Smiths Astral Sub Seconds 2

[Blacklab]

My ongoing obsession with Smiths watches continues with a recently purchased, tired, non running & grubby fleabay special. Cant find it in the reference book, but would suspect it was made between 1960-4, with a Calibre 400 15 jewel movement inside. Slightly larger than most of my Smiths, measuring 35mm with 17mm lugs:

 

 

Back off, balance removed:

 

 

Now the reason for the lack of movement:

 

 

 

The hairspring & the regulating pin are totally mullered. Luckily I have a spare so I can get this one going again, but liking a challenge I see what I can do with that spring:

 

 

Getting there but it will require more tweaking (to be continued, maybe). Anyway back to the watch. Out of the case the dial looks like it has suffered from either drowning, solvent abuse or Friday afternoon quality control:

 

 

Dial off, all present, correct & unbroken underneath (click springs are a weak point, generic ones are available), complete with a thick coating of heavy oil:

 

 

Flip over & into the movement holder, note the bevel has been applied to the barrel bridge over the '15 JEWELS'. Strange:

 

 

Bridges & pallet removed, luverly filth:

 

 

The crown wheel lives under the barrel bridge:

 

 

Centre & ratchet wheels removed:

 

 

Everything out:

 

 

Spring out of the barrel:

 

 

The spring looks good so I will reuse it. While everything is buzzing away in the ultrasonic lets see what can be done with the dial:

 

 

Its taken a fair bit of abuse & I will have to live with the blurred printing. The dial is degreased with lighter fluid & dipped in HG silver dip:

 

 

Much better, it has removed the green stuff (not to clear in the before pic) brightened it up somewhat but has removed a little of the print on the R in ASTRAL. The dial is the given a couple of coats of acrylic satin varnish.

 

Case & movement cleaned, pegged, oiled, reassembled & back in the case:

 

 

New strap & low dome crystal:

 

 

Cheltenham (English made) Smiths are easy movements to work on as they were designed to be hand assembled, hence the large pivots, screws etc. Shame the dial is not the best on this one, but the movement is running well with an amplitude of 280 after some serious cleaning with lighter fluid & Priory No.1. Also nice to be able to fit a low dome crystal instead of the standard as it give the watch a smoother look. With the poor dial printing & the bevel on the barrel bridge I wonder if this was a reject that someone rescued from the factory bin?

 

 

 

 

 

 

[stroppy]

Wonderful walk through!  Thank you!  Do you think you could source a NOS dial?  I'd get too obsessed with the blurred print if it was my watch.  But's that's just me.  If someone puts a tiny ding in one of my car doors at the supermarket carpark I go ape and get the paintless dent remover guy out to fix it.  A lot of people would just say, "Meh...the price of parking at the shopping centre."  Me, if I could find the idiot who swung their door onto mine would probably be sent to jail after giving the person a punch in the nose!

[bobm12]

Nice job, BL! Looking at its dial, it reminds me of the type of watch my Dad used to wear! I might search for a similar one to work on, now that I have some reference to follow thanks to you. What is the size, by the way?

 

Cheers,

 

Bob

[Blacklab]

Wonderful walk through!  Thank you!  Do you think you could source a NOS dial?  I'd get too obsessed with the blurred print if it was my watch.  But's that's just me.  If someone puts a tiny ding in one of my car doors at the supermarket carpark I go ape and get the paintless dent remover guy out to fix it.  A lot of people would just say, "Meh...the price of parking at the shopping centre."  Me, if I could find the idiot who swung their door onto mine would probably be sent to jail after giving the person a punch in the nose!

 

Thanks Stroppy. No chance of any NOS Smiths dials or anything really. I am beginning to get some parts together from orphaned donor movements where the cases have been sold for gold scrap, occasionally they come with a decent dial & if a matching one came up I would use it. However, its all part of the watches history, so I can live with it.

 

Nice job, BL! Looking at its dial, it reminds me of the type of watch my Dad used to wear! I might search for a similar one to work on, now that I have some reference to follow thanks to you. What is the size, by the way?

 

Cheers,

 

Bob

 

Thanks Bob. Its 35mm with 17mm lugs, which narrows down the strap options somewhat. I tend to use Bella Air-Con straps as they have a nice period look and are as cheap as chips, unfortunately these are not available in 17mm, so I have used a brown Omega style which only cost £5. You can easily pay more for the strap than the cost of the watch.

[bobm12]

Thanks BL, the size is good for my wrist (a little small but still good), so I'm game to get one of those. Very elegant dress watches!

 

Cheers,

 

Bob

[ramrod]

wow! it's in top nick now. very well done. you could run a class in dial restoration.

just a suggestion for dials. i often see them on fleabay in lots of 12 or more. they are sold to steampunk folks. most auctions are for NOS dials and usually off brand swiss movements. but i always look at the dials to see if ther's anything mainstream there. who knows? there could be the odd smiths now and then. just a thought.

[Marc]

BL, very nice transformation.

 

Smiths is a brand that I have long been interested in (the Cheltenham ones) but I rarely encounter them at prices that I can afford, regardless of condition.

I have managed to pick up a couple of bits and pieces at the right price but all needing quite a lot of work, so all in the "to do" pile at the moment.

[oldhippy]

I always liked working on these, I found the colour of the movement made the workings stand out easy on the eyes for me. The only weakness I found was the click spring, they seamed to be always snapping in two. 

 

Well done Blacklab I like looking at peoples work.

[Cad101]

I like the dial its got that 60's look to it in fact i'm sure my grandmother had the exact same design as wallpaper in her kitchen. Anyway it's a job well done I like it.

Mick

[Geo]

Another good job appreciated by a Smiths fan. :)

[Blacklab]

Marc - they do come up fairly regularly some at ridiculous prices & some not, but if you have a few to do make them a priority as they are a good solid simple design & don't take long to fix.

 

Oldhippy - I did read somewhere that the steel used for the springs at the time was of a particularly poor quality & breakages are common. Luckily generic 2 & 4 hole setting levers & click springs are readily available & appear to work fine (so far).

 

Thank you all for your kind comments.

[stroppy]

It's a pity that there isn't a bespoke computer program for "printing" new dials.  I mean, it wouldn't be hard to get hold of textured paper as the background and most laser printers are fantastic with fine details these days.  Imagine...design, print, cut out, adhere and then, voila...new watchface.

[stroppy]

Just found this in another forum:

 

Read here:

 

http://forum.tz-uk.com/showthread.php?244945-My-Grail-is-Here-A-1953-Smiths-Deluxe-Write-up-story-and-Photos

[Blacklab]

It's a pity that there isn't a bespoke computer program for "printing" new dials.  I mean, it wouldn't be hard to get hold of textured paper as the background and most laser printers are fantastic with fine details these days.  Imagine...design, print, cut out, adhere and then, voila...new watchface.

 

I have done this once in the past with a friends old pin lever:

 

 

Firstly the dial was photographed & loaded into Adobe Indesign (this can be done on Adobe Illustrator or similar as well) & a new dial drawn using the photo as a template. This was then printed onto photo card, cut out accordingly & placed in the watch. Due to alignment issues I eventually printed it on white waterslide decal paper, clear is also available, but white was used to cover the marks on the old dial. It is the cut slightly oversize & placed on the existing dial . This looked fine although on very close inspection the printer (an Epson Stylus Photo P50) does tend to square off the circles slightly & the lines are little heavier (sorry forgot to photo the final version). 

 

Printing onto waterslide decal paper is the same as printing photo paper. After printing it is given a couple of coats of acrylic spray varnish & when dry used like the decals on your old plastic model kits. The manufactures recommend lightly baking the item in the oven to permanently fix it.

 

Unfortunately I don't think this would work on a heavily textured dial although I haven't tried it yet, but I do have a Smiths National 15 in need of some TLC and may give it a go soon.

 

Thanks for the TZ article Stroppy.

[stroppy]

I have done this once in the past with a friends old pin lever:

 

20151005_175602r.jpg

 

Firstly the dial was photographed & loaded into Adobe Indesign (this can be done on Adobe Illustrator or similar as well) & a new dial drawn using the photo as a template. This was then printed onto photo card, cut out accordingly & placed in the watch. Due to alignment issues I eventually printed it on white waterslide decal paper, clear is also available, but white was used to cover the marks on the old dial. It is the cut slightly oversize & placed on the existing dial . This looked fine although on very close inspection the printer (an Epson Stylus Photo P50) does tend to square off the circles slightly & the lines are little heavier (sorry forgot to photo the final version). 

 

Printing onto waterslide decal paper is the same as printing photo paper. After printing it is given a couple of coats of acrylic spray varnish & when dry used like the decals on your old plastic model kits. The manufactures recommend lightly baking the item in the oven to permanently fix it.

 

Unfortunately I don't think this would work on a heavily textured dial although I haven't tried it yet, but I do have a Smiths National 15 in need of some TLC and may give it a go soon.

 

Thanks for the TZ article Stroppy.

Fantastic...you are a true artisan.  I wonder if this will be of any help to you, seeing that you have the ability to do fine printing:

 

[JoeJBP]

Great work, Blacklab. I love Smiths watches so it's nice to see one getting the care it deserves. Great work on the dial.