Restoration project #1: Rolex 6564 cal. 1030 Part 1: What is the situation?!

'So... you like fishing? Or where did you get that dead thing?'
That is probably the first thing on your mind after seeing that picture. Fun fact; I even paid money for this. Yes, I spent hard earned bucks for this piece of old (slightly radioactive) crap. What is the plan? Restore it! 

I can almost hear you ask 'What watch is this?'. Well thanks for asking! It is a 1956 rolex 6564 with a cal. 1030. Yes, the same movement as a James bond or the first explorers that were ever made. Only two paragraphs in but you're already getting why I bought this project, am I right?!

Okay, let us forget how this thing looks and just evaluate the problems. First off, the watch did run when I bought it. Very handy as at first I was not sure if it was running or not. Often, when you start these projects and buy online you can't really tell if it really runs. What you can do is check if the second hand has moved in between pictures. It did in my case, even for over a few hours at a time. I tried to check a reading on the timegrapher but could not get any reading through at first. Eventually it did get through. The hairspring on the balance was sticky, but a quick 'one dip' did do the trick.

What does this reading tell us? Well; it runs a minute slow a day, it has a terrible bad amplitude but the beat-error is not too bad. The amplitude should be around 240 for a watch from the 50's. Beat-error should be between 0- 1ms if we have to follow the books but honestly, I am not going to bother fixing this. I see this baby is badly in need of a good old clean and oiling session. 

What are the other problems? First of all the crystal is cracked. This is quite an easy fix but if I look closely I can see that the bezel has a bad crack. This is harder to fix since I do not own any laser welding stuff. Also fixing a cracked bezel is not something I usually do. But my dad will come and help me for this one; he'll probably fix it with his goldsmith skills some way or another.

Secondly, the case is not in good shape. It seems unpolished on all sides except of the 12-3 quarter. It looks like it was involved in either a motorcycle accident or a grinder of some sort. Either way: this baby has been through some stuff. No clue what I am going to do but I will figure something out! Do not expect me to do some laser welding magic, it will probably involve some hand-sanding, shoot me if you don't like my plan (please do not literally shoot me).

 

Lastly I can see that the crown has a worn out spot and does not screw in anymore. If I can salvage the thread, I will keep the crown; it looks pretty cool with the cross in my opinion!

 

Are you excited for this project? I sure am! The restoration will be split up in different sections to handle the different problems. Stay tuned for any updates! Unfortunately I can't promise these posts to be regular, since these are done in my free time.
Thanks for the read! Do you want to support these project? Feel free to take a look at the straps because this is in fact the way I can afford fun projects like these!

Want to read about part 2? Click here! 

Want to read about part 3? Click here!