Jump to content

Bent lugs on 10k rolled gold plate case - 1959 Bulova President "A"


Recommended Posts

Looks like someone really squeezed the lugs down on this guy. At the case the lugs are 18mm apart. At the ends they're 16 and 15.5mm.

Before I snap them off trying to fix it, is this something I'd be better off bringing to a local jeweler instead, or can it safely be done at home?

20231231133401604.thumb.png.82b83e9e214bf42506ecabcd045c61b6.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

34 minutes ago, oldhippy said:

Do you know what the case is made of? 

Looks like brass from the inside.

30 minutes ago, RichardHarris123 said:

How are lungs held on? Are they soldered?  Heat would help but if soldered too much heat would melt the solder.

I haven't a clue. I was thinking heat, but I'm also thinking discretion may be the better part of valor here. I'll have a chat with my local jeweler this week and let you know what he has to say.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I normally just bend them back to specs by eye with soft-jawed pliers, sometimes the area where the lug is attached has enough material to also grab and that would take the pressure off of the solder joint, I have also seen a spreader used.....good luck and Happy New Year

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My jeweler gave me the same advice. He said he'd just do the same thing I could do at home.

So I put some tape on my smooth-jaw pliers and gently started bending. I got them just open enough for an 18mm strap.

After some careful reshaping of the hour hand, some crystal struggles, and a little more lug tweaking, it sure looks nice on my wrist.

20240102_174816.thumb.jpg.d0daa9608933713f07eac8b4c38977ca.jpg

20240102_174730.thumb.jpg.41fa083fc9994016425c98880e3c2849.jpg

20240102_174709.thumb.jpg.510695b050977925d7f93172045886da.jpg

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I had a strange thought strike me that maybe the lugs were designed to be tapered in, but then on closer inspection of the picture they seem to be uneven and not a deliberate designed look, just to be sure I just looked around the web and it seems you were 100% right and they should be parallel:

image.png.1c0d7f63513ec8343b8e423b295bc83d.png

Great work!

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 hours ago, Waggy said:

just to be sure I just looked around the web and it seems you were 100% right and they should be parallel:

Oh weird, your post just showed up for me!

I also had the same thought as you, but luckily I have that other President case, and the lugs are aggressively parallel.

20221225_000305.thumb.jpg.7019b6b8838200894e9863a9f5f688d5.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.



  • Recently Browsing

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Topics

  • Posts

    • Welcome! To which part of India will my greetings go? Frank
    • I agree with @Waggy, no need to adjust. That looks very good to me. The factory specs for 7S26 are something like -35 to +45s/day, but they are usually better. The amplitude is good. When wearing, the most important positions are dial up, crown down and crown left. You need to regulate so that these positions average out to about zero. Crown down is showing +14, so you may have to set dial up to slightly minus s/day. The absolute values of +/-s/day don't really matter, as long as they aren't too far out. The only way to get good accuracy is to wear it for a couple of days, recording the errors, and gradually tweaking.
    • @Jon The link is no longer working and I wanted to see that demonstration again. Is there any chance you can make it available again? I'd appreciate it!
    • Or, if you have a staking set or jewelling too, just use one of the stumps. You can choose a fine tip to fit inside a jewel if necessary.
    • Good morning,   To be honest, I'm not sure I trust my own logic anymore 😅. But here's a picture of my own (failed!) attempt to install a new rotor axle. I punched way to hard and even split the metal of the rotor. My thinking was that, in my case, the axle sits "deeper" in the rotor and hence the rotor would be closer to the movement plates. Vice versa, I was thinking that a very light punch could cause the rotor to sit rather high. But not sure that makes sense because in both cases, the flat part of the axle and the rotor align equally.     Sorry, but is he saying that the outside of the caseback has been polished to such an extent that the inside of the caseback has deformed/sunk??? That sounds crazy to me because those casebacks are thick! Can you see any signs of that on the inside of the caseback? Have you tried screwing in the caseback a litte bit more or less so that the supposedly "sunk" part of the caseback would move from 9 o'clock to e.g. 6/7 or 11/12 o'clock?  If the caseback is truly deformed, maybe it could be punched/pressed back into shape (e.g. with glass/caseback closing press).      I agree with your choice. But yea, Rolex makes it VERY hard for independent watchmakers to do a perfect job because we can't get (original) parts easily.      Your pictures aren't too bad. But still impossible to see if the rotor isn't perfectly flat. You'd have to look at it with your loupe, from the side (like the pictures), and turn the rotor to see if the gaps (with the automatic bridge plates) increase/decrease.     Finally... how is the up/down play of the rotor? To test, take a toothpick/pegwood and press on the small triangular side of the rotor next to the axle (NOT the big side where the weight is. But the opposite side.). Does that lift up the weight-side of the rotor? There can be some play, but it should really be minimal. If there's too much play, a new spring clip is the first thing to do. After that, one could play around with the jewels. This is too much:
×
×
  • Create New...