Tired Tissot

[gbyleveldt]

I’m busy with one of two Tissot Seastar watches from the late ‘60s. This specific one using a 784-2 movement.

 

As you guys can see, it looks pretty rough. It isn’t running (broken escape pivot), has bent hands, cracked glass, no crown or stem, etc. This isn’t a particularly desirable watch, so I get to either ruin it further or get it to work at least a little bit better lol. I’ll be posting random pics in this thread as I progress, but first job that I was really keen to tackle was the case and see what I could come up with. First time I really went to town trying to remove scratches, buffing and polishing and so far it’s encouraging 

Not perfect by any means, but a hell of an improvement over what it was.

The bent and tarnished hands also need to be sorted, pics to follow. I was tempted to just replace them, but resisted that as I wanted to see if I could improve on them. And I’ve been itching to play with nickel plating. I’ll get some of those pics up tomorrow

[grsnovi]

3 hours ago, gbyleveldt said:

The bent and tarnished hands

How do hands get bent that's what I want to know!

The case looks great - good job!

3 hours ago, gbyleveldt said:

I’ve been itching to play with nickel plating

Are you going to plate the hands?

[gbyleveldt]

7 hours ago, grsnovi said:

How do hands get bent that's what I want to know!

Man, I tell you there's some savages out there. The escape top pivot was broken off and the bottom one bent. This wasn't from a drop, it was the top plate that was fastened down while the escape pivot wasn't located correctly. So the bent hands didn't surprise me. I think someone screwed up and then decided this should be a parts watch.

See below pic of bent hour hand (minute hand looked similar). The plating on the hands also looked pretty scratched up.

 

7 hours ago, grsnovi said:

Are you going to plate the hands?

Yessir, already done. Ended up going the full DIY route, even making my own solution using Vinegar and salt. Just a pain to fine tune the mix and making sure bubble doesn't form on that small part. You can see the stick I used to constantly agitate the solution while plating.

And the result:

Not perfect, but a looooot better than what they looked like. And they straight. I was actually surprised by the thickness of the nickel plating; it survived quite a few polishing passes without issue, while the old plating came off with just two passes.

7 hours ago, grsnovi said:

The case looks great - good job!

Thank you very much!

[Neverenoughwatches]

38 minutes ago, gbyleveldt said:

Man, I tell you there's some savages out there. The escape top pivot was broken off and the bottom one bent. This wasn't from a drop, it was the top plate that was fastened down while the escape pivot wasn't located correctly. So the bent hands didn't surprise me. I think someone screwed up and then decided this should be a parts watch.

See below pic of bent hour hand (minute hand looked similar). The plating on the hands also looked pretty scratched up.

 

Yessir, already done. Ended up going the full DIY route, even making my own solution using Vinegar and salt. Just a pain to fine tune the mix and making sure bubble doesn't form on that small part. You can see the stick I used to constantly agitate the solution while plating.

And the result:

Not perfect, but a looooot better than what they looked like. And they straight. I was actually surprised by the thickness of the nickel plating; it survived quite a few polishing passes without issue, while the old plating came off with just two passes.

Thank you very much!

 Now then matey not spoke to you for a while. How yooou doin ? I need to be picking your brains on this one, I want to learn case plating. You've made a nice job on the hands buddy.

51 minutes ago, gbyleveldt said:

Man, I tell you there's some savages out there. The escape top pivot was broken off and the bottom one bent. This wasn't from a drop, it was the top plate that was fastened down while the escape pivot wasn't located correctly. 

Ahh the classic watchbreaker. This is what makes it interesting and bloody annoying  

[gbyleveldt]

33 minutes ago, Neverenoughwatches said:

 Now then matey not spoke to you for a while. How yooou doin ? I need to be picking your brains on this one, I want to learn case plating. You've made a nice job on the hands buddy.

Thank you! Doing great my man, watches keeping me out the pub so my body thanks me

Gonna be honest, plating is pretty simple after you've experimented on your own and figured out what works for you. But it's daunting when you start as you don't know what to expect. After watching a few vids, I can say the one below is pretty much the most accurate and comprehensive. Pretty much all you need to buy is nickel and you set. Having a decent power supply is also pretty important for delicate parts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Uy7QkLI8yU&ab_channel=bit-tech

At the end of the day, you'll have to experiment with the solution you end up with. There's so many variables at play here that what voltage / time / object size worked for me, may not work for you. Took me a day to get it down pat, but now I can do hand from start to finish in 15 minutes. I haven't tried bigger objects like cases but that is my plan for a next project.

EDIT: Oh before I forget. Agitating the solution is pretty critical with delicate parts. You absolutely don't want any bubbles that form to remain on the part for longer than a second or so. In my case the hands were pretty small and only needed about a minute of plating time so I was ok using a stick to swirl the solution, but on something like a watch case I'm going be looking at a magnetic stirrer. Then I can leave the part in the solution for longer without constantly agitating by hand.

Edited May 23, 2022 by gbyleveldt

[oldhippy]

I cannot see the sense in sorting out the case before the movement. Have you considered you might not be able to repair the movement. In the end you will have a nice case but no Tissot movement for it. 

[gbyleveldt]

Just now, oldhippy said:

I cannot see the sense in sorting out the case before the movement. Have you considered you might not be able to repair the movement. In the end you will have a nice case but no Tissot movement for it. 

Heh, I hear you. I haven't posted pics of that yet but I've already stripped the movement down and found the broken escapement to be the issue. I've ordered a new escape wheel and it's on it's way. I did check the rest of the movement out as I took it apart and didn't notice anything else amiss. I figured I can get the fun bits out the way while waiting for parts. That being said, I do have a spare working Tissot 784-1 movement here (with a worse looking case) I can cannibalise for parts if it comes to that.

[Neverenoughwatches]

35 minutes ago, gbyleveldt said:

Thank you! Doing great my man, watches keeping me out the pub so my body thanks me

Gonna be honest, plating is pretty simple after you've experimented on your own and figured out what works for you. But it's daunting when you start as you don't know what to expect. After watching a few vids, I can say the one below is pretty much the most accurate and comprehensive. Pretty much all you need to buy is nickel and you set. Having a decent power supply is also pretty important for delicate parts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Uy7QkLI8yU&ab_channel=bit-tech

At the end of the day, you'll have to experiment with the solution you end up with. There's so many variables at play here that what voltage / time / object size worked for me, may not work for you. Took me a day to get it down pat, but now I can do hand from start to finish in 15 minutes. I haven't tried bigger objects like cases but that is my plan for a next project.

EDIT: Oh before I forget. Agitating the solution is pretty critical with delicate parts. You absolutely don't want any bubbles that form to remain on the part for longer than a second or so. In my case the hands were pretty small and only needed about a minute of plating time so I was ok using a stick to swirl the solution, but on something like a watch case I'm going be looking at a magnetic stirrer. Then I can leave the part in the solution for longer without constantly agitating by hand.

Cheers matey . I'll spend some time experimenting. Have a great day 

[gbyleveldt]

14 minutes ago, Neverenoughwatches said:

Cheers matey . I'll spend some time experimenting. Have a great day 

Ta my man. Yeah, please do experiment and give some feedback.

[oldhippy]

I see, that's cleared that up. Best of luck. I have always liked Tissot movements they are so easy to work on. 

[Tiny]

Nice work My Tissot has arrived so I shall be looking forward to the rebuild keep going look good

 

[gbyleveldt]

Almost there. Still have to finish off the autoworks assembly and put the case back on. But she's back from the dead and running well. Only issue appeared to be the broken escape wheel pivot and the broken off stem / missing crown. I suspect that someone worked on this watch and didn't align the date jumper correctly with its cam when they put it together. When you get this wrong and force the crown, you'll break off the stem (as I almost did myself haha).

Edited May 30, 2022 by gbyleveldt

[anilv]

Excellent job and a nice watch saved!

I have a few Tissots and like them a lot, in fact I'm wearing one today. Runs well around +5sec/day. Only issue is the push to reset crown doesn't work as the stem has been cut too short (Crown inner is free of dirt). Will get around to date eventually. Dial has some age spots but not so noticeable on the wrist.

 

Anilv

[gbyleveldt]

Nice! And thank you!

Man, I couldn't find a new stem for this watch (it had broken stem and missing crown). I did see some on Ebay but guys wanted like $80 for it and shipping to me would've made it waaay more expensive than I paid for the watch (or what it's really worth). So I found a used stem (which, of course, was too short) and used a stem extension which worked brilliantly. Maybe something you can try for cheap?

[anilv]

I'm only short of about half a millimeter. I might remove the crown and stuff a small lump of solder in the hole and see if that gives me enough clearance. Yes its a bodge but I'm fine with that.

I do have some spare movements/with stems so using a stem extender is always an alternative later on if the solder thing doesnt work.

Anilv

[gbyleveldt]

Yeah I guess if you're less than half a millimeter that's no issue. I saw Kalle recommending that approach if you 'screwed up' cutting a stem. In my case I was 2mm off so that trick wouldn't have worked for me.

[gbyleveldt]

Finally had time to finish editing the video diary of this watch. I’m pretty pleased with how it turned out to be honest.

There’s something for everyone: buffing and polishing, DIY Nickel Plating, using the new economy sized FixoDrop and, of course, bringing a dead timepiece back to life. I love all comments, good and bad, I love them all!

 

Edited June 4, 2022 by gbyleveldt

[tomh207]

Good job. What type of paint did you use for the second hand?

 

Tom

[oldhippy]

It's a silent movie? 

[Kalanag]

Excellent work documented perfectly! 

Some music is missing… 

[gbyleveldt]

6 hours ago, tomh207 said:

Good job. What type of paint did you use for the second hand?

 

Tom

Hi Tom,

Thank you! I used 2x Rustoleum Matt Black. It contains a primer and colour in one. It was a bit of a pain to try paint such a small piece on a flat surface to be honest. I think next time I’ll use modelling enamel as there’s less risk of too much paint and the part flying away.

5 hours ago, oldhippy said:

It's a silent movie? 

Yeah, figured I’d keep my trap shut this time around. I don’t know too much about Tissot and it was my first time working on one. It felt a little insulting to the audience to ramble on about a piece I know nothing about. I’m happy to jabber on about Seiko’s as those I’m fairly intimate with. Plus I figured I’d try something new and see how popular that is. Looking at the comments, seems like the lack of talking was the top theme 

4 hours ago, Kalanag said:

Excellent work documented perfectly! 

Some music is missing… 

Thanks again my man. Yeah, in hind sight that would’ve been a good idea. I think I was just in too much of a hurry to get the video out. You live and learn

Edited June 4, 2022 by gbyleveldt