Dave's 1945 Oyster Air-King Restoration in Process

[R.W.T.]

A few months back a member posted a 1945 Air King that he had received from his family. The lug was rusted and the movement had taken on water. Much of the consensus was...."It's a goner". I felt like the watch was salvageable and had potential as an heirloom and told him I wasn't afraid :-) and that I would try.

I received the watch yesterday and here is what we have.

Watch in question. Broken crystal (not original so inconsequential), Bad tube. Rusted lug. Very good original dial and hands. This is a SUPER rare dial. 40's dials suffered badly due to the radium and elements so we are lucky this is preserved with only minor inflictions for its age.



Caseback showing the rare reference 4925. We'll see if there are actually holes or this is just surface rust. I think it's okay.



A photo of the lug and we open her up as well. Lots of rust. I had already started to brush away a little at the stud holder. The balance is remarkably good with no broken staff and only a little surfaced rust on the overcoil.





Here is the rust on the stud holder...this is tricky because those screws have got to come out or you can't get the balance out.



Removed the balance cock and generously oiled the bottom of the screws...in the holes.



Success! George always told me...lubrication, lubrication, lubrication..when dealing with rust and frozen screws. Today we got lucky.



Balance out! Nice looking all things considered.



Next movement out...still no broken screws!



Dial and hands removed.

It's really a great dial. This is a large watch for the era. These hands are RARE to find.



Sweep spring straightened and pre cleaned. Now it will function properly.


Case tube removed.



Dial side looks good! No rust!



Broken set bridge pawl on set lever. Has to be replaced.



Now back to the reverse side..rusty rusty.
The previous watchmaker gets an award for not over tightening screws...the ratchet wheel screw came right out after a little fiberglass brushing.



Now...bigger problems...but amazingly...no snags...the barrel bridge screws came out easily with lubrication from the front side...the bridge was removed and the crown wheel, crown wheel core and crown wheel seat and click came off...the same way.



Ugh....



The train bridge and pallet bridge were equally as easy and so here we have the mainplate completely stripped.



Here is the watch disassembled ready for cleaning.



Next week the case middle is off to HK to see if the lug can be saved. I am confident that it will be alright. He has an additional good case middle but since it is an heirloom...I'd love to preserve the original case middle and serial number with the original numbered movement and dial and hands.

So...some days you get lucky...some days it's much worse. This one I think with a few cosmetic movement pieces replaced can be made whole again.

More as it develops. Wish me luck!

T