To say this poor Heuer Camaro needed some help would be an understatement.
(Click pictures to enlarge)
Having written about a Heuer Camaro on the blog in the past where I covered the history of the model and the various iterations, rather than repeat myself, I’ll provide a link to that post here and get right into the action.
Although these watches are now very collectable, there was a time not all that long ago, when they were ‘just watches’ and were used to the point of destruction, as was obviously the case here. As you can see above, the watch was filthy, the crystal cracked and both pusher caps were missing.
The watch did tick, albeit weakly and inspecting the oils under the microscope revealed nothing but dust, so I presume the previous owner wore the watch until it finally stopped and then into a drawer it went.
Inside the watch is a Valjoux cal. 7733, dating this watch squarely in the 1970’s as early Camaro models were fitted with either a Valjoux cal. 72, or 92. Given the poor cosmetic condition of the case, the movement was surprisingly good, a broken minute jumper spring being the only problem I could see.
Looking closer at the case, the watch still had its original Heuer branded crown, which was good, but the back of the pusher bodies were worn completely smooth, suggesting that the watch must have been worn for quite some time (possibly years?) without any pusher heads, contact with the skin eventually wearing the rear half of the pusher bodies away.
Given that, it’s amazing that the movement wasn’t in worse condition, as there would have been no water resistance at all.
Out of the case, the dial and hands were also surprisingly good, the lume in the hands being the only obvious casualty of moisture ingress.
When it comes to dealing with pushers, my tool of choice is a Horotec multi-tool, the MSA 03.622, used specifically for removing pusher bodies and pendant tubes. The tool consists of an aluminium body and a range of attachments in differing sizes, each one splined on the inside.
However, even the right tool proved ineffective this time, as the splines on the pusher bodies were so worn that the tool couldn’t get enough purchase on either body to get them out… Great!
Having encountered this problem before, I’ve carefully filed a slot into the top of the pusher bodies and extracted them with a large screwdriver. This method worked for one pusher in this case, but not for the second. There wasn’t even enough metal left for that and the body simply collapsed, leaving a mangled mess… Perfect!
Out of options, I had to no choice but to drill and tap the inside of the pusher body and glue in a large screw to get it out. I have done this a few times in the past, but it’s a delicate operation as there isn’t much metal to play with, the risk being drilling right through the body and damaging the existing threads in the case – all last resort kind of stuff.
With the pusher problems dealt with (the owner included a pair of correct fluted pushers for this model, which was great), I could finally focus on the rest of the work.
The movement was fully serviced with the broken minute jumper spring replaced, the hands relumed, the case cleaned, and a new crystal and caseback gasket fitted to finish the job.
Here’s the watch all finished up… well worth the effort, I’m sure you’ll agree.
Rich.
** Many thanks to David Taylor for letting me feature his watch on the blog. **
