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It's nit paint that is flaking, it is old radioactive lume. The hands could be re- lumped, but looking at the overall condition I would personally leave it as is. Stunning watch! :-)

These optics are awesome!! The 3d function would be very useful for your current lessons. Sent from my Honor 5c

Welcome! Yes, tinkering with watches is also therapeutic for me. Not always relaxing as I get a lot of unexpected and annoying surprises but, hey, it could have been worse. Enjoy your stay!

Fill the numbers an indexes with black paint. you can do this without thing to much about getting paint outside them . Let it dry . Test on 1 or 2 numbers before doing the complete bezel. Then use a cloth to wipe of the excess paint that is on the bezel.Or scrap it off but that could get you marks on the bezel. Leaving the numbers in black . http://doxa300t.com/bezelrepaint/bezelrepaint.htm

I would try to apply some tape on the inner and outer edges of the bezel so as not to get any paint below the bezel or on the crystal although I'm assuming that it's glass or sapphire and that cleans off easily. Paint can be removed easily so if you mess up you can just rinse and repeat. You could also try to indiscriminately paint over the dial (not all of it of course) and wipe off the excess but you might remove some of the numeral paint by doing this and it depends on how big or small the font size is.

I have used black nail paint & it worked a treat. I used a very fine brush and any over painting can be removed with very fine emery paper.

1) congratulations on your impending nuptials. 2) Scientists need to be devoid of class (or elegance), and this watch is both so you're moving in the right direction! 3) If you replace those hands, you would be devaluing the watch considerable and I don't think you want that. p.s. Keep the Portuguese days of the week, they're a lot of fun. J

Date rings are available from cousins at £5.95 so you should be able to replace that if it wont clean up rubbing alcohol is isopropyl it isn't safe on all plastic so could melt the surface of the date ring. If the rust is on the back of the dial you could gently remove it with a contact fibre bristle cleaner if you have one.

I checked the watch. Then read again what you said. That watch is in a VERY GOOD condition for its age. Don't do anything to it as there are high chances it will get ruined by someone that might not know what they're doing. Andy and Geo are right. Boy if I inherited that watch, I'd consider myself a damn lucky fellow.

Normally there are many types of crystals so you should measure a couple of things. Crystal diameter, diameter, thickness and height of the gasket provided it has a gasket. Some have an internal tension ring. Be sure to get the one that is similar in type to yours. Wouldn't necessarily be a problem if you ordered a different one but I'm assuming you wanna go for originality as much as possible. You can try and order a crystal that is 0.1-0.2mm larger in diameter than what you've measured. If it's slightly too big you can just sandpaper the edge a bit.

Agree with Geo , I would definitely leave it as it is , without doubt.

Hi guys, After the tip and reading the walkthrough the watch now runs as it should with a nice amplitude of 320 dial up fully wound. Thanks again for the brilliant advise and help! Stian

Yes that will be fine. As there is, no s/seconds hand a low dome could do the trick.

Enter "Esser watch case opener" in your search bar & it will show in the images.

Thank you so much for your response. It is with the Richemont Luxury Group.

Can we ask where it is? ..Swatch for example? if so- you get a quick tour of the building, shown to a side room with you and whoever else is on a bench test too . Make friends with them quickly, you might need each other to help look for parts if you drop anything! your task is to simply service a nice watch movement EXACTLY to their requirements. Cleanliness and immaculate oiling is VERY VERY important! Don't rush. You get most of the day, use all the equipment in the room, (like binocular microscope for oiling escapement). Don't lose or drop or break/mishandle anything. Maybe chat to other employees on your lunch break, look to be bright, interested and organised and totally professional. Be smartly dressed- relax, it's a long day. At the end your watch will be looked at and assessed without you being there, you will then have a chat at the end and you'll be told what they think. How you conduct yourself is really important, take any criticism and use it to get better for next time if you are unsuccessful. Good luck! J

Hi guys.. its the middle of the week but here in Malaysia we're starting a 4 day weekend (independance day on the 31st Aug, Eid al-Adha on the 1st Sept)..yayy! There is also a strong possibility that next Monday may be declared a public holiday as well as we have exceeded our target for the Sea Games... If it happens it will be announced during the closing ceremonies this evening... heres hoping! Anyway, back to watches! Today I pulled out this neat Sandoz hand-wind. This is a stainless steel model and would have been one up the ladder compared to its lesser and more common base-metal cased brethren. The lume has aged and even fallen off the hands. There was some writing on the dial.. I believe 17 jewels, shock-proof and anti-magnetic but its pretty much gone. Luckily the hour markers and indices as well as the 'Sandoz' script and logo were stamped/cast (?) into the dial so they're all present. They have a goldish look and I believe they're plated but how they did this is a mystery. The minute markers are all present and the textured surface of the inner part is nice and its topped off by some nicely plated hands and a seconds hand with a pointed tip painted red. This shot shows the plated indices and hour markers.. The crown is an original Sandoz And the caseback is typical for a watch from the 50s. Inside we have a trusty ETA 1080 but looks like Sandoz made some effort to make it look a bit different by designing the bridges a bit different. The usual 1080 bridge has straight sides and this has more curves. Simple and reliable. Inside the caseback.. Wrist shot. It is a 'boy size' around 32mm without crown but its not really noticeable. Have a great day! .. or night/afternoon .. Anilv

For clarification, it's a simple pressed in case back, cheap way of doing things perhaps but a YSL is not a cheap watch, that's worth keeping in mind. (just at the risk of getting confused on that) There are many watches like this out there that really have no lip or entry point and are for all intents and purposes, impossible to open with the conventional case back tools. You could try getting one of these, they may or may not work well. https://www.cousinsuk.com/product/bench-top-case-openers Failing that there is the 'tap method' which can either be done so wrong or so right, id hate to give remote instruction on it.

I just won this on a popular online auction site, so don't have it in hand yet, but I'm reasonably happy with what I paid for it. I'm pretty confident on the date being the back of the case has an engraving dated 1927. From what I understand up until around 1933 Unicorn was a brand marketed by Rolex in Australia, it uses a movement made by Beguelin & Cie SA (BTCo). The plating on the case is heavily worn on the back, but I am attending a workshop at the end of the month on gold plating, so will hopefully be able to get that fixed. I know its not a Rolex, but its probably about as close as I will come to ever owning a real Rolex. This will sit on my back burner whilst I practice on a few other movements before I feel confident to work on this watch.