Rolex Explorer II 1655: As Original As It Gets

The term 'all original' is thrown around a lot in the watch collecting community and it's almost never true, but in this case, it is! This beauty came to me untouched, complete with OG crustiness imbeded in, and orignal is how we were going to keep it (minus the old DNA)!

Mmm, yummy.

I hope you aren't eating.

Caseback removed showing the movement.

With the crystal removed we can see the condition of the dial and hands (there is a slight dial mark only seen in certain lights, it is shown at the end).

Back of the dial.

Once removed we get the hands ready to stabiliaze the lume. This is crucial so that the lume doesn't degrade and fall out. An important preventative measure.

A binder is applied to the back of the hand to keep it in place.

Dial side of the movement exposed.

Date disk removed.

Movement side.

Dismantling the movement.

Balance removed.

Barrel and train bridges removed exposing the barrel and gear train.

Barrel cover removed.

Mainspring removed.

Dial side of the movement is now almost all stripped down. Just the jewel settings left. Once removed the watch can then head to the cleaning machine for removal of all the old dried up lubricants.

When the movement is done cleaning the balance is installed. At this point we check the balance spring for concentricity and flatness. All needed adjustments are made.

New mainspring installed in the barrel. The barrel is then mounted into the movement and barrel bridge put in place.

Gear train and pallet fork installed.

Dial side assembled.

The rest of the movement is put together. The central seconds components are added.

The automatic work is then assembled.

The rest of the calendar work on the dial side is assembled.

Dial - unforuntely over time the luminous had dropped from the GMT hand and dragged on the dial. Once the crystal is installed the drag mark can't even be seen, thankfully. When I stabilized the luminous compound I was able to push the lume back up into the cavity of the hand so no more drag marks could happen.

Hands installed.

The finished product in the case! As i mentioned we were keeping this watch all original. We kept the original crystal, crown and case tube. We polished the crystal to remove all the scratches, but the missing chunk at 1 o'clock remains - a reminder of the orignality of this piece. Amazingly, this watch passed a water resistnace test too.

Movement inside the case and the job is complete.