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re-attaching tritium vials

miles

By miles
in Watch Repairs Help & Advice

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miles New Member

miles

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Hello everyone.

Aside from replacing a battery or a gasket I'm not a seasoned watch repairman. I like collecting Marathon military watches. Obviously I try to get them in very good to excellent condition when possible. But a true collector will sometimes take them anyway they can. I recently purchased three quartz 2004 Marathon General Purpose watches. On two of them the tritium vials fell off the hour hands. The vials are still present and are floating around on the dial. For those who may not be familiar with the older Marathons the case was casted in one piece and so there's no removable case back. Your probably wondering how you change the battery then. Well there's a battery sized opening in the back that's covered with a removable rubber plug. So the only way to get to the dial and the hands is to pull the crystal. That's where I could use some help. I don't have a crystal puller and I most certainly don't have the skill or confidence to do it myself even if I had a puller. So what I need is someone to pull the crystal and re-attach the vials to the hands for me. Any help would be most appreciated.

Thanks, Miles

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Hamish Member

Hamish

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Hi Miles, I would be happy to help, but I live in Melbourne. If you have a steady hand and good eyesight or corrected eyesight, then for a small investment you could get a crystal remover from flea bay or similar. You can also get simple tweezers and crystal glue - which should take care of the attachment issue (I would never use super glue) -- from similar suppliers. Tiny amounts of glue are needed.

Best of luck.

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miles New Member

miles

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9 hours ago, Hamish said:

Hi Miles, I would be happy to help, but I live in Melbourne. If you have a steady hand and good eyesight or corrected eyesight, then for a small investment you could get a crystal remover from flea bay or similar. You can also get simple tweezers and crystal glue - which should take care of the attachment issue (I would never use super glue) -- from similar suppliers. Tiny amounts of glue are needed.

Best of luck.

Hi Hamish.

Thank you for the reply. I'll give it a little more time and see if I get any more responses to my inquiry. If not I'll get a puller and attempt it myself. Take care.

Miles

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