Advice please regarding an old Heuer diver

[Rick Hussey]

Hi folks.

I recently saw a sales post regarding an old (possibly pre_Tag) Heuer and was somewhat surprised at their asking price. I then remembered that quite some time ago a friend of mine showed me his old diving watch (yup it was actually used for scuba diving).



I got him to send me some pictures of it and thought I would post them here for opinions.

I have advised my friend not to change the dial, hands, bezel or have the watch polished - would this be good advice for this specific watch?



How difficult would it be to have the movement serviced and repaired and, assuming that's all he has done to it, what would it be worth potentially?



Any opinions on the watch would be appreciated - I personally think it's a cool looking vintage piece that's worth saving.



Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on this.

Be peaceful and safe.

[JasonM]

You mention repairing the movement? That’s going to be a issue, early quartz movements are notoriously difficult to repair or replace due to them being long since obsolete, also the hands need attention, you are right to try to keep it cosmetically original, but as you can see, the lume is falling out and unless stabilised will cause issues in the movement, there are specialist relumers that can make good and blend with the dial plots to match.
Nice watch though.
I can’t quite make out the movement number, its a AS something, (896121?)as seen near the bottom of the movement, I would start by Googling that and seeing how difficult it will be to source or repair.

[Rick Hussey]

I think that it's been sat in a drawer for many years untouched. I think you're right about the hands - they have to be either replaced or re-lumed.

It would be interesting to see if the thing runs if a new battery is fitted. Anyone know exactly what battery it would need and are they still available?

Thanks folks.

Rick

[Foxy100]

James Hyman (dreamboat10 on TZ) can relume the hands perfectly.

[Robbo12]

Nice piece, as Jason said Google the movement number and you will find out what battery is required.
It may be worthwhile contacting electric watches ( Google) for servicing advice .
You are correct on not doing too much to the case and dial , but those hands need work!
Good luck with the project

[bobc]

Photos not working for me on android nor tapatalk, sounds intriguing though.

[RLE]

Can’t see decent pictures as I’m reading on my phone but I think the movement will be the quartz 536.121. Seen a few brought back to life but I’ve sourced other watches in the past purely as donors for the movement. Was widely used so lesser known/ less popular vintage quartz watches can be bought via the likes of eBay fairly cheaply although they do come up from time to time NOS but are expensive. If all else fails there is the option of migrating to an automatic movement. Appreciate the originality of the watch is compromised but brings it back in to use. Fingers crossed though, a new battery fires it in to life!

As has has been mentioned James Hyman is your man to sort the lume.

[Sweepinghand]

Can you get the back off ? Pop the battery out abd see what it takes - you can’t really do much damage if it’s a non runner - I had a similar experience with a watch abd boom it ran with a £1 eBay battery


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[ed335d]

I’ve serviced quite a few of these (536.121) movements myself, they’re pretty straightforward and share a lot of components with the 2824/36 movements.

They are very sensitive to being dirty/not lubricated and are pretty easy to sort, as long as the circuit is ok.

If they’re a bit clogged up and the circuit is ok, the second hand may stutter without moving. That’s a good sign.

[Rick Hussey]

Thanks Guys. Keep the advice and tips coming - I'm going to forward this to my friend so he can make a decision. I think it's a nice piece which has some proper diver creds.

[ed335d]

Thanks Guys. Keep the advice and tips coming - I'm going to forward this to my friend so he can make a decision. I think it's a nice piece which has some proper diver creds.

Any chance of re-upping the pictures?

[Rick Hussey]

I shall try a different method for uploading pics.

[Rick Hussey]

hopefully this works.

Attachment 18574Attachment 18575

[ed335d]

This is the 'large' 38mm case, not quite as marketable as the 'jumbo' 42mm. In working condition, worth anywhere between the £400-£600 mark for a private sale (last time I looked).

It does have the 536.121 movement, worth sticking a battery in (344 type) to see if there's any movement (might need magnification to see any if it's not actually ticking). Definitely worth a relume.