Vintage diver watch

[deni2s]

Bought this vintage MILJONÄR Swiss Made 1970s old diver wrist watch 17 Jewels couple months back from ebay very cheap (like 50 euros with delivery). Just liked the looks of it and thought I might get it back to working shape, so I can use it as my cheap tool watch for rainy days and just to get involved into watchmaking a bit.

Watch was not running at all, glass broken, unable to unscrew the case back (well, that explained the price).

MILLJONÄR is some Scandinavian market brand, usually they are non-expensive watches with AS movements. There are quite a lot of them around, but I couldn't find online another one divers watch. This one had AS 1686 movement with rotating bezel and claims to be 20 ATM waterproof on case back.  40 mm diameter.

Tried to open case back myself, no luck. Asked local watchmaker in Helsinki - no luck. He suggested oiling the case back for a week using WD-40 and try later - no luck. As last resort he suggested gluing with superglue to watch case some big nut, so I can use some wrench to unscrew the case.

Went to Riga, Latvia, asked watchmaker here to try to open it (they bragged they are best watchmakers in 8000km radius), he glued something to watch case, opened and cleaned reminds of glue with ultrasonic in less than 10 minutes, while we were talking.

After that I disassembled the movement (stripped the lefty screw on crown wheel due to luck of experience), cleaned, oiled, assembled - it started to run pretty well. Ordered new set of screws from ebay, got all of them, except the one I needed (for crown wheel) - seller forgot to add it to package. After finally receiving it, I realised it's not the screw which is stripped, but the bridge over mainspring needs to be replaced. So ordered that from the same seller, replaced and watch was almost completed.

On next trip to Riga got glass replaced and bought some non-expensive nato strap on ebay.

Quite happy with end result and experience gained during the process!

[stevew]

Come up nice, we all get a screw up at some time in our learning. 

[anilv]

Great job! I is it a stainless steel case or base metal?

Also does the crown screw-down?

Anilv

[anilv]

Also I'm betting the name means Millionaire?

[deni2s]

17 hours ago, anilv said:

Great job! I is it a stainless steel case or base metal?

Also does the crown screw-down?

Anilv

It's a base metal, no screw-down crown. Nothing fancy. I would say that's a watch which looks good enough with all the scratches and usage marks to wear it daily, and cheap enough to not worry about it at all .

Yes, the name means that (that's in Swedish).

[yankeedog]

Otto Frei  has NOS as 1686  movements  for not ridiculous  prices.

[yankeedog]

For future  reference  there is a significant  amount  of parts interchangeability  between  the 1686 and the 1187/94. I think they are the same movement  actually  with a different  train bridge and balance  cock.