A small watch with big lessons.

Vintage ladies watches are often overlooked and they mostly sell cheap online, but this little Bulova immediately caught my attention with its blue sunburst dial. It was listed as having crack and scratches on the crystal and not working as it may just need new batteries. So the seller wasn’t aware this was a wind up watch so I thought this is a good deal for $13 NZD so I snagged it. Figured it would be good to learn from and restore then flip it back to the market if all goes well.

1. Initial Condition — First Impressions

• The watch doesn’t have hands didn’t think of shaking and listening to it. (Could have determined if it tick tock)
• Crown seems stuck and can’t pull.
• Case was in decent shape, crystal is cracked and the dial was surprisingly clean for its age.
• Case back marked with Bulova 2 272283 M8 (which dates this model to 1968) and inside it was marked with Ref 705

• Movement is complete at first glance. Surprising the movement works which was a good sign. Running slow but with good amplitude and no beat error.

2. Disassembly — The Moment of Truth

During disassembly:

• The movement was dirty and some discoloration likely from dried oil,
• I couldn’t figure out how to get the movement out of the case, crown already removed.
• The balance was free, no rust.
• Train gears turned when nudged.
• Mainspring looks healthy
• Keyless works felt strange — something wasn’t right with the winding/setting mechanism.
• The clutch seemed to float instead of snapping between positions.

Everything came apart normally until I reached the keyless works… where the real problem showed up.

The setting lever joint was weak and likely to snap.

3. Investigation — Finding the Culprit

Under magnification, the issue became obvious:

The setting lever was broken.

Clutch wheel can only be on a winding or setting position. That explained the sloppy stem feel and why the movement wouldn’t switch modes properly.

Because the structural part of the keyless works, the watch couldn’t function as a functional piece without replacing it.

But for learning purposes, I continued with the full teardown.

4. Cleaning — Giving the Movement a Fresh Start

Everything else went into the ultrasonic cleaner:

• Plates
• Bridges
• Wheels
• Keyless components
• Jewels
• Crown + stem

The balance and pallet fork were cleaned manually.

After drying the parts, the plates looked great — no corrosion, no stripped teeth, no broken pivots. For a small Bulova, it aged very well.

5. Reassembly — The Part Where You Hope Everything Works

Reassembly didn’t go smoothly. I couldn’t get the balance wheel in the right position to engage the pallet fork. This is where it took a turn for the worst, the hair spring got bent and I think I just ruined it.

Now I have two problems, the broken setting lever and a broken balance wheel. Arrggh.

I took a break and revisited this project after few weeks later.

6. Fixing a bent hair spring.

So after learning that it is possible to fix a broken hairspring I gathered some courage and went on to do that task.

I had to loosen the stud to release that holds the tip of the hairspring and there is a holder you twist that hooks on the first loop of hairspring.

Once that is free you can manipulate the hairspring either with the balance wheel on or remove the hairspring by pushing out the colet.

• I tried to manipulate with the balance wheel on and made it worst, I think when I grabbed the spring with the tweezers I ended up twisting it upwards while I was trying to smooth out the bend with another tweezer
• So took another break and when mind was fresh I attempted to do it this time with the hairspring removed from the balance wheel by pushing out the collet with couple of fine screw drivers 0.60 and 0.80 as I didn’t have the hands lever small enough to fit.
• Made improvements and it looks good, now the challenge is to put back in the wheel and put it back together.
• After several attempts it looks I have straightened it but when I installed the spring to the balance wheel it was on the opposite direction. Arrh.
• I thought I can twist the collect to turn it around and that is when the screwdriver slipped causing the hair spring to bent near the middle. OMFG!!
• I just ruined it and I gave up.

Updates

Dec 3, 2025 – stopped working this project for now till I find some replacement parts.

Lessons Learned

This was my first attempt on servicing a watch that is actually running so I needed to make sure I can put it back together and it would run and not something I have caused.

• Remove the movement from the front instead of back.
• Disassembly and organizing parts
• Ultracleaning
• Putting it all back together
• Lubricate with the right oils
• Removing the cap jewels and lubricating it
• How to troubleshooting bent hairsprings
  • Balance wheel escapement disassembly
  • Removing the hairspring by the collet which is pressure fitted.
  • Make sure that on assembly the orientation are correct (mark the wheel if possible)
• Don’t work on the hairspring when duress it makes things worst

Well I’m still hopeful I can bring this back to life when the right donor movement becomes available. I’ll post another update if that happens.