Jump to content

Recommended Posts

Posted (edited)

I have a Russian wristwatch with what I assume is a vintage electric movement (transition between mechanical and quartz). It's attractive and it runs, and I want to keep it that way.
HOWEVER -

The old gasket has turned to sticky nasty goo, and the goo is holding the movement in the case around the inside of the dial. I don't want to ruin the movement or get the dial face dirty trying to get the assembly out of the case, but it's stuck in there tight. Even so, I have no idea how to clean it once I have it apart. As a test I've tried letting the back parts sit in soap before washing them off. And when that didn't budge the tar, I tried GooGone - also to no avail. 

Anybody with experience here, please help. Thanks!

Russian w Liquefied Gasket (1).jpg

Russian w Liquefied Gasket (2).jpg

Russian w Liquefied Gasket (3).jpg

Russian w Liquefied Gasket (4).jpg

Russian w Liquefied Gasket (5).jpg

Edited by monastic
Typos
Posted

What a mess. Ronsonol lighter fluid and a box of cotton swabs, with lots of caution. That ‘s one option. I’ve used it to do that and it also will not usually affect any of the painted parts. Other solvents will ruin the dial or crystal. Steve


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

  • Like 1
Posted

Thanks, Steve - Good to know the Ronsonol won't damage the finish. Still wary that the black stuff doesn't bleed around the edges. Will give that a try in the next few days, Thanks!

Posted

If all else...consider reassembling the back, removing the bezel and gently using compressed to pop the crystal while wrapped up in a cloth. Or use a crystal lift if acrylic. Then remove the back and hands and gently pressing from the dial side (protected) while softening the goo with heat from a hair-dryer.

Good luck!

 

Sent from my BBF100-2 using Tapatalk

 

 

 

 

Posted

Hi  If ronsonol doesnt shift it try white spirit again using buds, It softens tar and removes tar spots on cars. Which ever method take your time and remove it in degrees, and only dampen the swab.     good luck.

Posted

Personally I would just remove the most of the goo with an 1mm driver while keeping the watch face up. Then remove the module and bezel and drop the entire case in your favorite cleaner.

  • Like 2
Posted (edited)
9 hours ago, yankeedog said:

naphtha and a box of q tips

My mind went straight to "naptha and a box of matches" - Tempting...

Great ideas from everyone and I'm pondering which to try next. Likely won't get back to it until the weekend, but I'll be sure to let you all know what happens. Thanks!

Edited by monastic
  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

Reporting back. Here's what worked: Hand sanitizer.

Decided to give it a try since none of the other conventional cleaners were touching it. Best thing ever - it dissolved the black goop immediately and it wiped away easily with bud swabs and Scott tissue. It works really well removing Sharpie marker and tape goo, guess gasket removal goes on the list, too.

  • Like 1
  • Thanks 2
Posted (edited)

Monastic, would that be the pump bottle gel type? I'm surprised that would have enough solvent to dissolve the rubber goo but I love learning something new like this. Please share what type you used. 

Come to think of it, some of those products do have alcohol in them, maybe that was the ticket...

Edited by watchabit
Posted

What was the main ingredient in the hand sanitizer?  Some are ethanol some are isopropyl. It might be other ingredients that help lift away the goo. 

Posted (edited)

I have used several brands of hand sanitizer for cleaning felt marker and other kinds of tenacious stains and goo off of smooth surfaces.

The ones I have all over the house right now are little flip-cap travel-size bottles. They all use ethyl alcohol as the active ingredient - 60% to 70%. The specific one I used on this Russian watch is a Safeway brand product. It compares itself to Purell, but states that it is not made by GOJO, which makes Purell. 

I don't know squat about chemistry, but I wonder if the gel element keeps the alcohol from drying out before it can liquefy whatever goo it needs to so it can be wiped away? I can't tell that it leaves a residue either. 

Edited by monastic
OCD
  • Recently Browsing

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Topics

  • Posts

    • The watch is from 1990 and was serviced just once around 20 years ago. No idea if the mainspring barrel was ever opened or changed before now.
    • Interesting but I think we have a problem here? We probably need to split hairs on a definition problem. For instance take a real Rolex movement put it in a real Rolex case but not the one it came in take a real dial real hands and make up a watch that is 100% real and what exactly is this? If you send your Rolex in for servicing and anything's been changed at all from what it was when it left the factory Rolex will be unhappy and remove all offending components. This does become a problem of people changing things because they think it's their watch and they want to have a different dial Lord diamonds the bezel or whatever words Rolex sees all of this as evil and bad as far as a Intel Rolex only things the watch is legit if everything is exactly what it was when it left the factory and nothing's been changed including the stem everything asked me Rolex original or their very unhappy about its existence. Then you think about a fake watch what is its real purpose? Well its real purpose is to make money for somebody and fool the customer. So all the watch has to do is look pleasant on the outside and inside can be anything. Typically nobody's going to see inside. So typically anything that's not legit counterfeit movement etc. why would someone spend so much time and effort making it look just like a real Rolex when there's no need to? Unless of course you have one or two movements to impress somebody with this is what's inside your watch but even that is problematic Now we don't end up with I've interesting problem that troubles me where I work. The owner will offend a cage your watch by looking at it carefully with a microscope the timing machine etc. and he will point out all the things that he feels are not appropriate correct or whatever for your watch. But in my example above of mixing and matching legitimate Rolex parts he wouldn't necessarily be able to tell. The problem I have with this is it often times things like his claim to telling a counterfeit is look at the second hand the quality of the secondhand is not as nice as a legitimate one. But maybe somebody replaced a second hand on a real Rolex. Or the other day at work I don't know what it was in before but there was a really pretty movement transparent back and they decided it was fake because of? Now I didn't think it was fake I took one look was beautifully manufactured but they had a reason What bothers me with counterfeit Rolex is or anything counterfeit watch related it is reminding me of a witchhunt. The early days of witch hunting how can we tell a which Manon which? That makes me wonder how many super fakes are really fake at all it's basically somebody deciding it's a fake based upon inappropriate assumptions. Like the secondhand is been changed or the watch was worked on the screws are perfect or other things. Other minor problems with super fakes for instance I have a long story the not going to tell the short version is I found the website once where they claim to be counterfeiting Rolex watches. They even had a picture to prove their counterfeit watch the problem with pictures online how do we know it's really a counterfeit watch and not a real Rolex watch that you're telling us is counterfeit. Oh and they had testimonials from all kinds of people who bought their watches and were very happy with the service of course the problem with the watch is you don't know what's inside it unless you take the back off and just because somebody shows a picture online and says this is their super fake maybe it really isn't a super fake they be there just trying to say that. We end up with a interesting problem of manufacturing a watch. Does Rolex actually make every single part found in their watch? Then the year 2004's basically irrelevant. This is because initially Rolex buys stock in the company and they manufacture Rolex watches. I'm assuming over time Rolex will acquire more stock and only in 2004 do they get the whole company. But the company itself hasn't really changed other than the name on the front of the building. The real question is did they really make every single component found in the Rolex watch from the beginning of time until end of the time? A lot of the components found in a watch would be extremely specialized did they make their own jewels or their own mainsprings for instance? But that is looking at the article they employ a heck of a lot of people now I would guess now that Rolex probably does make everything in-house. Especially when they have nifty CNC equipment like for making screws were he could make a huge batch of one type it instantly switch to another type where before he needed specialized machines for one machine for one screw now manufacturing all kinds of stuff in-house becomes very simple. But still is possible that in the early days they might have outsourced something may be perhaps. But conceivably we do have minor changes in thing is due to how things have been made over time which can lead to confusions over whether this is legit or not when it may be as a change of manufacturing methods oh and regarding the screws found in your Rolex watch? In about mid-80s I went to a school reunion in Switzerland. One of things we could do was visit a factory and I picked Rolex because I wanted to see the mass production making of Rolex watches. Which is very disappointed I did not get the sea at all because didn't see them making Rolex watches in their Geneva headquarters even though the building is really fake? So what did we get to see well after sales service because after all were watchmakers we should see that. Did learn something interesting about Rolex screws if your watch was sent to Rolex the screws that come back are not the ones that went there. As they are using powered screwdrivers they don't want to risk breaking heads off and they will replace the screws of every single watch. The other one of interest was suppose there's a scratch and you can see the brass? No problem they have a solution that basically electoral plates without electricity so the scratch goes away. The research Department was quite boring and didn't look like anyone was ever there. Then it was too long ago to remember all the details other than I was disappointed I want to see manufacturing.   Yes the joys of artificial intelligence that is more like a trained monkey that's there to please you.
    • Hey everybody! I just registered to WRT. I found this forum searching for informations about ELMA watch cleaning machines (will get one ELMA tomorrow ✌️). I'm new in watch repair, collecting watch repair tools to fill up my work space 😎.   Greetings from Vienna Michael
    • Is it not covered in the manual under Profix Cap Jewels?
×
×
  • Create New...