Autavia - 2446c mk1 back to life!

A few months back I asked the question 'worth saving?'
The answer was a very definite 'yes!'

So here's how I received it.

Second thing you'll notice (1st was the missing bezel right?) is the snapped GMT hand @ the 9 o'clock marker - this was jammed under the seconds sweep hand @ 45 preventing the watch from running.

I couldn't believe it when I removed the stuck GMT hand and the watch burst into life.

So, things to do are - replace all of the hands except the chrono seconds hand, replace the crown, source a bezel and service the movement.

At the time I was pretty worried about tracking down the bezel as this is a 'mk1' 2446c.

Non Heuer crown and the subdial hands all have tails. Interesting, but wrong!

 

The dial however is relatively clean, showing some patina and small flakes of red paint from the broken GMT hand.

The movement is clean and keeping good time but booking it in for a service won't do any harm!

 

 

While we have the case off it's a good chance to compare with a later version.

You'll notice the diameter of the bezel 'ledge' is much wider on this mk1 model than the mk2 on the left.

 

I had to trade something really special for the mk1 bezel but, I think it's worth it :-)

Amazingly I had a set of GMT hands in the spares box.

Fortunately I also had a spare crown and was able to track down a stem that after a bit of trimming would fit it and the movement.

Unfortunately I had no subdial hands so I took the drastic step of removing the tails with a sharp blade - ouch!

A temporary measure until the correct needles could be found.

This pic also shows the chip in the glass @ around 5:30.

Next step off to Rich Askham for a service - movement looks lovely.

  

Meanwhile I managed to find another set of subdial hands (I didn't appreciate these are all different from each other making the task of finding all 3, that match each other, all the more difficult!), another case, bezel and a spare glass which were all dispatched off to Rich to fit.

The case was the same mk1 as before and only slightly better.

Here we are today and I'm pretty pleased with the results.
Ok, its no ground up restoration - more of a recommission.
It remains unpolished and bezel is faded and a bit chipped - what I have is a nice, fully working GMT that I can wear every day.
Oh, yeah, I nearly forgot the bracelet - this was a real bonus find and completes the watch.

There are a few subtle differences with it's later cousin, most notably the recess in the case around the pushers and the amount of teeth on the bezel - the mk1 has more.

I don't get too worried about serial numbers with these as I don't think I've seen 2 the same :-)

The mk2 on the left has a later serial number but appears to have an earlier 'T' dial.

The primary hands were replaced by TAG @ service back in Switzerland - fortunately they returned the originals and I'm keeping these safe.