Here’s a great looking chronograph well worthy of some TLC, a Girard-Perregaux Olimpico.

(Click pictures to enlarge)

Girard-Perregeaux introduced the Olimpico range to commemorate the Olympic games (Olimpico means Olympics in Spanish/Italian), adding new models to the range every 4 years. Based on the case style and the calibre inside, I would date the watch in this post to either 1972 or 1976.

Exactly when the first Olimpico model appeared is open to speculation, but judging by the style of the early models in this Olimpico group shot, I would guess some time in the late 1950′s?

The majority of the vintage models were built around Valjoux calibres, with the exception of the 1968 offerings which were powered by an Excelsior Park Cal. 40. Here’s one of them;

Curiously there were no models created for the 1980 and ’84 Olympics, but the model was back in the line-up for the 1988, powered by the ubiquitous Valjoux Cal. 7750. Subsequent models were added for the 1992 and ’96 Olympics, the latter being one of the Laureato chronographs, and the first to feature an in-house calibre, the cal. 3170.

Unfortunately, the 1996 model marked the end of the line for the Olimpico range, as the International Olympic Committee took a dim view of any unlicenced use of the term ‘Olympic’ …and no doubt demanded a hefty fee for any further use.

The watch in this post arrived in running condition, but the second and 12 hour registers on the chronograph weren’t resetting properly. I was hopeful that a movement service would fix the problems.

Opening the caseback revealed a Valjoux Cal. 726 in excellent condition, and sure enough, after a service, the movement was back up and running with all the chronograph functions working properly again.

Before re-assembly, the case was cleaned, the top of the case re-brushed, and the crystal polished to finish the job.

You can read more about Girard-Perregaux, and see their current models here.

Rich.

** Many thanks to Tony Willer for letting feature his watch on the blog. **

Kicking off the New Year is this Depthmaster 1000 from Nivada Grenchen.

(Click pictures to enlarge)

Still in the possession of the original owner who received the watch as a gift from his wife in 1975, the watch had certainly seen some action over the years. After struggling to find someone local to take on the restoration, the watch found its way to me.

As well as a movement service, quite a bit of cosmetic work would be needed on this one; the crystal was heavily crazed and had a large chunk missing out of it, the case had taken its fair share of knocks, and the bezel markings had lost most of their paint.

Opening the caseback revealed an ETA Cal. 2472 in reasonable condition.

With the watch uncased, it was clear that there was more cosmetic work to be done. While the lume on the dial was in reasonable condition, the hands were in poor shape, with rotten lume and missing paint.

When new, this watch was water resistant to a depth of 1000m, which was quite a big deal in the 1970′s, and still exceeds the depth rating of the majority of watches made today.

With deep water watches, the weakest part is the crystal, which can fracture under pressure. To minimise the chance of this happening, Nivada fitted this watch with an acrylic crystal 3.4mm thick (regular acrylic watch crystals are around 1 mm thick), and to give it extra security, rather than being pressed into the case like a regular tension ring crystal, in this watch the crystal is held place by a metal ring screwed in from the inside.

There must be a specific tool for removing the securing ring, but I don’t have one (and I doubt I’ll ever see one), so two bits for the Bergeon 5700Z case opener were modified to provide a solution.

The bits were filed down to make two ‘prongs’ to fit exactly into the slots on the inner ring (see inset). With the watch case securely mounted in the opener, the ring could be unscrewed easily.

It came as no surprise that an original crystal couldn’t be sourced for this watch, so a thick divers crystal of the same diameter was modified to match the profile of the original and to create a lip on the outer edge. The crystal was secured in place using the case opener once again to tighten the ring.

With the crystal successfully replaced, the rest of the work was completed. After a little work on the case, the hands and bezel were re-painted and re-lumed, and the movement serviced. Here is the result.

Rich.

** Many thanks to Ian Kemp for letting me feature his watch on the blog. **

Enjoy the festive season out there, and best wishes for a happy and successful 2012 to you all.

Rich.

A few weeks ago I wrote a post about the restoration of this Tissot/Aquastar Regate.

(Click pictures to enlarge)

In that post I mentioned the collaboration between Tissot and Aquastar, and included this picture of a co-branded Benthos model along with a request for anyone with details about it to get in touch – see the full post here.

In the subsequent weeks I received mails from several people, not just with details on the Benthos above, but with examples of other Tissot/Aquastar branded models that I didn’t know about. So rather than amend the Regate post, I thought I’d write this follow-up post.

In answer to my original question, the “Benthos I” above is indeed a genuine model, and here is a working example pictured with its original manual, isofrane strap, and bracelet. The watch is still in the possession of the original owner who bought it in Sydney in the 1980′s.

(Picture: Des Palamberis)

I’ve done quite a bit of research on the first generation Aquastar Benthos for previous blog posts, so I was surprised to learn that it too had been produced with a co-branded dial…

(Picture: Mike Riley)

… and even more surprised to be contacted again a few days later about a second one!

(Picture: Chris at The Watch Gallery)

Chris also had another Tissot/Aquastar model listed on eBay, this Newport Regate which I’d never seen before – thanks to Jon Wallis at Desk Divers for the heads up on this one.

(Picture: Chris at The Watch Gallery)

It was only when writing this post that I realised all of the respondents (and watches) were located in Australia. Is that just a coincidence, or could it be that the co-branded models were only sold in Australia? Perhaps the Aquastar brand wasn’t strong enough on its own down under and needed Tissot on the dial to boost sales… who knows.

If anyone has any more information about these, or any other Tissot/Aquastar branded models, it would be great to hear from you.

Rich.

It’s been a while since I’ve written about a Seiko on the blog, but here’s one of their iconic vintage divers, a “62MAS”.

(Click pictures to enlarge)\

I’ve written about a good few Seiko divers in the past, but this one is historically significant to the brand as it was their first model made specifically for scuba divers.

First released in 1965, the 62MAS was a significant change to the majority of Seiko’s output. It was the first diver to feature an external rotating bezel, and a water resistance of 150 meters. Prior to the 62MAS, the only watch with similar leanings was the Seiko Sportsmatic SilverWave, with an internal rotating bezel and a water resistance of 30 meters.

Although the watch arrived in good cosmetic condition, it had already been on quite a restoration journey. As you can see in the picture below, when the owner bought the watch it wasn’t in good shape at all, missing its external bezel, and having an inscription on the case side.

Having sourced all the missing parts, the owner sent the watch to two other craftsmen to have the dial and hands relumed, and the case refinished before it landed on my bench. My job was to make sure everything was mechanically sound.

Opening the caseback revealed a relatively clean and tidy Seiko Cal. 6217A, though it did have underlying problems. There was a distinct click in the keyless works when setting the time, and the date quickset was very hit and miss, both common problems to Seiko 62xx calibres when wear starts to set in.

This watch has a quickset date, which means that when the crown is pulled out to the first position, it is then possible to cycle through the dates until the right date is showing in the aperture. In watches with significant wear, the mechanism can skip or in extreme cases, the quickset doesn’t work at all.

Looking closely at the date corrector on the left in the picture above, you can see that there is wear on the underside of the teeth. Wear eats away at the teeth until they no longer have sufficient contact to push the date ring forward. Instead, the corrector tooth just skips over the top of the date ring tooth, increasing the wear on both parts. When this starts to happen, the only option is to replace the part with one in better condition, often acquired from a donor movement as new parts are no longer available.

It’s a similar story for the clutch wheel, pictured above right. When viewed with a microscope, you can see that the teeth are severely worn and one of them had chipped off at the end which was causing the clicking in the mechanism when setting the time. Again, the only option is a replacement part.

With the parts replaced and the rest of the movement serviced, things went smoothly from there on. Here’s the watch re-assembled and ready for action once again.

Like several other Seiko watches from this period, the caseback detail has often worn smooth after 40+ years of wear. It was great to see that wasn’t the case with this watch, the dolphin is still crisp and all the print legible.

For more information about the features and history of the 62MAS, check out this excellent collector’s/buying guide.

Rich.

** Many thanks to Duncan Hewitt for letting me feature his watch on the blog. **