Pretty little donkey visits the Spa

I haven't posted anything of substance for a while as real life has rather been getting in the way of watchy things. However, I've managed to get a few bits done including this very pretty Seiko 6119-7520 from June 1975.

It was sent to me by a prominent member of the WC community for some TLC.

On arrival at the Spa it wasn't in bad nick at all but the case had seen some action and the integrated bracelet was pretty tired.

It was given its waffle robe, free slippers and something green and unnaturally thick to drink and headed off to the treatment suite...

Following disassembly it was clear that this little chap needed some fairly intensive treatment...

The dial however, was in lovely condition and so very unusual...

I set to work on restoring the case and bezel; there was quite a bit of work to do here getting the brushed and polished surfaces into order.

Firstly cleaning and getting that rust off...

Then polishing and brushing; there are many stages of sanding before we get to polishing...

But it's worth it...

I wanted to get the chamfered edges of the bezel polished whilst brushing the top. Using heat tape to mask off is the way to go. Even then it can be difficult to get perfect. You can see at the bottom right, the line between brushed and polished isn't as crisp as it should be. There is often wailing and gnashing of teeth during this stage...

However, in the end (and after servicing the lovely 6119 movement) it all comes good...

I use the same heat tape masking method to get a mix of polished and brushed surfaces on the bracelet.

In the picture below the part attached to the watch is done (brushed in the centre, polished on the edges), the part in the middle is to be done and the clasp is masked in order to polish the sides after I've brushed the top...

And here it is all put back together...

I'm my own harshest critic but I'm actually really happy with how this one turned out.

Until next time lovely people...

P.S. I'll do a post shortly on some of the tools I use if anyone is interested.

P.P.S. I'll also do a post on something that didn't go quite so well - Gasworks does something stupid (and I'm not singing with Nancy Sinatra)