Nice Flea Market Bulova

JimDon

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I picked up this beautiful Bulova Excellency 1952 gold filled watch with a great black dial. It has a 7AA 21J movement. It had a toasted expansion band. It was just $10 so I thought I would take a chance on it. I cleaned it up and put a leather band on it. It looks to be in good shape except the hair spring has come loose. I'm going to take it to my guy and see if it can be serviced. The good news is I have a spare 7AA movement.

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Vintage black color dials generally bring more money I believe. I spent $45.00 having an old Omega that had a crappy looking dial redialed to black. It think I got $180+. more out of it by doing that. It took like 2 month for the dial to be completed. Serious vintage watch collectors frown on that kind of modification, but they don't ever pay as much as someone who just wants a fine cool looking vintage wristwatch.
 

I picked up this beautiful Bulova Excellency 1952 gold filled watch with a great black dial. It has a 7AA 21J movement. It had a toasted expansion band. It was just $10 so I thought I would take a chance on it. I cleaned it up and put a leather band on it. It looks to be in good shape except the hair spring has come loose. I'm going to take it to my guy and see if it can be serviced. The good news is I have a spare 7AA movement.

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Well the final verdict was it was missing two screws and the ratchet wheel click. I also noticed the balance wheel was not moving so I removed it and noticed the hair Spring was not attached to the balance cock. I got a used 7AA movement and installed the click, two screws and then took the entire balance cock, spring and wheel assembly and installed it in the watch. The watch has been running now for a full day and is keeping excellent time! I have to say there was no better feeling than seeing that watch come alive!! Thrilling to do my first real repair to a mechanical watch.
 

Well the final verdict was it was missing two screws and the ratchet wheel click. I also noticed the balance wheel was not moving so I removed it and noticed the hair Spring was not attached to the balance cock. I got a used 7AA movement and installed the click, two screws and then took the entire balance cock, spring and wheel assembly and installed it in the watch. The watch has been running now for a full day and is keeping excellent time! I have to say there was no better feeling than seeing that watch come alive!! Thrilling to do my first real repair to a mechanical watch.

Nice work! Curious....how does one even go about learning about watch repair?
 

Nice work! Curious....how does one even go about learning about watch repair?

I have been watching YouTube videos. Plus I had to buy watch repair tool. It has been super challenging which is why I was so thrilled to fix this one.
 

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