Wittnauer Professional Chronograph - The Moon Watch that never was. Full Vintage Watch Restoration
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- čas přidán 31. 05. 2024
- Horology Biology takes on a sticky Wittnauer Professional Chronograph for a full vintage watch restoration service with the Valjoux 7733 inside. This watch could have beaten Omega to be the Moon Watch in the 1960's. Nasa invited a few watchmakers to submit their watches to rigorous testing in order to be come the watch that would launch with the Apollo missions. Wittnauer was one of them!
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00:00 Intro
00:29 The Strip down
09:53 Pre-cleaning // Pegging the jewels
10:19 Pusher removal and case soaking
11:30 The Rebuild
25:29 Dial & hands refitting
26:58 Case rebuild
27:47 Casing up the watch
28:31 New gasket fitting
28:53 Timergrapher Results
In between videos check out www.vintageenicar.com & www.horologybiology.com for more watches or follow me on Instagram: / horology_biology
Also available on Facebook at / horologybiology
Technical equipment:
Cam 1: Panasonic Lumix G7 with a 14-140mm lens with a x2 magnifier lens
Cam 2: Panasonic Lumix G7 with a 7-14mm Lecia wide angle lens
Cam 3: Microscope Sony IMX290 autofocus camera 1080p
Amscope trinocular stereo microscope
Rode Videomic Go / in video and voice over recordings
Blue Yeti overhead microphone
Macbook Pro 2021
Yolobox Pro encoder multicam. Monitor/Live video decoder
Final Cut Pro / Editing
Photopea.com / thumbnail creation
#horologybiology
#watchrestoration
#wittnauerwatch
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I'm giving away a Vintage Omega Seamaster Calendar Watch to one lucky subscriber once the channel hits 10,000 subscribers. All you have to do is like and subscribe, it couldn't be simpler to potentially win an iconic Omega classic. Live draw for the Omega Giveaway on 19th November 17:00 CEST czcams.com/users/liveoJGoT6xWgFo?si=wRf2Ikp2Ld48p5QT
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Just to say hi and also... I would like that, at the end of the video, you put a watch on some kind of strap and on your wrist so that we can appreciate the watch more. This ends up like a watchmaker class video... which is fine, but you know for a wider audience it would be great that the watch is... finished.
Great content and fantastic vintage finds on your channel. Its supper fresh.
@@Stanjara Thanks for the feedback, it's noted 👍🏼👍🏼
Waking up in Australia to a new video to watch with my tea and toast...it doesn't get much better than this 👍
Hmmmmm tea and warm toast... that sounds seriously good 😅
Absolutely amazing video. I’m a critical nurse and I give no idea how you manage to keep all this straight.
Fantastic channel, I thoroughly enjoy watching
Wow thank you so much. A steady hand helps 😅 You say this but I couldn’t imagine doing your job either, the things you must see 😳
The new overhead camera is a great addition. Thanks as always for an interesting and entertaining service.
Thanks mate, glad you enjoyed it. A beautiful watch for sure 👌🏼
I'm envious of your skills. Beautiful end result.
Thank you very much!
Bought a Witt when I was a kid. Same thing. Fogged out after a month!! No more for me. Great video
Oh no! Maybe a failed crystal or you live in a seriously hot place 😅 Thanks for watching 👍
A really great video. I like Wittnauer watches . The new camera is a cool
addition . The service turned out really good. Thank you for the video mate.
Thanks Darryll, yeah it's a great looking watch for sure. I love that red bezel.
Me too. Makes it pop.
Thank you Matt. This is now into my 'favourites' for future. I have set myself a target to service my own Valjoux 7730 which is in my Breitling Top Time, which I purchased for £23.50p in 1966 for my 18th Birthday. Getting there.
23,50 ... oh to go back in time 🕰️ Thanks for watching Ross
I always enjoy your videos, HB. I learn something each time. I particularly enjoy the fake restoration video reviews. Love watching the steam coming out of your ears. ;)
Glad you like them! Many thanks for watching and I’m glad to hear you find them useful 👍🏻👍🏻
Nice watch and new camera angle. Thanks
Thanks for watching 👍🏻👍🏻
I'm not normally a huge fan off chronographs but thats a nice looking watch, grea work as always and itt's helping me learn this art. big thumbs up! very fresh !
Thanks very much. A stunner for sure
Hi Mat
Hope you’re well. That’s a mighty fine watch you’ve got there! Great video as always and a lovely result!
Many thanks for that 👍🏻 Thanks for watching
Beautiful watch from Geneva Switzerland, my city. Thanks alot for your videos. Love them !
You lucky man living there with all that watch history... Thanks for watching 👍
Thanks for this piece of history! The moon watch is what got me into watches and watchmaking. I really enjoyed the improvements to the filming. Keep up the great work, and 13k subscribers will seem like a drop in a bucket. Stay super fresh!
Thanks Jack, I appreciate that 💪 I do try to make each video a little better than the last (production wise).
Crazy how the mvmts still so beautiful after so many years
Hidden away for only people like me to see when I remove the caseback
i am a rank armature just starting having retired, but after watching this video I am so envious how beautiful this watch is and how grateful I am to see another piece of history working again I hold you as a mentor someone to admire and try and follow, thank you for giving us this beautiful watch to admire I have seen many of your videos and must say I get great enjoyment again thank you.
Oh wow such a nice comment 😊 Thank you very much, glad to hear you find the videos useful 👍🏻👍🏻
I'm a watch geek and simply love everything to do with mechanical watches and maybe the odd quartz too. I can't afford expensive watches but I do enjoy watching experts like yourself rebuild these beautiful timepieces for us to enjoy..Oh! by the way I've just subbed to your channel and look forward to watching your past and future content.😃
Many thanks for supporting the channel, glad you like the content :)
Enjoying watch. Drinking coffee from my HB cup. Bliss. Super fresh
Ross the Legend rocking his HB mug 💪
Thanks for the video Matt, nice watch too. The channel is going from strength to strength 👍
Thanks as always Tom. Old skool HB subscriber
Like the overhead shots
Thanks :)
Super nice watch HB and great camera work. Keep well from New Zealand 🇳🇿
Thanks Bruce 💪💪💪
This is what I love about vintage, there are so many ultra cool watches out there to discover. This is great example. I'll take my tar-free please.
haha tar free all the way. I really like this Wittnauer, the bezel has such a nice colour.
Another great build. I'm on WatchCrunch now as well.
Best watch forum out there, has a snobbery level of around -2 👍
That’s a good looking dial, good job 👍
A stunner for sure, thanks for watching
Just realized I already posted...sorry for the double dip!
Thanks for watching
Great video. I am very new at this art and I learned a lot. Thank you.
Glad it was helpful!
Hi Matt, great video mate.
Thanks Andy 👍
Wow 13k finaly it is taken off .. congrats Matt very cool, your channel is on the top of my list and awesome watch on the bench very nice one !!
Thanks Elder, appreciated 💪
A lovely watch and a delightfully detailed video document.. So pleased to find you pop up in my feed today. Thank you for the time and care you put in. Subscribed without hesitation.
Thank you so much!
Loving the camera work and congrats on your 13k subscribers I think I started watching you when you had only a few and wow now it's 13k very soon it will be 100k, think of that. Cheers Horology.
Thanks so much!! hahah I don't know about 100k though, but you're welcome to remind me of this comment if it ever happened 😅
Nice looking watch.
It's a gem for sure
Nice watch & a great job , as for the new cameras and angles all looks pretty good to me 👌.
Thanks Ted, thanks for watching as well 👍
Can you please make a tour of your bench ? All the instruments what you use to do the job ! Thanks.
Here you go
czcams.com/video/enDtWyip1sA/video.htmlsi=Z-1LTNviXFW5pOUG
Just posted an another site regarding this watch. It was stolen from me in 1969 in Vietnam while serving with the 7th Marine Regiment on Hill 37. Bought it on layaway from a jewelry store in San Diego in '68 for $100! Loved it . Often wonder where it might be today if it still exists. Hope the SOB that stole it was KIA...
Thanks for watching. Damnnn what a story :( Sorry to hear that yours got stolen. Pfff
Great looking watch and once again great video commentary 👍
Many thanks Bertie 👍
Nice movement. I'm going to remain partial to my 1968 Omega pre-moon c.321 however.... 😊
hahah thanks Bruce, the c321 are also fresh
Seriously hot and humid!! Gulf coast
haha that explains it I assume
Great job again man 👍
Thanks Anderson 🙌
Awesome videos. Keep up the great work.😊
Thank you! Will do!
Great video Matt and a mighty fine watch as well. But, what's up with the subscribers? Was hovering around 5 and 6k for ages and tbh I stopped paying attention. Now here you are at 13k - congratulations, couldn't happen to a nicer bloke 😀
Thanks for watching Alan, I hope you’re well. Yes I have been really pleasantly surprised by it. A couple of videos caught the algorithm I think which has really helped with traction on my other videos. You’ve been here a long time, I appreciate that 💪🏻💪🏻👍🏻👍🏻
I've got a watch with the Valjoux 7750, and it was my first mechanical chronograph. I totally know what you mean about the pressure needed to use the chronograph, I was worried it was either broken or that I was going to break it the first time I tried using it!
Yes, a lot more of a firmer press is needed. The 7750 is a great modern workhorse of a movement
great work
Thank you! Cheers!
Great video. Love watching you build up a watch.
I appreciate that! Thanks for watching
So the story I read on the moon watch selection was nasa sent a guy to a local shop and he bought a few of each chronograph. That no one asked for test samples? And when they did testing the only one to pass the heat test without the dial warping was the omega.
I didn't know that. Thanks for the input and thanks for watching 👍
@@HorologyBiology Yeah though it's entered watch nerd lore(and Omega's huge marketing) it was pretty much an afterthought and a bit of a rushed one. They didn't send it out for tender, kept it inhouse and only bought and tested a couple of commercially available watches(including a pocketwatch). If they had deemed it mission critical I strongly suspect they would have tendered it out and/or developed their own. EG the bulk of the actual timing for the spacecrafts used Bulova Accutron clocks developed by Bulova for that purpose. Their still cameras were Hasselblad engineered by same for their use in space. The only adaptation for the wristwatch was an EVA suit friendly velcro strap.
Later on there was a bit of a hullabaloo coming from Bulova wanting in on the action citing the 'Buy American act', but their Accutron wasn't available in a chrono(the licenced ESA tuning fork chronos weren't out yet). But Bulova did manage to sneak one of their mechanical chronos(actually a rebranded Swiss Universal Geneve example made in tiny numbers) onto the later Apollo 15 mission...
PS great vid Subbed. 🙂
Many thanks for the input 💪
Your productions have gotten really good man!! Love the narration. I have a wittnaure 2000 that I love and it’s an amazing watch. Not sure the movement do you know what it uses?
Glad you like them! I'm not sure what is inside the watch you speak of though.
I love your work. Your accent throws me though, it sounds like Northern English, Lancashire or Yorkshire, mixed with some Californian. Its like a character from the BBC show, Mighty Boosh.
lol. Thanks for watching. I get this a lot. Originally from the UK, lived in NL for nearly 20 years hence the mismatch
@@HorologyBiology awesome. I also spent a lot of time in NL in Utrecht and surrounding area. Keep up the good work. Dank je wel!
@@apb3251 Nice area. I will be that neck of the woods on Sunday
вы отличный мастер
Thanks for watching 👍
Didn't Wittnauer have a relationship with Longines at some point? I remember hearing radio ads for Longines/Wittnauer watches when I was a kid in the late 1960s.
Yes you are 100% correct with that. Thanks for watching 👍
Takk!
Thank you once again Francis 🙌🏼🙌🏼
I'm still new to the channel. I liked the additional camera view.
How long did it take you to learn all of this?
Did this watch require that much of a teardown or could you have just cleaned the gunk out of it with soaking it in some solvent, perhaps in an ultrasound machine?
Welcome aboard,
Regardless of the condition inside a full service would always mean a complete tear down. Also a watch should never just be put into an ultrasonic. The majority of the parts are too delicate for that kind of machine. Thanks for watching
@@HorologyBiology I think that was my 4th video I've seen since subscribing. So, I'm very new to the channel.
Thanks for the info.
Like the content.
Thanks for watching
What a sexy chronograph! 👌❤️👍😍
You're damn right! An awesome piece
Thank you very much. My name is Chris F.
Oh wow 🙏 Thank you Chris that's mad fresh of you. Appreciated!
Nivada would had also gotten props for it if this would had made the NASA cut. This is basically a Wittnauer branded Nivada Chronomaster.
Very similar for sure but Nivada neger dropped that burgundy bezel 😛
At the 6:36 time…is that a regular Presto tool? Or a modified/special Presto tool?
That is a special presto tool Bergeon number 3. It has special ends designed for removing driving wheels without bending the extended pivot underneath. The most expensive of the presto tools and the one you will use the least lol. Typical ;)
When I get home next weekend I'm going to send you a picture of my dad's wittnauer the inner bezel I don't know if it's attached to the crystal or if it's separate to the dial I have to send you a picture where it's cracked maybe you can help me Source a replacement or I might just have to leave it the way it is it's not as fancy as that one but it is an autograph
The bezels are held on with a bezel tension spring underneath. It has nothing or no connection to the crystal. Many thanks for watching 👍
what about bulova!?
Also on the list?
Sure like that microscope
It was a a game changer for sure. Highly recommended
What model it is ? Thanks
Matt, please stop picking up the dial with tweezers, I tried breathing but it's not working mate. ; )
Pffff should I use a Jedi mind trick next time 😅 Absolutely nothing wrong with it with plastic love tweezers 👍
Lol
rise. RISE, I SAID RISSEEE!
The gaskets are made with bitumen which melts over time.
Absolute pig to remove.
Petrol is good to remove melted gasket
That certainly explains it then, thanks for that 👍
:)
👍
A comment :)
😅 Thanks for watching 👍