Projects: 1990's CWC RN Diver - 'Rusty'

CWC divers are regular visitors to our workshop - we usually have at least one on the go. This one, which I nicknamed 'Rusty', came from CWC enthusiast Justin @time_2_race (InstaGram). The watch was in a truly terrible state, having suffered catastrophic water ingress. The dial was severely rusted, the chapter ring was rust-stained and the movement was badly corroded. The prospects for a working and usable watch seemed pretty remote. The movement was not such a problem - if necessary I could just replace the movement with a working ETA 955.122. The real problem was the risk that the dial and hands would shed loose particles of paint, lume and rust which over time would damage the movement. On that basis Justin was considering just using the watch as a non-working 'prop'. However, on reflection I thought it would be possible to stabilise the dial and hands with matte lacquer and then see what could be salvaged from the movement, replace any non-salvageable parts and get the watch up and running again. Justin gave the green light, so I carefully removed the dial and hands and stripped the movement. The calendar works, most of the motion works, gear train and keyless works were too far gone to retain, but the parts that could be cleaned up were de-rusted and cleaned, and the the remaining parts were sourced from used stock. The biggest result was retaining the core of the original movement - the base plate - which despite a lot of rust staining and residue did clean up remarkably well. The movement was then built back up in the normal way without any further problems. The dial was coated with matte lacquer to stabilise all the loose material, and the lume on the hands was stabilised. The staining on the chapter ring was left, but the crystal was cleaned. The result was a pretty stunning watch, still showing all the results of disastrous water ingress, but fully functional and a practical everyday wear.

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