This is probably one of the most dramatic transformations I’ve done on an Accutron movement!
It’s a Citizen Hisonic from the 1970s with a wacky case shape and what I can only describe as a granite dial. Superbly retro so that’s got my name all over it. As you can see its in pretty rough shape so it is a good job I like a challenge.
Paid I think £35 for it but I didn’t expect to see just how bad the insides were! A battery had some some serious damage to everything but having done a similar Citizen actually on my YouTube channel I figured I should not be too disheartened as these have a habit of cleaning up rather well.
Strip down shown what can only be called “fir” on the train wheels along with copious amounts of debris. To be quite frank this watch is the worst I have ever seen for battery leak damage. Just look at these photos of the stripdown. from dial side to movement, the whole thing is wrecked!
As you can see I have my work cut out here to clean all this lot up and that is before I even know if it will ever run again or not. Fortunately I have a little trick up my sleeve…
I have found Goddards Silver Dip really useful on the plates and wheels. Not only does it brighten them back up but it also neutralises the battery electrolytes. I have tried to show this in one of the short videos in the photos below.
I then used a pivot polisher to improve the train wheel pivots and leaves. Close inspection of the index suggested all teeth present.
Only thing to replace was the right coil as this was dead. All other parts I was able to reuse after a good clean and inspection.
Reassembling it soon started to hum and eventually run again .
Then onto the dial. It was loose on arrival so I epoxy’d it back onto the plastic to line up the day window. You can clearly see the colour it once was around the edges that have not seen the light or effected by battery leakage ?
With that done it was the hands……
When levering off the hour hand was so tight that the hand tube stayed behind!! See photo.
Out with the staking set I was able to get the tube back onto the hand , polish them up a bit and then re-lume.
Got it into phase and pretty accurate but as the dial is not all that considerate to actually telling the time it’s almost no point in setting to the second as you can’t really see the minute scale or the hand at a glance!
Few teething problems in the weeks that followed. It had a tendency to stop at 3:15 so me with my logical head on was convinced it was motion works so changed cannon pinion/ centre wheel. Minute wheel. Despite not seeing issues with teeth. Still did the same. Eventually I realised it was the hour hand! The hand was slightly bent up on the side when it was levered out. I was able to put back on the stake and with a flat punch level it back.
A job well done I think. Not to everyone’s taste but I think it’s ace! And find me another ? Rare model I think especially outside of Japan.
Sadly I can’t find a replacement facet crystal otherwise I’d refinish the case. Crystal actually has pit holes in it possibly weld splatter?
So with that all said and done here is the finished watch. Looks a little cleaner but still very well worn but it was a fantastic project that kept me interested and shows what can be accomplished and also that looks can be deceiving as you would have never expected a watch in this state to have been savable.
