What you are looking at is an example of work performed by a supremely stupid person on a rare and valuable watch. What you see is glue— somebody glued the dial to the movement and case. This is a Benrus Type I Class A Vietnam era military watch. Under any circumstance, gluing a dial in this way is a disaster. If this were your watch, you might not have known the watchmaker glued the dial because the glue can be hidden from view by the crystal and/or bezel. You might presume you had a good watchmaker. But it’s a potential disaster in the future for the next owner or yourself and the next watchmaker. When the watch requires service in the future, as this one does now, the watchmaker is left with a real mess that may not be resolvable without some kind of damaging force. Here we have a mess with an added twist. This watch has a one piece case design. There is no back on the watch. In this style of case the movement and dial comes-out through the top of the watch which has its own complexities. So we have an already difficult situation made worse. And this may not be all, this is just the beginning. When I encounter an issue like this, my work stops until the customer agrees to accept the risk of going further. I don’t see much choice as the watch isn’t running properly on several fronts but the decision remains theirs.
