Rob sent me this Zenith Respirator, which he was given. We don’t know anything about the history of the watch, but the 2542PC was built between 1964 and 1969, so we can date the watch. The design goes along with that date range …
From what you can see from the outside, this doesn’t look too promising – you can already see flakes of rust on the dial.
No lack of dirt inside!
The winding stem is so rusty that it just breaks off, but I’m lucky and I can unscrew the broken bit from the crown. I would have expected a split stem on a solid case back construction like this, but there isn’t one.
The movement is beyond economical repair.
Someone has re-glued the dial markers – this does not look like a professional job. I will leave the dial as it is, though, as it’s not too bad, and part of the history of this watch.The case and case back are solid 9k gold, and weigh over 27 grams. The heaviest gold case I have so far encountered.
Help comes in the form of an eBay find from Switzerland, which is in very good shape. A lot cheaper than trying to find all the parts necessary to restore the old movement.
I take the donor movement apart, and all is looking well.
Reassembly starts with the mainspring and barrel, and I put some braking grease on the walls of the barrel.
I put some mainspring grease on the spring, put the barrel arbor in and close the barrel.
The plate looks nice and clean.
The cap jewels get a tiny drop of Moebius 9010.
Now I start putting the gear train back in.
Gears ready for the wheel bridge.
The gear train is complete.
I oil the escapement by putting a tiny drop of oil on the side surface of the exit pallet stone.
By moving the pallet fork, the oil is now transferred onto the escape wheel teeth.
With the pallet fork in, and everything oiled, I can lift the balance in.
The movement starts beating already, and I push the balance cock into place.
Now I can secure the balance cock with its screw.
With the mainspring barely wound, this is looking good.
I put in the bridge for the auto winder.
Now the wheels for the auto winder are put into place.
And the bridge holding the wheels of the auto winder is placed on top.
I turn the movement around, and start reassembly of the bottom plate.
Bottom plate complete.
The dial and hands are on, and I’m ready for casing.
Now it’s time to clean the case. I put it into the ultrasonic cleaner first, and it comes out a lot cleaner already.
With a bit of careful polishing, I get back to a nice finish. I don’t want to do a complete polish here (e.g. take out all the scratches), as that takes off quite a bit of material. You can always polish, but you can’t un-polish!
The crytal has scratches, and needs polishing.
I start with a 240 abrasive paper, and then work my way up.
The dial shows its age. Again, you can always decide on a dial restoration later, but you can’t un-restore. So I always err on the side of leaving things as they are.
I could have gone the whole hog here – with dial restoration, a full case polish, re-luming hands, etc.
Firstly, there is a budget to consider, and, secondly, conservation. What I did to this watch doesn’t leave any permanent traces, the watch is pretty much as it was before, just working and clean. At a later stage, more work can be done, and the watch can still be returned to nearly-new state. But once that’s done, there is no way back.
I have a Zenith respirator but the winding crown is not authentic, can anybody help where can I source it from
How do you open Zenith Respirator case? Where can I find tool?
Some would be great.
Thank you.
You can open any watch case by super-glueing a nut to the case back. You can then use a spanner to open the case. Dissolve the superglue with acetone when you are done.
Hi I have a zenith respirator Kennedy style winding stem broken how do I find out model number so I can look for a replacement stem any help appreciated regards Graham
You need a winding stem for a 2542PC.
Kind regards,
Christian
Hi thanks for your response my watch has a x underneath the word respirator on face?
On opening the watch there is a oblong piece of steel sticking out and if I turn with tweezers moves the hands this I presume should connect to crown but the part between crown and watch is missing .you can tell by my terminology I’m not a watch person any help appreciated kind regards Graham
Hi I believe the correct terminology for what is missing is the female winding stem regards Graham
How did you open the case?
Can anybody help meme, have a Zenith Respirator and I need a crystal,if you have one for sale could you please get in touch,thanks.David
I have this beautiful golden watch for sale. It has a 18K golden bracelet.
Please let me know in case somebody is interested
Buena noche mi padre al morir me dejo un gran amor por sus relojes, soy de la ciudad de MEXICO DF y entre los relojes que me heredo tengo un ZENITH 2542 PC automatico INCA BLOOCK 20 micras de oro 795A586 muy parecido al del documento que han comentado. Para mayor dato en la caratula dice expo67 me pueden comentar algo al respecto de esta pieza. (intento darles los datos que mas tengo confiando en no tener errores) El ahora mi reloj esta funcionando y es super exacto. GRACIAS
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Some will remember that Watch Guy did an overhaul on my Respirator Kennedy…it’s become my fast favourite. Since then, I sourced a new crystal – and gasket – it took a long time to find and cost an exhortative amount! But somehow it looks a lot crisper and the gasket tightens up the fit nicely. But it’s not a swim watch, so don’t get any ideas!
I’m really puzzled by the lack of split stem – I have three Respirators, all with similar series movements (I mention it because there also exists a variant with a Zenith cal.405) and all with split stems. I’d suggest that the standard Respirator stem is a split stem with an O ring seal on it.
For those interested in such things, the watch is called the ‘Kennedy’ because JFK used to wear one – there’s a picture of him out there on the ‘net signing documents, with the watch showing clearly. They are fabulous watches, in my opinion.
I was very lucky, and the original gasket was still in good enough shape to be re-used, and the crystal polished up nicely.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t get hold of an original split stem and crown, so I had to fit a normal stem. The standard male/female stems you can buy can’t be used as there isn’t enough space for them. That means the next time the stem has to be taken out, it will most likely break, and will have to be replaced again.
What a great job on that movement, a master at work.
> The movement is beyond economical repair.
Nooo ;(
Was the rotor too far gone to transplant to the donor movement? The centre did look a bit… manky.
Unfortunately, the rotor was too damaged to be usable. I would of course much have preferred the original rotor, but that wasn’t possible.