My first restoration project and what to do next
I think I just completly finished my first restoration project, a vostok amphibian, bought it a couple of months ago in quite a bad shape, the crystal was foggy, no seconds hand, loose minute and hour hands, movement was dirty and running at ~+500 seconds a day in addition to randomly stopping every few minutes, after about a month of guidance from a local watch maker who I sort of became friends with and watching lots of youtube videos, I got it fully restored (at least to my satisfaction), here's what I did:
- the movement
ok so I started with the movement, completely disassembled it, got it cleaned and oiled and reassembled, it still ran weird and with the help of the local watch maker I mentioned I realised the problem is with the hairspring, so i bought a new balance wheel (with hairspring) compatible with the 2409a movement and replaced it, after regulating the movement it runs within +-15 seconds a day which is fine I guess for a movement this simple (and old)
- The hands
I wanted a second hand with patina that matches the other hands so I basically bought a broken vostok from ebay with a good looking seconds hand and used it, about the hour and minute hand, they just needed to be set correctly
- the case and crystal
The case only needed a good clean and the crystal needed some polywatch
overall it wasn't that complicated of a restoration, was hard for me to learn and do it and took me time to complete but I am very happy with the result and I really enjoyed the process and now enjoy wearing it.
Would love to hear your opinion and feedback and if anyone have recommendations about what to do next to further get into this watch repairing hobby, I'd be happy to hear :)
Thank you for reading!
Beginner watch nerd from Israel, 1 year into the hobby, feel free to message me
Thank you for commenting mate! and yes restoring it while still showing it’s age was my main guideline!
That is great, I want to dabble in watch restoration but have no idea where to start and what kit I need to get. Any guidance / recommendations would be appreciated thank
That is great, I want to dabble in watch restoration but have no idea where to start and what kit I need to get. Any guidance / recommendations would be appreciated thank
I basically got a watch, realised what’s wrong with it and then got the tools I need to fix the specific problems it had, didn’t buy a kit or anything like it, ended up with quite a lot of tools though
also I mostly bought tools from Bergeron and parts from eBay (broken watches where the parts I needed look good)