How to clean a vintage watch

Rediscovering old beauty under layers of dirt

Aug. 23, 2020 - Willem L. Middelkoop

This week I was cleaning my closet when I found an old watch. It came from my grandfather’s house. It looked like it had an adventurous live, full of wear and tear. I recognised that it had an automatic mechanical movement. Upon picking it up it almost instantly started running again. I wondered how cool it would be if I would gently clean it.

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Removing the bracelet from a watch is easier with the right tools

The cleaned bracelet

Citizen 6000 movement

Set the tool to match the mounting points on the case back, to enable it to rotate it open

Opening the watch can be done using a special tool

The cleaned watch head, as seen from the bottom

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