Photos of Cauny 15 Rubis Antimagnetic dial.

[Anthony7]

My Cauny 15 Rubis antimagnetic. 3 in 1 and car grease rebuild.

So Sorry folks and my Hull mate (can't get enought watches) it's still ticking away and keeping pretty good time, although I havent got a time grapher (I just check it everyday against Time.is which is very accurate and see how much its lost or gained) and continues to confound all the experts, it would seem.
But from the looks of it the UT 176 movement in it is a simple tank of a movement with no complications.
But this watch was a runner when I bought it, just a poor runner.
So its not really a surprise that ANY form of lubrication has improved it.

But here I have focussed on the dial as Cauny really did seem to put their heart and soul into their dials, which when you look at their display on Google are some of the best I personally have seen. 
So for a relatively cheap brand, they were punching far above their weight in style and the extra little touches.
Like the raised gold numbers.
The wavy inner circle in the middle and its gold raised wall inbetween the two. 
The gold plated hands and numbers and case all now sadly rusted with time.

Havent been able to find a picture of this particular model online as a brand spanking new as a comparison, as its all pictures of Cauny Primas for sale on Google, but this is what 70 or more years of existance, does to a watch dial and hands.
(dont know what year its from but I suspect 50's 60's certainly before the dawn of the cheap automatic as this is a hand winder.)

So enjoy that patina, as you'll have to as you're not getting rid of it, short of finding a new old stock dial and good luck with that.
I can't even find a picture of this one on Google...

But I see now when watching watch restoration videos that all the experts are like
"Yes I want to leave this dial looking exactly like it is as that is the "Patina"."
with me with my unknowing mind yelling "cop out"
When what they are saying in reality is

"If i blow on it the numbers and makers name will disapear forever and I will  ruin it, so delicate of an orchid flower it is."
 

But coming from the car restoration and guitar building world as I do, I was at first this was like leaving a car without a paint job, a short cut and a cop out, calling old and shabby "Patina".
But could understand the concept of "patina", as taking say a '65 Fender Jaguar and buffing and polishing the paint and repairing the wear in the paint or horror of horrors, stripping it and freshly repainting it, would undoubtedly destroy about 95% of its value, I understand the value of "Original condition" and "Time worn". As the guitar world is super sniffy about that, replacing the slightest wire is sacrelige to some.

So foolishly having tried myself now to "Clean" this one and lost the makers name in process, I totally see where they are coming from now when it comes to dials, a watch is what it is when you buy it, in its own particular state of decay and wear and tear.

But these are my first restorations and mistakes will be made and the object was more to see if I could take something apart some fairly cheap (I bought this for 30 euros at a street flea market) watches and put them back together again and get them working, which I've done.

So I fully intend, when I get all the super expensive oils and greases to give this another going over as I am not advocating that 3 in 1 and car grease is the way for everyone to go and stop buying the unicorn poop priced mobius etc.
But until that occurs, a 3 in 1 and car grease old boiler it will remain.
Ticking merrily away, as my new daily driver. 

Edited October 15, 2022 by Anthony7

[Neverenoughwatches]

23 minutes ago, Anthony7 said:

my Hull mate (can't get enought watches) 

Hahahaha close but its not Carling, its # never enough watches # Rich is just fine Tony. I'm pleased your watch is still ticking away, and also interesting to turn years of theory and practise on its head sometimes. But you are maybe half way there to a logical answer and still plenty of time for things to happen. The 3 in 1 is a naptha based mineral cleaner and oil. If the movement is in good condition it would probably run dry for possibly longer, no gumming up of an oil to happen only wear of the pivots etc , that could be anyone's guess. Doing a good job of cleaning and light oiling would make a world of difference which maybe exactly what you have done. Yeah shame about the dial mate, that was one of my first fook ups as well. A cheap Smiths , the varnish peeled off along with all the lettering. Some dial finishes are sooooo fragile. I've tried the softest of materials to clean with that still show scratches under a microscope ( good optical magnification makes you obsessive ). So your Unitas 176  falls somewhere between a 172  1940  and a 187  1950. Potentially World war 2 era. 

[Anthony7]

Thanks for the dates I didnt think it was as old as that...
found the hand on the bottom of one of my shoes and it still wasnt bent, tough as old boots the whole thing. Like i said I think Cauny for a cheaper lesser known brand really knocked it out of the park style wise. this one looks good on the wrist even now.
But I am intending when the correct oils arrive to redo this watch put a new crystal and strap on it and really give it the works...
Maybe even letraset the makers name and the 15 rubis bit underneath it back on...lol

Am also thinking of having a go at electro plating as this one looks like it was originally nickel plated although its a bit more matte, but maybe thats paint over nickel plate. Am also thinking of buying an air brush and trying to refinish some totally destroyed dials I have with some nail varnishes as they are an astonishing array of colours and thinned out properly I reckon you could get a good thin finish out of them. something to experiment with. but I watched a video on watch dial restoration by some expert in the netherlands in a lab coat with pens in  his pocket and even he said 90% of the time you're making things worse rather than better...and he does it for a living...
heres the vid.

 

[Neverenoughwatches]

On 10/17/2022 at 3:12 AM, Anthony7 said:

Thanks for the dates I didnt think it was as old as that...
found the hand on the bottom of one of my shoes and it still wasnt bent, tough as old boots the whole thing. Like i said I think Cauny for a cheaper lesser known brand really knocked it out of the park style wise. this one looks good on the wrist even now.
But I am intending when the correct oils arrive to redo this watch put a new crystal and strap on it and really give it the works...
Maybe even letraset the makers name and the 15 rubis bit underneath it back on...lol

Am also thinking of having a go at electro plating as this one looks like it was originally nickel plated although its a bit more matte, but maybe thats paint over nickel plate. Am also thinking of buying an air brush and trying to refinish some totally destroyed dials I have with some nail varnishes as they are an astonishing array of colours and thinned out properly I reckon you could get a good thin finish out of them. something to experiment with. but I watched a video on watch dial restoration by some expert in the netherlands in a lab coat with pens in  his pocket and even he said 90% of the time you're making things worse rather than better...and he does it for a living...
heres the vid.

 

Yeah  that Kalle he has good knowledge and explains things laymany. Let us know when you start the plating matey, I've already bought some kit to experiment with and also been thinking about having a go at refinishing a dial the same way. Have a word with our Gert he's done some, you will get on really well with hìm. Theres a lot of shafted dials around so any working good looking watch is better than no watch at all. Starting a craze of custom made diy dials sounds like a plan.

[Anthony7]

well the plating just looks like electrolysis so theres nowt hard about that, just dunk it in the right liquid and turn the power on...
What might be more involved is removing any old gold plating thats still original and left on there, probably some sort of acid will do that.
As for the dials, that will be something i'm gonna start fannying about with to see if I can get something as good as what the factory makes, as everything is made somewhere at some time so if its been made or done then the process exists to make it...I watched a video of Mark Lovicks where he was using Silvering powder and printed logos that looked really good so I may have a look at doing some of that also. but if you know of any resources for learning about dial restoration please let me know as for me the strip down and rebuild part of it is pretty easy. As I am also into classic car restoration so taking engines apart apart from the size and using a torque wrench is no different to dismantling watch mechanisms.

But I want the cases on anything I buy to look tip top and the dials as well, so I might be silvering and gold leafing things in future to get them looking their best.
But I know to be careful as like in the guitar world you can take that beaten up 60's fender Jaguar give it a proper paint job that makes it look like new and all you'll get is "You should have left it the way it was, you've ruined it and its worth nothing" as patina is a thing and takes as much time as the object exists for the object to accrue it. So sometimes its better to leave something as it is as it tells the objects story.
but if something is ruined then its ok...
Like in these cases for instance. here are two Seiko 5 watch dials I have one that I bought with the watch which is complete but the background laquer and paint is banjaxxed and a black one which is totally trashed and missing a 6 chapter marker, so I think these are good candidates for restoration as the watches they come off are not that classic or expensive...

 

but I think with these rather than getting to work with the sandpaper like many seem to do thus putting loads of scratches into the base metal that you then have to get back out, I will be experimenting with chemical methods of stripping them like acid washes and paintstrippers, caustic soda etc as that leaves the metal unscratched and you can work from a basis of a at least this was how smooth it was when it was coated at the factory...

 

But at the moment I have just rebuilt the top end of my Renault master van (G9U-650) engine and have had to take all the rocker cover back off it as when I replaced the glow plugs in it after paying 300 euros at an engineers to have the old ones which were totally seized in the head removed, in the removal process they damaged the threads so badly that when i put the new glow plugs in it, it blew one of them back out like a bullet from a gun. All this grief just to change the sparkplugs in your car...

But Glowplugs are the bane of the diesel owners existence...
As unlike your average sparkplug that is beefy and easy to get out, these are long and thin and bend if you even look at them wrong and tend to get carbonised into their housings making them even harder to get out without snapping them...which is what happened in my case...so rather than just removing 4 plugs 1/2 an hour at most, the whole cylinder head had to come off to visit the engineers workshop to get them out 2 weeks and 300 euros...

So they all have to be what is called helicoiled, although that is not what we are doing in this instance as helicoiling is when you put a spring type dodad into the thread hole. Whereas what we are doing here in this case, is drilling the hole out larger and then tapping a new larger thread and putting in an insert with the correct thread size on the inner of it which has a special head at the top that you bang a special tool into and it expands thus fusing the insert to the aluminium of the head pretty much for good...
So my time for the most part of the last 2 months has been taken up totally with the rebuild of that, but that is coming to an end now, so then I will be able to devote more time and fingerwork to more delicate watchmakery labours...

[Neverenoughwatches]

37 minutes ago, Anthony7 said:

well the plating just looks like electrolysis so theres nowt hard about that, just dunk it in the right liquid and turn the power on...

Haha. Yes electroysis but a bit more to it than that and a lot that can go wrong, its sounding like lubing with 3 in 1 again

41 minutes ago, Anthony7 said:

for the dials, that will be something i'm gonna start fannying about with to see if I can get something as good as what the factory makes, as everything is made somewhere at some time so if its been made or done then the process exists to make it...I watched a video of Mark Lovicks where he was using Silvering powder and printed logos that looked really good so I may have a look at doing some of that also. but if you know of any resources for learning about dial restoration please let me know as for me the strip down and rebuild part of it is pretty easy. As I am also into classic car restoration so taking engines apart apart from the size and using a torque wrench is no different to dismantling watch mechanisms.

Lol , yeah you definitely originate from my neck of the woods. Haven't researched that as yet only the plating side of it. There will be tons of videos on it. Someone here redialed a while back with a Japanese postage stamp, it looked bloody amazing. No spraying no lettering but the indices where removed and replaced. Also sliding decals but then you need a good surface finish.

[Anthony7]

Yeah i know there'll be ins and outs to the plating, but electrolysis in itself isnt that involved...Yeah sliding decals looks the way to go either that or laser etching if you can get hold of the gear. But I reckon you're right there the result will rely heavily on getting a smooth surface finish. But paints (and they are paints when push comes to shove) like nail varnish are designed to smooth out to a even finish so I reckon if you thinned them down enough and airbrushed them you could get a good result...

 

But i have some experience making sliding decals as you use them alot on guitar headstocks. its not that difficult if you have a good printer...

 

I suppose you could even go as far as powder coating and gold leafing...

[Neverenoughwatches]

5 hours ago, Anthony7 said:

Yeah i know there'll be ins and outs to the plating, but electrolysis in itself isnt that involved...Yeah sliding decals looks the way to go either that or laser etching if you can get hold of the gear. But I reckon you're right there the result will rely heavily on getting a smooth surface finish. But paints (and they are paints when push comes to shove) like nail varnish are designed to smooth out to a even finish so I reckon if you thinned them down enough and airbrushed them you could get a good result...

 

But i have some experience making sliding decals as you use them alot on guitar headstocks. its not that difficult if you have a good printer...

 

I suppose you could even go as far as powder coating and gold leafing...

Some interesting ideas there Tony especially using thinned out nail varnish. Shellac is tough paint, i go to Brid. carboot on a Thursday its practically given away.  I will pick your brains with the spraying when i get around to doing some if you dont mind matey.