Amateur Hour Watch Restoration

Where it’s from 

Dad gave this to me to work on. He said it was periodically stopping, but I’ve had it for a few months now and it has kept perfect time.

What it looked like

The case is a bit dirty, and the hands have lost most of their lume:

The case back has a serial: WG1112-KO. According to some sites I’ve found, it’s from the 1990’s. Most listings I see for it are in the $300-$400 range, so this is the most expensive watch I’ve worked on to date.

Note also the dial says “T SWISS MADE T”. The “T” here usually stands for “tritium”, which is radioactive (slightly less so than radium, since it has a 25 year half life, instead of 1600 years). However, I don’t get any reading on it from my Geiger counter, and I’ve also noticed that none of the hour markers have any lume in them. So, there’s a few possibilities:

• The lume is not original (and non-radioactive), and whoever re-lumed it didn’t lume the hour markers
• The lume from the hour markers have completely disintegrated and is floating around loose in the case, is indeed radioactive, and isn’t registering on the Geiger counter because the case is well shielded
• Some other possibility I haven’t thought of.

In any case, because it’s working so well, the extent of what I’m going to do is to clean the case and re-lume the hands (and maybe the hour markers, I’m not sure). But, I am definitely going to take some precautions here due to possible radioactivity.

How I restored it

Jan 27, 2026 7:05 PM

Since it’s kind of late and I’d like to open the case outside, I’m just going to remove the band for now.

Just kidding, I went for it. After carefully opening it, I’m still not getting any reading from the Geiger counter, so I’m not sure what the deal is. It’s pretty dirty though, I think the gasket may have failed or not been working 100%, because I saw quite a bit of debris inside the case. As for the movement, I can see it’s stamped with an ETA logo, and a serial number of F06111:

According to CaliberCorner, this movement has been in production since “at least” 2005, so maybe this is like some kind of re-release of this TAG Heuer model or something? And here is a manual, marked with a date of 2005.

Jan 30, 2026 12:52 PM

I took the movement out of the case, and removed the hands. I noticed a fair bit of rust on the stem, and weirdly on the hands as well. I also noticed some fairly deep scratches on the hour hand, next to the tube. I have no idea how those could have gotten there. The second hand looks almost pristine compared to the other two, so I’m thinking someone definitely did some work and replacements on this watch.

Jan 30, 2026 2:30 PM

OK, I re-lumed the hands and dial. I’m pleased with how they are looking:

The hour markings on the dial are clearly meant for holding lume. The fact that there wasn’t any at all still confuses me. Maybe someone replaced it with something like a factory sold one? But I would assume that dials from the factory would get lumed.

Feb 2, 2026 7:59 PM

Progress! I wasn’t able to remove the bezel with my case knife, so I ordered a bezel removal tool:

Unfortunately, there was so much dirt that the bezel was basically welded on, so I ended up bending it a little during removal. And it was incredibly difficult to get out! My hand is sore! But! I was able to basically gently bend it back into shape with my jerry-rigged leather stitching clamp (basically two pieces of wood in a pair of bar clamps). It is still very slightly bent, but it is hard to tell unless you’re really looking at it. Hopefully it will be unnoticeable when I put it back on.

Things were very, very dirty; here’s some before and after, for your enjoyment:

I had already cleaned the band and case back a few days ago. Unfortunately, it looks like some of the black ink/enamel in the numerals and pips got worn out in the wash, so I’ll need to figure out a good way to repair it. The “2” and “3” were definitely already gone, but now the “5” and many of the small dots are gone too. It also looks like the lumed pip already had a bunch of the clear enamel/plastic protection already stripped away, so I may try and repair that as well (but I’m not sure with what).

Actually, after reading around a bit, it may be better to just completely remove the bezel markings and re-apply with black enamel paint.

Feb 7, 2026 8:53 PM

Well, I messed up. The stem was really rusted near the crown, so I decided to try and remove the stem to cut it down and fit an extender. Unfortunately though, I sheared off the stem inside the crown, I think because it was essentially rusted stuck in there.

Then, I tried to see if I could drill out the stem from the crown, and broke one of my HSS twist drills. So, I ordered a replacement crown instead from eBay (it says WG1116 and looks almost identical, I am really hoping it fits this stem). I’m pretty frustrated, so I should probably stop working for the night.

I forgot to put an entry in for sanding the bezel. I’ve started sanding away the big scratches on the bezel and band, and will next work on sanding up the grits plus polishing. Then, I’ll re-black the markings, and re-lume the bezel pip. I am at least confident that I’ll be able to do this, but man this crown has me bummed out.

Feb 8, 2026 3:20 PM

I spent some time addressing the case today. Things I did:

1. Sanded bezel and strap buckle to 1000 grit
2. Polished bezel and strap buckle
3. Brushed the buckle strap, along with a little brushing on the strap itself to even it out
4. Brushed the case back

I decided not to brush the case itself, since it was already in pretty good shape, and I was worried about messing up the brushing direction (it has brushing radiating out from the center). I am actually quite happy with the results:

I also went ahead and trimmed the stem, and added a stem extender:

Feb 9, 2026 8:02 PM

I spent some time addressing the bezel this evening. I bought a small bottle of black nail polish, and filled in the markings. I think it’s looks really sharp now:

Next up is replacing the pip lume, while I am still waiting on the replacement crown.

Feb 10, 2026 8:10 PM

Behold, the re-lumed bezel pip:

The original pip had some kind of protective film on it. I think I’ll try out using the UV crystal glue for that.

Feb 13, 2026 8:36 PM

The replacement crown came in, and it looks like it fits the tube, phew. I got the movement into the case, and sized and cut the stem, but the stem extender I used was just a little bit too thick and wouldn’t allow the crown to fully seat in the movement. So, I filed down the outside of the extender segment a bit. It was then that I discovered that these extenders (and probably replacement stems too!) are actually made out of brass.

I guess I got what I paid for here. It should still work fine for this movement, but it has me wondering about some of the others I’ve used an extender on. I’m going to let the Loctite cure for the evening, and then work on covering the bezel pip + reassembly tomorrow.

Feb 15, 2026 1:14 PM

OK, I’ve recased the movement, so now all I need to finish is the bezel:

I put a couple of tiny drops of the UV glue on the bezel pip, to protect the lume. I’m hoping it cures OK!

Feb 16, 2026 3:48 PM

I went out to some antique stores, and lo and behold, one of them had a drawer full of UV flashlights! So, I was able to fully speed cure the UV resin on the bezel pip, and re-install it:

Unfortunately, the big batch of spring bars I recently got are too thick, so I can’t install the band yet. Soon though, soon.

I have to say though that this watch really expanded my skill set. I don’t normally focus much on the finish of the case, but I’m really happy I did with this one. The difference on the bezel is night and day, and the brushing on the band seems to take years off the look of it. Plus I’ve never lumed a dial before.

Feb 21, 2026 1:43 PM

The spring bars are in! Here’s where we landed:

All that remains is to package it up, and send it back to Dad!

Feb 26, 2026 8:04 PM

Here it is in the box! Bon voyage, safe travels!