Dear Heueristi, It's been a while since I posted some kind of restoration project on a website. A lot of collectors kept on asking to post some restoration projects again...so here we go ;-) Up for restoration is a Heuer Autavia ref.73663 "Arabic Bund". A rather rare execution, very specific dial. Here will first follow a series of pictures from the watch like I received it. And also some pics of the watch completely disassembled...just before the movement service and case refurbish. So here it all starts with...update will follow in one of the next days. Best, abel.
Fantastic Abel- thanks for these great pics. - Why do you completely disassemble the movement? Is this for Ultra-sonic cleaning? - The two photos at the bottom showing the case- is this before any work on the case, or have you already started to restore the case? dc
Those are some amazing shots especially the complete deconstruction photos, can't wait to see it when its done as it honestly doesn't look too bad to begin with, great dial btw
Yes, agree. The bezel looks OK (actually, pretty good except for the ding at about 10.30) and nice original patina on the hands. Case is a bit rough and crystal as well. I remember going through this exercise with Abel when he worked on my Autavia...what to change and what to accept "as nature intended"!
Amazing pics, thanks Abel for sharing. I also thought the case didn't look too bad. Can't wait to see the finished piece!
The dial and central seconds hand is what make this Autavia actually a bit different then most others.
Hey, yes overall case condition was acceptable. Very disturbing for me personally was that the dial is actually perfect, so I decided to give the case a full refurbish. Also, and this was actually a bit more disturbing for me, again personally, the bevelled edges at both sides were not very nicely and symmetric executed. A "flaw" we regularly can see with these Autavia cases and also with the topscases of our beloved Monaco's. This flaw you can clearly see in the detailed pictures.
David, movement is completely dissambled indeed to clean with a combinaition of rotation and ultrasonic. All pics from case are from before, in the pictures you refer too it onle has received a first ultrasonic bath at 70 degrees Celcius.
Hi Abel- what do you mean about the edges not being symmetrical? Do you mean that the width of the area in red varies as you move along the case and is different on both sides?
That's really interesting. When I've seen that before, I assumed the case had been inexpertly polished and more metal had been removed in the places where the bevel is thinner. I didn't realize it was a manufacturing fault! Again, thanks for sharing - it's really informative following threads like this.
Step 2...Case refurbishment, trying to regain some edges again while preserving as much material as possible. Some pictures from different steps included. No questions about how and with what tools please Also some pictures from cleaned Heuer signed Valjoux 7736 movement included, ready to be assembled again.
Abel, do you notice any difference in quality between the cases made by Schmitz vs. Piquarez? I think there are some small design differences between the two, but what about in terms of quality of steel and finish?
So, last step...the finish. All in all I am personally very satisfied about this result, I can imagine some collectors would have preferred to leave the case untouched but again, it's all about taking decisions. The fact that the most valuable part of this watch, the dial, was still in such great condition helped me in this decision. The original stainless steel outer bezel is replaced with a same example...but in mint condition, as the dent in the original outer bezel was too big to repair. Movement fully serviced. The sealings in crown and pushers as well as the casebook sealing were all deteriorated and melted...really messy stuff. All seals were replaced. The plexi was in good condition, despite some scratches and little dents I managed to get it back in shape. The dial is perfect, no care needed. Subregister hands left untouched as well. Minute and hour hands also in good shape, my only concern was that the original tritium lume appeared to have become very fragile during all the years and at the base of the minute hand you can see there was missing a small bit of lume...very little but it was a bit disturbing for me...so I "fixated " the original lume with applying a coating on the back of both hands. So the original tritium lume is now much stronger again and the risk that it will fall out of the hands is as good as non-existing now. Only thing left to do was to relume the triangle from the central seconds chronograph hand as the original tritium was completely missing, I tried to match lume color as good as possible. And here are the pictures; Best regards from Belgium, abel www.HeuerTime.com