Watch of Today

[AndyHull]

As promised, a yin and yang of Janatas. Today's "Watch of Today" bears an uncanny resemblance to the "Watch of Yesterday".

The strap it came with was a very disappointing cheapest of the cheap Chinese knock off Chinesium "steel" straps, held on with two oversized pins that I had to cut in order to remove. I didn't have a white strap with black stitching for the full dualist effect, but if I spot one, I'll grab it. Meantime it graces a simple black leather one. 

[balaton]

1 hour ago, noirrac1j said:

Nice sunburst dial, and I've always preferred sub seconds in a dress watch. The movement reminds me of the AS 1130

J

Thanks. Yes there are some similarities  -  here's an AS 1130 inside a '50s Fleurier Watch.

[ro63rto]

[ro63rto]

Quick change for evening snack and to cheer myself up that a watch I was winning on didn't reach reserve.

[AndyHull]

Another Timex got the treatment today, this time a 1978 Petite, almost certainly from Dundee, which goes nicely with my similar 1978 Mercury.

Its actually keeping remarkably good time. +20s/day dial up, -4s/day dial down, and managing around 240 degrees.

 

Edited July 5, 2019 by AndyHull

[AndyHull]

More HMT goodness.

A quick service and a polish, and a new light tan band brought this sunflower yellow faced beauty back to life.

I thought I had all of the scratches out of the crystal, but there is still one little one that caught the sunlight at the 7 O'clock marker.
I'm going to have to remove the crystal anyway, to get at the "history" trapped between it and the case, so I'll have another crack at getting it perfect then.

 

[m1ks]

Lovely Rajat right there Andy.

On the Yellow theme. I've shown this one before but this one accompanied me as a second watch for my summer hols with my son.

 

[AndyHull]

I can't quite decide if this is a minty fresh re-dial, or if the dial paint speckles were factory fitted by  HMT.

My gut feeling is that it is probably a redial, since it doesn't say "Made in India - 0231" on the lower dial edge.

The watch itself is immaculate, which is why I am in two minds.  It looks hardly worn, so why would someone re-dial it.

A quick clean and the usual light lubrication regime has it transformed form a slightly erratic >80 s/day to a more stable and acceptable +4 to +10s/day or so.

It is now on wrist-test, enjoying the bright Scottish sunshine. Another 404 member is welcomed to the club.

EDIT: On reflection, the case back says 031288 so the case, or at least the case back, was probably made in 1988... so probably a re-dial, but none the less, not a bad looking watch all things consodered. It is an HMT after all, not a IWC.

Edited July 8, 2019 by AndyHull

[ro63rto]

A restored "Ramon Special"

 

Love the dial but at times it's difficult to see the hands.

I have an identical dark blue one waiting for me to re-lume. Eventually I'll fit that one.

 

https://i.imgur.com/YaSDvgI.jpg

 

 

 

[AndyHull]

Just now, ro63rto said:

A restored "Ramon Special"

Love the dial but at times it's difficult to see the hands.
I have an identical dark blue one waiting for me to re-lume. Eventually I'll fit that one.

I'm a sucker for a blue dial, those hands will look even better with the blue.

[ro63rto]

I'm a sucker for a blue dial, those hands will look even better with the blue.

Same here, blue dials are my "shiny things"

Needs a spruce up [emoji4]

[AndyHull]

Some careful cleaning required, and that will look splendid.

[ro63rto]

Some careful cleaning required, and that will look splendid. [emoji3]

Yeah agreed.
The big question is how to make the lume stay in a small triangle and not go close to the edges.
A tad harder than on the round markers me thinks.

[AndyHull]

Hmm tricky. Lume some very thin adhesive tape, cut tape to size... maybe...?

Failing that, use a stencil, like you might if applying solder paste to very small pads on a pcb.

Edited July 8, 2019 by AndyHull

[manodeoro]

Yeah agreed.
The big question is how to make the lume stay in a small triangle and not go close to the edges.
A tad harder than on the round markers me thinks.

You should prepare a very "thin" lume with water based medium and apply on several thin coats.
I have some dials to relume next month so I'll take some pics on every step.

Envoyé de mon moto g(7) power en utilisant Tapatalk

[balaton]

Another improbably-coloured HMT, the dial in a rather fetching shade of lilac-y mauve. Shows INDIA under the 6 with a serial number of 140173 on the case back, and if that signifies 1973, undoubtedly a product of Dharavi . Runs on a 17j HMT 1802/0231A. Maybe.

Regards.

 

[AndyHull]

In one of lifes strange but meaningless co-incidences  I have just finished working on your watches remarkably similar cousin.

Perhaps mine is a little younger, as the caseback suggests this one is 2001, or perhaps the caseback is the only part from 2001, who knows.

Quite probably this is also a re-dial, but none the less, quite it is a pleasing colour (better in real life than it is in the pictures.

It now runs a lot better than it did when it arrived, but I'll let it settle down and do the final testing tomorrow.

 

[ro63rto]

[manodeoro]

Yeah agreed.
The big question is how to make the lume stay in a small triangle and not go close to the edges.
A tad harder than on the round markers me thinks.

I just realised I do NOT need to make a tuto about luming as that one is PERFECT

Just found it today but that's almost how I proceed ... the only difference is that I put 2 thinner layers of lume in the indexes.
The viscosity of the lume mix in that video looks perfect in my opinion.
About the hands you must notice he lume them on the underside !!!

Envoyé de mon moto g(7) power en utilisant Tapatalk

[ro63rto]

I just realised I do NOT need to make a tuto about luming as that one is PERFECT

Just found it today but that's almost how I proceed ... the only difference is that I put 2 thinner layers of lume in the indexes.
The viscosity of the lume mix in that video looks perfect in my opinion.
About the hands you must notice he lume them on the underside !!!

Envoyé de mon moto g(7) power en utilisant Tapatalk

Yeah, I've watched his videos before.
The difference is the plots on his dial are recessed so are very easy to re-lume. Mine are dead flat and as you can see if you zoom in, the lume doesnt cover them entirely. There's a thin gold surround showing on all of them. Of course the round one is no problem but it's the triangular one that will be a challenge.

The hands, I will just re-use the ones on the gold dial but I will re-lume the others at some point. Those are no problem to lume either.

[manodeoro]

2 hours ago, ro63rto said:

Yeah, I've watched his videos before.
The difference is the plots on his dial are recessed so are very easy to re-lume. Mine are dead flat and as you can see if you zoom in, the lume doesnt cover them entirely. There's a thin gold surround showing on all of them. Of course the round one is no problem but it's the triangular one that will be a challenge.

The hands, I will just re-use the ones on the gold dial but I will re-lume the others at some point. Those are no problem to lume either.

So ... I'll shoot some pics as I'll relume a gilt dial in August.

What I do with such a dial is to first "draw" the oulines with a really "liquid" lume, using the thinest oiler I can get, and let dry.

Then I use the "lume drawings" as surrounds to help while luming ... it works pretty well

[AndyHull]

A quick departure from the pile of HMTs. Today we have a late mechanical era Ingersol Sealion.

This was suffering from a minor case of hairspring salad, and a major case of exceeding its service interval. I suspect the last person to look in side this worked at the Ingersol factory.

The slightly ancient band it came on is almost unused, but rock hard, so needs a little leather restoration work. Furthermore it is black leather, which I think didn't look nearly as good as the light tan calfskin with red stitching I selected. Another quick restoration for the 404 club.

The winder stem really should be replaced. I cleaned the rust you can see in this picture off it, but the damp has taken its toll. I'll have a rummage later and see if I can find a match in my pile of random NOS stems. 

Can anyone identify the caliber, to save me a trip to ranfft.de ?

Edited July 11, 2019 by AndyHull

[m1ks]

2 hours ago, AndyHull said:

A quick departure from the pile of HMTs. Today we have a late mechanical era Ingersol Sealion.

This was suffering from a minor case of hairspring salad, and a major case of exceeding its service interval. I suspect the last person to look in side this worked at the Ingersol factory.

The slightly ancient band it came on is almost unused, but rock hard, so needs a little leather restoration work. Furthermore it is black leather, which I think didn't look nearly as good as the light tan calfskin with red stitching I selected. Another quick restoration for the 404 club.

The winder stem really should be replaced. I cleaned the rust you can see in this picture off it, but the damp has taken its toll. I'll have a rummage later and see if I can find a match in my pile of random NOS stems. 

Can anyone identify the caliber, to save me a trip to ranfft.de ?

How dare you stray from the path!

[AndyHull]

You can never wander far from the path of HMT , expect me to be drawn back there pretty soon.

[yankeedog]

22 hours ago, m1ks said:

How dare you stray from the path!

ronda?