Heuer restoration

[Plasmon]

Hello all,

recently, I stumbled over an old Heuer Valjoux 7736 chronograph in a bad condition. This is a gold plated model and as most of the examples from the same era do, the gold layer is partially worn out and it looked miserable. The watch came with wrongie crown and pushers and some of the chrono parts on the movement were missing. So I decided to run a rescue mission!

[dandsoo]

Congrats, a verry nice watch!

[Yoda]

Amazing! Great idea to have it plated again, it looks as if it was made yesterday!

[Plasmon]

Amazing! Great idea to have it plated again, it looks as if it was made yesterday!

Yes, re-plating the case makes this totally different. There are many nice vintage watches from the 50s - 70s where the original plating condition made their value unfairly suppressed...

[Emilio]

I like it!

You made great fixing this watch.

[Yoda]

Hey, did you do anything to the movement after you posted the picture? One movement screw is missing, one that secures the movement. Also, the screw holding the chrono start/stop is missing.

[Plasmon]

Hey, did you do anything to the movement after you posted the picture? One movement screw is missing, one that secures the movement. Also, the screw holding the chrono start/stop is missing.

[Yoda]

Hey, did you do anything to the movement after you posted the picture? One movement screw is missing, one that secures the movement. Also, the screw holding the chrono start/stop is missing.

The movement shot in the first post is the as-received initial condition and I had to work on it. The following is the current status:

Good job! Tell me, was the screw threaded left? They usually are, but then the head has several cuts. The 7730 has left threaded screws to secure the arms, but perhaps not all after that model.

[Yoda]

I can't stop wondering why most (all?) chronographs are marked "unadjusted". To me a chronograph would be the obvious movement to adjust in several positions...just a thought.
I am sure there is a natural explanation.

[Plasmon]

Good job! Tell me, was the screw threaded left? They usually are, but then the head has several cuts. The 7730 has left threaded screws to secure the arms, but perhaps not all after that model.

Hello master, I don't quite understand your comment above. The original screw head for securing the chronograph start/stop lever was missing. It was snapped and the broken screw remained in the bridge. So the fist thing I had to do is to remove the bridge and tap, tap, tap gently the broken screw stuck in the bridge. It came off fortunately.

I had to get some parts anyway as the brake assembly to hold the register wheels was completely missing on this Heuer 7736. So I bought a donor 7734 junk movement from the Bay and the broken screw, brake parts and one mounting tab/screw were all sourced from it.