this type drill I set it for the slowest speed, about 750 rpm. You will need to use an oil to aid drilling. This is called cutting fluid and you can get it at the hardware big box store.
I put a couple drops of oil on the hole, and some on the bit.
Lower the bit slowly and steadily, and voila, you are through.
Repeat 3 more times and you will have this part done. Don't worry about those scratches, we will be sanding and polishing later.
Now that you have drilled the hole it really looks better if you can chamfer the sides of the hole for a smooth finished look. I bought this set of dremel bits for about $8 on ebay and it has been very useful for shaping.
I use one of these to chamfer the hole.
Just put it in the hole and spin it a bit.
Now you have a nice smooth edge that will polish up nicely. Next time we will look at trimming down those crown guards that everyone thinks are soooooo thick and ugly. (Doesn't really bother me but it is part of this) I'm going to put it in my vise and use the drum bit on my dremel. Stay tuned.
To continue, the CGs are a bit too wide on these. Measuring a stock case CG:
I have a friend with a relatively unmolested gen of this model that he inherited. I measured his and the tippy top of the CG is 1.35mm. So we are going to take a bit off with the drum attachment:
Go slowly, be deliberate. You can't add metal back on. If it is your first time measure frequently. It takes me 5 minutes now to do both sides. I took 30 minutes the first time I did this. A couple hundredths is close enough.
Now the other side.
Lets take a look
But it is all scratched up. We need to sand. How slowly you work up with your sandpaper will depend on how you plan to final polish. I do it mechanically so I only use these 2. You may want to work up to wet sanding with 2000.
Once done sanding I change my drill press to its top speed and put the polishing wheel in. I have been using white compound on this. Two wheels and a couple sticks of compound was under $10 at Harbor Freight.
Zoom, zoom, this makes fast work of a mirror shine.
The streaks are from the compound, it will clean off.
Still dirty, but in better light.
I put it in a cleaner called purple stuff here in the US. Real strong degreaser. Eat your hands up. Let it soak for an hour or so to minimize my manual work.
BEZEL BLEACHING
Ok the cartel bezel inserts seem at first impenetrable to bleach. The first time I tried this I just kept putting it in bleach and it would not change. I left it in bleach overnight and still nothing. Tough insert. The secret is bleach + sunshine. This may be hard for some of you UK guys as I hear the sun does not shine there. I submerge the insert in bleach and put it in the sun.
I don't particularly care for beaten up or heavily faded bezels. I want it to look used but night. For me that translates to about 30 minutes in the bleach/sun. That will give you what you see closest to you in the pic below. Just faded, not ghostly. I would suggest you pull it out and look at it every 10 minutes. Don't trust it.
THIS DOES NOT APPLY TO NONCARTEL BEZEL INSERTS. I've had ebay inserts that all the paint came off in 5 minutes.
NEXT UP: Put it back together and mod the bracelet to fit the new 2mm springbars.
Lets finish this up. First lets do the insert. You need an appropriate cement add some way to secure it till it dries. I do this.
While that dries lets modify the bracelet so that the 2mm bars will fit. First I have t enlarge the end of the bracelet, I use a 2mm screwdriver or hexdriver to slightly enlarge the end.
OK that fits
Now we need to enlarge the endlinks. You can buy ones to fit but they are $50 freakin dollars or so. I don't think so.
I use these 1.5 and 2 mm burrs in my dremel to ream out the hole. Go slowly, it is easy to rip out the end links or tear up your fingers.
And it fits.
Bracelet done.
New towel and all the parts laid out.
I am using a different plexi with a different profile. I like this type. It is a lower profile Tropic 19. The tropic 19 comes in a lot of different sizes, this is why you will see a lot of people talking about their "gen spec" or Clark plexi not fitting. It came in a lot of different sizes so that is not surprising. This one is three tenths of a millimeter too large for my retaining ring. I used my dremel to increase the size of the inner diameter of the retaining ring to fit. Leave it a bit small so it will be tight. I used a crystal press to install the retaining ring. This snug fit helps with water resistance.
ring installed, it just presses over the plexi
Put the movement back on the spool, lower the case over it.
Movement ring goes back in
Insert the stem while twisting slowly
Install the movement tabs and screws. I position the tabs with tweezers then I stick the tiny screws on the end of some rodico and use that to screw it into the holes Much easier
Buttoned up, ready for the gasket and caseback.
Silicon on the seals
Nudge it into place with the tweezers
Grease the caseback threads and crown tube threads with this stuff (thanks Rolie)
We need to snap the bezel back on. This tension ring controls how tight the bezel is when it turns. The more you bend it the firmer it gets. Bend it, place it over the plexi and retaining ring, then snap the bezel assembly back on.
Snap its done
Bracelet back on
Different plexi profile
Hope you enjoyed the show.
This is a very basic modification. It is quite easy to fall down the rabbit hole and spend tons of money on this. The insert isn't quite right, the crown is too tall, the tube should be countersunk into the case, the endlinks are not right. And we haven't even talked about the dial and hands. I personally think this gets me pretty close to where I am satisfied. I could relume the dial and I think it would be 95%. It will never be "right". You decide where you will stop.
I had fun, never tried to do a tutorial before.
