Stephanos sent this Breitling Top Time in. It doesn’t run properly, so it needs a service, and the gold plating has come off the case and pushers.
This doesn’t look too good – the amplitude is barely there, the beat error is huge, and I can see that the balance hardly swings. Don’t be fooled by the two straight lines on the timegrapher. Unfortunately, the Witschi shows those when the performance is so bad that you would otherwise just have random dots on the screen. I prefer how my Chinese timegrapher displays this sort of thing.
The movement is dirty, and on closer inspection, I notice that the hairpsring is deformed, and that it touches the balance in places.
The case, pushers, crown and bezel are sent over to Canada to Replateit.com.
I start taking apart the movement. I’m not quite sure if the yellow paint to mark the engraved text is original…
The wheel train is now visible.
The usual dirt around the clutch wheel, but nothing serious.
The bottom plate is fairly simple.
Out of the cleaning machine and ready for reassembly.
I start off with a new mainspring.
I start off with the base movement.
If you click on the photo and zoom in, you can see that he outermost winding of the hairspring touches the next one. Somebody bent the hairspring to put a Breguet-style overcoil on it, which is wrong. The hairspring has to be completely flat!
Half an hour later, I have a flat hairspring again, and all is well.
And I am rewarded for that half hour. A great graph, great amplitude, great beat error.
Now I can put the chronograph back together.
The dial and hands go back on.
The case has come back from Canada, and looks great.
Absolutely stunning!
Back on its strap, and looking good.
Hi
I have found one of these chrome in my dads old garage. None working.
Crystal is pretty well scratched and one of the pushers is missing.
I wondered what sort of cost it would be for a restore/services and re plate new crystal etc ?
Nice looking watch. Top time 2006 square as this one panda eye.
Rough estimate is £400 to 500.
Best regards,
Christian
Would you have any capacity to take this on at present?
Fill in the booking form, and we will try to fit you in.
Best regards,
Christian
iv seen so many gold plate toptimes looking so worn and tired at watch fares and in the odd second hand shop.but seeing what you did with this one,makes me think twice about walking past,they can be picked up much cheaper than s / steel type. great restoration, thanks for a great blog.
Nice job on that hairspring. Replate look great too!
That hairspring looks like someone tried to add a terminal dogleg curve to me, not an overcoil. I guess the design of this one is such that there should be no bends in the coil at all?
Somebody created a “mini” overcoil, bending the hairspring up, so that the second winding could fit under it. They probably tried to avoid contact of the hairspring with the centre wheel, but if properly seated, the hairspring goes under the wheel and can be perfectly centred …
Great education. Thanks a mils, i have been followeing your blogs for 2 years, keeping pretty quiet so far, well work takes most of my time. I have been waiting for one of these to be serviced, nice to see the inside. I have a similar one, older I think, built for doctor with the dials top and bottom, a Venus 178, I think, with the markings showing pulsations around the dial, still works, though haven’t worn it, lest I broke it, a little too fragile. It was passed on to me to keep from a watch collector, who by the way, know that I am a physician.
I collected vintage and interesting watches and pocket watches (over 300’s), and I have learned to take them apart to service them only if they exhibit some symptoms of failure, otherwise I leave them alone. Course I don’t have all the equipments that you have, only surgical tweezers, oils, surgical gloves, ultrasound cleaner and good amount of patience, a few of hard tools in my toolbox if I need to bang on them (just joking). I did over time learned a lot from you expert work. I have to admit it is a loss art, keep it up. Well, at least watches stay still when you repaired them, some quiet momens for met as some of my patients scream when I stitch them.
Thanks, I hope to stay more visible by communicating, and send you some precious watches (mostly G Perregaux, Omegas, and a few Valjouxs) for service one of these days, as I don’t intend to damage them due to my clumsiness.
The yellow in-fill does look a bit brash to be original, Finished article looks great though 😉