Ok… trigger warning: What you are about to see might make you cry blood.
A members here recently sent me an Explorer I that was having some issues. The history of this watch (as I understand it) is that it was recently purchased and shipped directly to a watchsmith (whom I will not name). The watchsmith allegedly serviced the movement and checked the waterproofness of the case. When the owner of the watch got it home, he got it slightly wet and instantly the crystal fogged up.
The owner was obviously quite upset that he’d “done the right thing” by getting his rep serviced and waterproofed as soon as it arrived in country, only to have it fog up as soon as it was exposed to moisture.
I volunteered to fix the owners watch. It sucks to pay a lot of money for something that you’re really excited about only to have it break right away.
When the watch arrived on my bench it was cold and a few seconds after I unscrewed the crown the crystal fogged up. This told me that whatever there was in the crown tube wasn’t doing it’s job of keeping the warm air from my apartment from getting inside the case and instantly condensing on the cold glass.
Not only that, it looked like the second hand hadn’t been properly pressed down so it was fouling the crystal and sweeping up the condensation:
I started to disassemble the movement and to my horror when I pulled out that crown, this is what I saw:
The stem was rusty. It looks like surface rust for now. But certainly not what I wanted to find.
The horrors continued as I dug into the movement. There was dirt and lint everywhere. And there was more surface rust around the keyless works on the main plate.
But the real horrors were found on the barrel bridge and ratchet wheel.
Under the barrel bridge there was an absolute flood of oil on / in / around the barrel arbor.
I’m not sure if this watch has been serviced at all, or just “serviced” by somebody who doesn’t know what they were doing (and who works in a coal mine!)…
Regardless, I now have all the parts in my cleaner, washing away the sins of their troubled past.