I came across my father's old 6105-8110 earlier this week. I remember loving this thing when I was a child, so I was ecstatic to learn that not only did he still have it, but it still worked and was in fairly good condition. The original band was gone (not suprisingly), but everything else on the watch appears to be completely original. I went ahead and replaced the crappy metal bracelet that was on it with a rubber dive strap, and am thinking of trying to resotre it. Here is a photo:
http://img265.imageshack.us/img265/6863/20100904004.jpg The bezel still looks great, there are a few minor nicks and scratches on the case, the crystal has shallow surface scratches, and the dial and hands are pristine. Additionally, the "twist lock" mechanism of the crown still locks, and the luminous paint still glows faintly but discernably! It tends to run quite slow (-5 min a day), but that could be because it isn't fully wound. The watchmaker I took it to removed the case back and told me that there was no oil at all in the movement, so that could be causing it to run slowly as well.
If I do try to resotre this thing, I'd like to do it with all original (preferably NOS) parts. As I understand it, that is virtually impossible mainly because NOS crystals, straps, and crowns are so hard to come by. At a bare minimum I'd like to get my hands on a NOS crystal and pressure test the watch to check the condition of the crown seals. Will I be devaluing the watch by restoring with NOS parts? With aftermarket parts (i.e. aftermarket crystal)? As I understand it, this model is fairly collectable and I don't want to do anything to reduce the value.
Thanks in advance for the responses!
