Rolex Oyster Precision 6694 restoration

This Rolex 6694 from the 1960s came to us after a lifetime of heavy use, neglect and mistreatment. The pre-service inspection revealed the following list of faults.

Crown and stem missing

Case tube badly damaged

Glass cracked

Movement not running

Centre second wheel not attached

Case back badly damaged from attempt to open using a knife rather than screw tool

Bracelet twisted & stretched

Movement full of WD40 or similar

The watch has been absolutely filled with WD40, to the point where it is covering the dial and inside of the glass.

The attempts to open the watch using a knife have badly damaged the back including taking several chips away. It will be tough to make the case back round again.

The case back no longer screws onto the case, when I place the back on a perfectly flat piece of surface ground steel we are able to see why, the back has been pulled with such force that it is no longer flat and has a huge upward bulge which has deformed the case thread.

Remarkably the movement is in good shape with no tell tale signs of the abuse other than the strong smell of WD40. The centre second wheel is checked for flatness and concentricity and it is good. The movement service is actually pretty routine on this watch, a new mainspring, stem and setting lever have it running perfectly.

With the dial off we can see the amount of WD40 in the watch. The dial is cleaned using a solvent which dissolves the grease but has no effect on the lacquer or pad printing.

The work to the case back involves a day and a half of heating, reforming and pressing in various dies. Eventually after almost giving it up as irreparable several times we have a nice smooth action as the back screws on securely. You can also see in this image that the old case tube has been removed, a new one will be fitted to the repolished case.

A purpose built wax chuck is made so we can turn the case back on it's centre to restore it to being round once more.

After a very light amount of turning on the lathe, the case back is much improved. This is the exact same case back which was twisted, bulged and badly damaged in the earlier images.

We now turn our attention to the bracelet. Time to close those stretched links and remove decades of dirt and grime in the ultrasonic before refinishing and cleaning in the ultrasonic again.

The case back is now a good fit with no signs of it’s ordeal. Remarkably it is now a good watertight fit. The new case tube, crown and stem are fitted too.

Here we see the finished watch. The dial shows no signs of damage from the WD40. The great thing about working on Rolex watches is that they are so well made that the end result is always great. The steel they use always polishes up to look amazing.

This watch was part of our shop stock. It was sold to a regular customer less than a week after it was signed off as complete. It is now in the hands of an owner who will treat it more carefully.