Amateur Hour Watch Restoration

Where it’s from

I bought this movement on eBay for $15. [eBay listing]

The eBay listing didn’t show the case opened, so I’m going in a little blind. After reading a bit about the Hilton Watch Company, it seems it was another branding company that wrapped Swiss movements in cheap cases, from the 1960s. My guess is that it will contain an A. Schild movement of some kind, and judging from the thickness of the case, it may actually be an automatic. The listing also mentioned that it ran for 4 hours, which is very promising.

What it looked like

This thing is tiny! The lugs are 9.5mm apart, and the whole case is 20mm in diameter. The dial looks pretty beat up. I had a suspicion that it was actually from radiation burn from radium lume, but thankfully after opening it (outside), it didn’t set off the Geiger counter.

The case is in OK condition, with not too many areas worn down to the brass, just a lot of tiny scratches. The case back is pretty scratched up, but they seem not too deep. The crystal is pretty cracked, so I’ll probably replace it. It’s not running, but the hands are able to be set, and the date clicks over at midnight.

How I restored it

Oct 28, 2025

I wasn’t able to get it to run (even though the eBay listing said it ran for 4 hours on one wind), and it seemed fully wound. When I opened it up, I discovered that it is an automatic! This will be my first automatic I’ve ever serviced, so wish me luck. It seemed that the rotor was somehow interfering with the running of the movement, because when I swivelled it out of the way, the balance kicked up. It may have had something to do with the loose case screw that came out after I opened it, ha. Once it started running, I could take a reading, and it’s not running too badly:

Inside the case back, I see one or maybe two watchmaker’s mark(s):

The first is clearly “G329”, and the second is very faint, maybe “7GNW”? It’s also possible the second is an artifact of the case screw floating around in there.

On the main plate, I can clearly see an ETA marking, with a 2369, so this is an ETA 2369 movement. Interestingly though, all the documentation I can find on that movement lists it as a 21/23/25 jewel movement, where this one is clearly 17 jewels.

After disassembling it, a cursory look at the jewels and pivots seem to show that it’s in pretty decent shape, and not even that dirty. I’m still gonna run it through the ultrasonic, so hopefully with that + pegging the holes, it’ll be running really nicely.

Nov 6, 2025

I decided to disassemble the mainspring barrel, and I discovered that it’s an “old style” spring + a detached bridle. I didn’t know this was a thing:

I bought some braking grease, and I’m going to see how this mainspring performs before trying to replace it. Other than being “old style”, it seems like it’s in OK condition.

Making a note here of how the automatic works are assembled. The central bearing is secured with a single screw. The two outside gears are captured by a notched screw, which can be turned out of the way to drop them out (first picture). The inside gears are captured by a small rotating arm, which is riveted onto the plate.

Nov 8, 2025

Here are all the parts laid out in the tray:

Prepping the movement for cleaning, I noticed that one of the jewels on the barrel bridge is quite badly chipped. It seems like it’s still intact though, so I am going to risk putting it in the cleaner. It may need to get replaced though.

Put it through the cleaner, everything looks pretty good. Next up is polishing the pins, and reassembly!

Nov 10, 2025

I actually forgot to polish the pins before starting reassembly, oops. Reassembly is definitely my favorite part, so I’m always eager to get to it. I have to admit though that these indirectly driven minute wheels are a pain, since the pin for the second wheel sits on the very edge of one of the holes in the main plate. I did manage to get the train reassembled in spite of this!

Now I’m debating whether I want to take it back apart and polish the pins, hm.

Nov 14, 2025

I foolishly decided to polish the pins. I don’t know how I reassembled the train before, but dang it is an absolute bear to get in there. That second wheel is incredibly precarious on the edge of the main plate, and it kept jumping out of its pivot. Through much finagling and deep breathing though, I managed to get it back in.

I also oiled the cap jewels, and verified that the balance oscillates freely. It actually looks really really good, so I’m hopeful that I’ll get a good result.

I started to put the click and clickspring in, but dang that thing is really difficult! For some reason it needs to be under a tooooon of tension (for a clickspring, IMO), and it’s kind of “floating”, so I’m worried I’m going to accidentally pop it out while working on other stuffs. I wasn’t able to get it in tonight, so I’ll try again next time.

Nov 15, 2025

It took me about 30 minutes of tense fiddling, but I finally managed to get the click in, phew. I really don’t know why it’s set the way it is, there is plenty of room to make it muuuuch simpler. After that, I reassembled most of the rest of the movement. I had a small snag with the automatic works: one of the reversing wheels seemed to be a little sticky in one direction. But, I kinda fiddled with it for a bit, and it seems much smoother, not actually sure what I did. I also washed/cleaned the case, and re-lumed the hands. I need to wait a day for the hands to dry.

Nov 16, 2025

Hands look good! I was able to reassemble everything. I had a bit of finagling around the case screws, since I realized after putting the movement in, the case screws need to go in first. I also had a bit of an issue with setting it. The intermediate wheel seemed to keep skipping, and it takes quite a bit of force to set. I figured out that the intermediate wheel was upside down, so it wasn’t fully engaging with the clutch. Also, the locktite I used didn’t do jack, the crown just came right off. So, I actually used a tiny bit of superglue to get the crown on. (Please don’t tell anyone.)

The band width is super super small, so I might have some issues finding a band. In the meantime, here’s some glamor shots, along with the final adjustment I was able to get.

Personally I don’t like the look of the patina, but the wife says she likes it. I’ll post an update once a band is on it.

Nov 22, 2025

Well, unfortunately, this movement seems to keep stopping. I’m not sure what’s going on, because as soon as I open it, it kicks up again. I noticed though that it’s extremely hard to manually wind it, and I actually stripped the crown right off the stem. Also, I noticed that the automatic works are only winding the movement one way, so this may be contributing as well. I’ve ordered a replacement stem + a new automatic module. I’ll update again once they’re installed.

Dec 1, 2025

So I installed the replacement stem, crown, and automatic module, but the watch was still stopping in the morning. After looking at it and resetting the time, I noticed that setting the time got really “sticky” at around 10PM. I opened up the movement, and I figured out that the jumper spring for the date wheel was slightly out of alignment, and causing the date wheel to interfere with the date wheel cover plate. Once I reassembled the movement, I was able to easily set the time past 10PM, huzzah!

However, I noticed that it was really difficult to wind the movement once I put it in the case. I had chalked it up to it not needing to be wound any more, but after thinking about it, I’m wondering if the automatic rotor is actually interfering with the case back? We’ll see if it stops again.

Dec 4, 2025

It did indeed stop. So I opened it up again, and figured out that the “new” automatic module wasn’t releasing the rotor when being wound. Ugh! So I ended up putting the original automatic module back in, which doesn’t seem to have the same problem. I think the original problem with the date wheel was muddying the waters, so I’m like 90% sure it’s all good now.

I realized I never posted pictures with the strap: