Universal Geneve ref. 542114

About the watch

This is a beautiful gold plated Universal Geneve ref. 542114 watch manufactured approximately in 1970.

Issues found

• The biggest issue was the condition of the crown: previously there were unsuccessful attemts to fix the crown in its stem by using glue and the resulting blob of glue was preventing any possibility to screw the crown back
• The crystal had scratches
• The endshake on the balance staff was too small, as after re-assembly it couldn’t rotate freely

Repairs

In order to fix this watch following fixes have been applied:

• The glue has been removed from the crown stem, and the crown was fixed on it by using a special threadlocker liquid
• The endshake of the balance have been adjusted. It looks like there were some traces of so called “pig ears”: this is a quick workaround technique allowing to temporarily increase the endshake space of the balance by scratching the movement plate. To rectify it the proper fix was applied: the marks have been removed and the endshake was adjusted by moving the jewel ever so slightly with a jewel press
• The crystal has been polished. At one point I considered finding a replacement, but this one has a very peculiar shape and I decided to keep the original in place. The scratches weren’t very deep and after some polishing it was looking much better
• The movement has been disassembled and cleaned

Results

The watch performs very well now, as any Swiss watch should!
It has been a pleasure to work on a movement of such high quality.