Insight Into Servicing A Bubbleback: A Customer's View & Testimonial

[Stargazer735]

Hi, everyone!

This forum has been great to me in regard to my questions and providing resources. In the time I've spent on here, I've acquired 2 Rolexes and learned a LOT. I think it's about time I give something back.

I want to bring you some insight into what goes into servicing a vintage watch, particularly a bubbleback, and how it is truly a labor of love. Most importantly, I want to extend my deepest thanks to our forum member, R.W.T., for his incredible knowledge, talent, and outstanding customer service. I feel like I'm walking away from this with a treasure on my wrist and a new friend.

I hope you enjoy this little chronicle of mine. :)

About Me
At the time of this writing, I'm a 30-year-old IT Business & Systems Analyst here in Long Island, NY. I enjoy watches quite a bit and outside of my bubbleback, I own a Datejust 41 in steel, a Breitling Aerospace, and some other lower-end stuff like my Orient, Graf Zeppelin, etc..

My stepfather enjoys watches quite a bit as well, but he's more of a Breitling and Omega guy. When I found out he had a vintage Rolex in storage, I immediately grasped at the opportunity to take it out of hiding.

The Watch
The bubbleback you see here is a 1945 Oyster Perpetual ref. 3372. It was originally purchased new by my stepfather's great uncle, who was a world traveler and dealt with jewelry and coins. When he passed away in the late 1950's, the watch was then inherited by my stepfather's father, who didn't wear it much. After his passing, my stepfather inherited the watch and it had been in storage ever since... until I found out about it.

Due Diligence
Fascinated by the watch, I decided I'd take it to the same community that had been helping me with my first Rolex purchase, The Rolex Forums!

Folks chimed in with some really great stuff. I learned quite a lot and, while I knew we weren't sitting on a gold mine, I came to appreciate just what this watch is. If you're unfamiliar with how special bubblebacks are and their significance in context of watch innovation, I highly suggest reading up on them. Fascinating stuff, but it's more than that; it's a family heirloom. I made a commitment to restore this piece to its former glory and to honor its previous owners. It was time to carry on the torch. With any luck, I'd be able to turn this into a fantastic daily driver.

Back to the post - One particularly knowledgeable forum member, none other than R.W.T., chimed in with a wealth of information. We took the conversation offline and, after hearing such great things about him, I came to the conclusion that he ought to be the one to do this work.

I couldn't be any happier with my choice.

The Service Agreement
R.W.T. was clear in what the cost of service would be and took me through how it would work, step-by-step. Because much of what's uncovered is yet-to-be-known, this is exactly the type of thing you want to do with whomever is going to service your watch.

With clear instructions on how to ship the watch (and let me tell you, this man is thorough when it comes to packing a watch) and a pre-paid shipping label in-hand, I sent the bubbleback off via FedEx.

The Tear-Down
Within a couple days, R.W.T. confirmed receipt of the watch and immediately went to work. That night, I was pleased to receive another e-mail of the tear-down, along with a treasure trove of pictures (see below.)

The preliminary assessment yielded a missing locking screw for the auto weight screw, which was loose and producing a clunking noise. The movement, as you may have noticed, was quite clean, but, as R.W.T. put it, that doesn't always translate to the best runner. Nevertheless, he was determined to do his utmost best and to restore this thing to glory.

Something worth noting was the lint and hair found inside the watch, beneath the auto winding unit (you can even see some in the pictures below if you look close enough.) As he put it, this is unusual and suggests that it was previously serviced by someone who was working in a less-than-ideal environment. This is what you, as a consumer, need to know: your watchmaker doesn't usually know what's been done to the watch in years past. Much of the time they spend on these things is digging up what someone else has done and, as you'll see in my case, having to reverse it in order to make things right. It takes a lot of time and detective work. Remember to appreciate the knowledge and skillset required for this stuff!

[Stargazer735]

The Long Haul
I'm aptly naming this section The Long Haul because, even though it may not have much to show in terms of pictures, it's where the bulk of the work was. I can't stress enough the amount of time and patience this all took.

After cleaning the case and servicing the base movement and auto-wind, we ran into some trouble; the timing through the positions wasn't up to snuff.

At first, it was the balance shaft, which needed re-poising. As R.W.T. put it, it's like balancing a tire; you need to add or remove material in precise locations in order for things to work properly.

Next was sealing the case; after blowing through about 15 crystals (!) he was finally able to get one to seal. This, too, takes hours.

The crown also needed replacement, to which R.W.T. provided a beautiful (and now correct) replacement at a more-than-reasonable price.

But the balance still needed work. Back to the grind...

Unfortunately, the problems did not let up. 2 days of effort later, the timing was still not up to snuff. He had chased down banking pins that had been adjusted beyond normal limits in a previous service, a mainspring that was way too stiff, trying a different escapement, etc..

It took another 2 days of work to resolve most of the issues. In fact, he had gotten so close, he had nearly sent it out, but he found a blip in the radar, so to speak. I would never have noticed, and he knew that, but he was still not going to let it leave his shop.

And that, my friends, is the hallmark of good service; it's doing the right thing, even if it's only for the sake of doing what's right. At this point, I think most folks would have just let it go. R.W.T. did not. I'm beyond grateful for that.

A little more digging and he found a couple other issues: a worn barrel arbor and the hole for it in the mainplate. He addressed both and continued testing...

Finally, with final results of +3.5s/day he was satisfied with its performance and I was thrilled! I can only imagine his relief.

[Stargazer735]

One Happy Customer
After nearly a 3-week journey (which, by the way, is still a remarkably short time when considering the competition for such a specialized piece,) the bubbleback arrived today!

I have to say, I'm beyond impressed. Pictures don't do this watch's transformation the justice it deserves. The dial is richer in color, the case is clean and looks superb with its new crown. And, of course, a new strap from Hirsch doesn't hurt either.

Final Words
I sincerely hope this was as enjoyable for you to read as it was for me to write. Still, I feel like my words don't cover it all; the amount of work that went into this is incredible and I'm deeply moved by R.W.T.'s passion for his work.

Thank you, R.W.T., for bringing this relic back to life. Cheers, my friend.

[august1410]

Quite a beautiful watch and a great story!

[springer]

Very nice. Congrats.

[southtexas]

Very cool. Tommy is a good guy.


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[R.W.T.]

I would just like to say that I appreciate the kind words. The game with these is a game of patience really. On day one, my watchmaking mentor told me...the most important thing in watchmaking is patience, to which I replied "I don't have patience." He glanced over his shoulder toward my bench in his office and said with his left eyebrow raised slightly over the top of his glasses..."you will LEARN patience."

To clarify couple of things. I try to explain to people who have an interest what is going on. It's not easy in laymen's terms and it's hard to put oneself in the perspective where the other person may know next to nothing about the the nomenclature or the process.

The watch movement was in I would say very nice cosmetic condition. There was some heavier tarnish on the rotor weight which is reasonably common and in the end it is now showing a little brassing. It does have the serial of the autowind portion of the movement so we don't want to change it. It's a not issue really.

Once we had it torn down and cleaned and reassembled I noted it had very high amplitude but reasonable for this watch. The difference is these watches were built much more individually than say 60's models. Even the bridges are serial numbered so they all go back on the same watch. They aren't "standardized" in the same sense. Yes they can interchange, but as I explained to Lucas, these were more hand done. And different runs of balance wheels behave very differently. Some have very elastic hairsprings and some have very stiff hairsprings...they are all 9 3/4 overcoil balance wheels...but they can be extremely different. Some wheels may have a very short recovery time from position changes...others may be very long. It's a different ball game than a 1570. They are also 70+ years old. The lubricants we use now are more efficient. The mainsprings are of a different material...so much is variable from all aspects.

These watches are not shock resisting. Very often they have had multiple restaffing of the balance wheel done. 9 times out of 10 this throws these balances out of poise or "balance". This balance was particularly further out than I would like to see. I removed the hairspring and put it on the posing tool. You could see where some work had been done prior on the bottom side and a couple of the "weight" balance screws had timing washers....So I worked on it. On these you also have regulating pins on the slide regulator...the space between those pins can very often alter the timekeeping through the positions...the centering of the hairspring and the position of the overcoil passing through those pins...so many variables...
Even after my first pass on the poising tool I did like the results. I'm not trying to make a 0 seconds + - through the positions balance here but get something reasonable that will keep time on the wrist. So...what to do? You never know what is going on in the past. Did someone use an under cutter on the screws relieving one or more of them in weight?
Next phase in this situation for me is to strip the balance. All the screws come off. Let's see what the wheel does with nothing but the roller table on it. Oh...still out. Okay. So you get it where it has no heavy spot in that configuration. it never stops in the same place. No rocking back and forth and settling in a position.

So...the screws don't look all the same to me. I have a large collection of balance wheels 9 3/4 size from this era. Some are basically virgin but they may have had hairspring catastrophes. I picked one...and removed all of the screws and installed them on Lucas's balance wheel. Then I checked the poise again. Still good. Now...after all this work does the hairspring still match the overall weight of the balance wheel well enough to regulate it? No...it's too light. So you see how fast it runs with the regulator centered....Oh..about 4 minutes fast. Okay so what we need is...2 sets of 2 minute timing washers one washer for each of the 4 static balance screws. Install those behind the screws at the rim and recheck the timing. Ah still a tiny bit light but...within regulation possibilities. Everything is great! Positions...4 of 6 are super close and chronometer grade for the era. They are the 4 most important positions for a right handed wearer....we are close to done. It is a great deal better at this point than many others I have worked on.

So wrist test after the automatic is installed...hmmm...put it on the timing machine after a few hours wear...amplitude a bit higher than I would like but if it's working its...uh oh...RE BANKING. This is not good. This means that the escapement and the high amplitude allow the balance to every once in a while to hit 360...and bounce. This will cause the watch to run extremely fast for short bursts...darn. Well let's see what a new aftermarket mainspring will do. Pull his spring. WOW that is stiff. Unusual. The current aftermarket spring is better. Everything seems okay same test...oops...still re-banking. So the easiest way since we know all of these are a little different is to change a couple of parts to see if we can get it to settle down. Admittedly the stones on the pallet can be adjusted to curb the amplitude as I was coached by a good friend at Rolex in Geneva. I don't have a lot of experience with that nor an escapement testing device at this point. But as I said these movements are SO individually set up in the beginning that another pallet could completely change this. So I tried a few. I got a better one. Still I'm having the issue. Now one way to affect the same change as adjusting the pallet stones is to adjust the banking pins. These are the 2 stop pins that the pallet fork sits between. This is old school adjustment. Rolex even had special tools to do this. I missed some on Ebay and I'm still beating myself up over it. It's a bit risky because you can...break the pins off in the movement. Rolex sells banking pins for 1570's so they know it's gonna happen. Sadly I haven't found any for 630NA but I have made one from scratch for a 1570 before I knew you could buy them. So I decided I would try to make the adjustment at the pins....uh oh...I find I'm not the only guy who has been chasing this re-banking issue. The pins are adjusted WAY in. With the mainspring that was in it, I'm not surprised. I played with the pins some. I put them back to pretty much standard position tried a weaker mainspring...I went through a lot of changes with this phase. I finally found a happy medium between where the last guy had left them and the standard set up. But I was still having occasional re-banking issues.
I just happened to be speaking with another watchmaker friend who just passed his CW21 and graduated from watchmaking school after spending 20 + years at the bench beforehand, and mentioned the issue in passing. I would say that more than likely none of what he learned in school or anything required to pass the CW 21 exam would make any difference in this situation with the exception of pallet stone adjustment.

He suggested that I check the endshake of the barrel. I had already taken some of the endshake out by closing the hole in the barrel bridge. These are often worn due to lack of lubrication and continued use dry. It's exTREmely common on the 620 - 630. It doesn't always show so much as a problem but it is wear and sloppy and I do address it to an extent. You don't want to close the hole so much that there is a bind and you have to go back and relieve it with a broach so you take small steps. So on the advice of my friend I dug a little deeper. I removed the barrel after noting the amount of endshake still being caused by the hole in the barrel bridge and the hole in the main plate. I have a rather large collection of new and used parts for these movements so I looked and found a barrel arbor with a quite a bit tighter fit. I wouldn't necessarily say that his was worn and mine wasn't....the plates are brass, the barrel arbors are hardened steel..which is going to win? I think they are just that much different in spec sometimes. Yes barrel arbors can wear but this watch wasn't that worn really. I closed the hole in the mainplate a little and a little more on the barrel bridge. I changed the arbor into his barrel and once again...began the testing process. I wore the watch for a day stopping after some activity to watch it on the timing machine. No evidence of re-banking...now the timing was a bit slow overall. I hadn't been that critical yet because until I got the re-banking sussed timing was sort of moot. I went and regulated it up, still wearing and watching for re-banking issues. No evidence. The last little bit with the barrel endshake helped it just enough to stop the problem.

The watch was keeping very very good time on the wrist after all of the effort.

As I have often said when people ask how much to service a bubble back...sometimes I want to say...all that you have. ;-) It very often becomes a labour of love. It takes as long as it takes and you see why most modern watchmakers don't want to work on them. Sometimes they are a walk in the park...but sometimes as I explained to Lucas they are a headache. You know going in that there is that chance. But honestly very often you could do 4 1570 datejusts in the same amount of time.

The satisfaction is not the same level.

[William.L.]

I've really been thinking about adding a bubbleback to the collection and this thread is really pushing me over the edge. That looks fantastic.

[R.W.T.]

Originally Posted by William.L.

I've really been thinking about adding a bubbleback to the collection and this thread is really pushing me over the edge. That looks fantastic.

PM sent.

[R.W.T.]

"Even after my first pass on the poising tool I did like the results."

Sorry this should read "didn't" like the results

[Amex4711]

Great story, thanks for sharing and the watch is awsome

[motoikkyu]

R.W.T., your work is amazing and I am grateful to the eloquence of members like Stargazer735 that lets others know of your dedication and skill. Bubblebacks are very, very cool: they may never hit the price levels they enjoyed in the 1980s, but that doesn't make them any less inherently attractive and fun. I wear the 3372 you completed for me often, and smile every time I look at it.