Breathing new life into a Wenger
I have a particular liking for Wenger watches as beaters, and over the years have picked up 2 or 3 from eBay. I have found them to be everything I'd want from a beater - solid, reliable and with pretty decent styling.
So when I saw a Wenger watch described as "spares or repairs" being sold on eBay for the grand sum of €20.95 including postage to the UK I thought I would give it a try.
In the listing the movement was described as not working and the crystal as damaged, and the photos showed it looking a little tired and uncared for.
https://i.imgur.com/H2XqpoU.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/g3FbrZ2.jpg
The movement was said to be a Technotime 12200, however a little research showed this to be a mis-type. Technotime used French Ebauche (FE) movements, and in this case it was actually an FE 7221. This was good news, as a little more research showed that although the FE was no longer in production a Ronda 515 was a drop-in replacement.
Having ordered the watch from the Netherlands I then sourced the Ronda 515 from HS Walsh whose service, as ever, was excellent. At £7.84 including postage the Ronda was great value.
The watch arrived in yesterday morning's post - taking just four days - and so I immediately stripped the watch down and removed and measured the mineral crystal. It was 30mm diameter and 2.8mm thick, so a quick perusal of Cousins website identified a suitable replacement, albeit at 3mm thickness. Given the choice I would have opted for a sapphire glass, but at £2.10 the mineral glass was again great value so I placed my order for two (thinking my cack-handed efforts might not go well with the first one!).
Last night I removed the hands and dial from the old movement and put them onto the Ronda. The old movement looked okay but was almost dripping in oil. Putting the movement to one side I did a little remedial work cleaning and polishing the case, but as the watch is destined to be a beater I was not overly fussed in getting it back into pristine condition.
Sure enough the postman knocked on the door this morning with the delivery from Cousins (next day, even though I'd gone for the regular Royal Mail option) and I set about the easy task of replacing the crystal in the case.
Once this was completed, all that remained was to cut the stem to size, insert new seals on the case back and crown, and then complete the re-assembly.
It was fun to fix the watch and I think it's turned out pretty well, particularly for just a shade under £30. I'll wear it over the weekend to see how it goes, but the pleasure from working on the watch far outstrips the cost of the parts.
https://i.imgur.com/GbydFbV.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/OgDWcZI.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/XAEEKPt.jpg
