Falling Numbers On Rotary

[Vich]

My bro in law is bringing me a Rotary watch he paid about £100.00 for.  After a few years quite a few of the index bars have fallen off the dial face and are apparently sliding around inside the watch.

When this happened he put the watch away as it was out of warranty anyway. 

My wife mentioned my new hobby so it and a few other watches will be arriving shortly which should be quite good fun. I am looking forward to it as there is a win win situation, if they can not be fixed I can keep them anyway for the bits.

My first thought was to glue index markers back on with gel superglue, then I thought pinflair silicone glue (really good stuff) may be better.  Anyway can anyone advise what a real watch repairer would use and any problems I will have to watch out for.

 

Cheers,

 

Vich

[Mark]

No superglue!

 

Superglue will possibly damage the dial lacquer.

 

The best product to use (in my experience) is Hypo cement. A tiny amount will do to secure the chapters in place. And any excess can be carefully rubbed away without damage to the dial.

 

The fumes in superglue can be quite damaging and may even cause the inside of the watch glass to go cloudy.

[Vich]

Thanks for the advice, the product is winging its way to me now. 

 

All i need now is some beta blockers to steady my hands and I am flying !

 

By the way thanks for the video on servicing the eta 955.412.  That was tho old movement I replaced in the Tissot my mother gave me and I shall try to repair it, if successful I may just put it back in !  I will have the video on my iPad and follow stage by stage.

 

Cheers,

 

Vic

[Lee]

i'm with the hypo glue. remove dial from movement & you will probably find the markers/chapters where originally glued anyway, they have tiny feet on the bottom that pop into holes on the dial. pick off the old glue (from the rear of the dial) before re-gluing them or else you may have trouble with not only missing the tiny feet or a bulk of glue stopping the dial sitting correctly on the movement.

Put in each chapter one at a time & glue. if your feeling really daring do them all, because you can bet if ones fallen off they all will in time!.

[Vich]

Cheers Lee,

 

I will definitely pay heed to your advice.

 

Now I await the delivery of watches and glue (and a new pair of eyes and beta blockers for my shaking hands (:-))

 

Vic

[Vich]

Well I have the watch and Lee is spot on with his advice.  However, the old glue is resistant to removal, does anyone know of any solvent that can be safely used to remove the residue prior to affixing the chapters.  Any advice would be gratefully received.

Thanks Vich

[Lee]

they will be glued from behind the dial on the reverse side, i'd have thought what you see on the dial is natural staining. but obviously with out having it in front of me I couldn't be sure. if I had this job to do I'd be removing the hands & taking the dial off the movement & bonding them from behind.