Jon Beeman and I did some trading, and I wound up with his WWI Signal Corps Zenith wristwatch (missing bezel). After searching my junk boxes I have determined that I have no nickle bezels to turn down to the 34 outside diameter, 32 inside diameter needed for the job.

Up to this point, I have always been able to find an over size bezel to turn, but no such luck with this Zenith.

Thus, I’m thinking about making a bezel from scratch. Does anyone know of the availability of nickle which I might use to turn a 1917 vintage wristwatch bezel?

Thanks,

Greg

Greg,

You might try McMaster Carr. They have a good web site http://www.mcmaster.com/index.asp put "nickel" in the search and work your way through. $29.74 will get you a 1 1/2d x 1L sample of alloy 200 nickel M-C part number 9136k222

Bruce Aldo

Hi Greg:
Check your phone book and see if there are any Mechanical piping or boiler repair shops in your area.(that part of Michigan should have plenty)Preferably a large scale shop.
Nickel and Nickel based alloy piping are common materials in the pipefitter and boilermaker trades.There used on high pressure steam lines and chemical piping applications.
Give em a shot ,they may be able to solve your bezel situation.
Sincerely,Bob F.

Thanks, I'll give these places a try. Along the way, I'll have to locate some extra time as well.

Best regards,
Greg

Greg,

Just saw you posting on the Zenith. If I hadn’t been tempted with the Hamilton, I was planning on one of the following. My first thought was to fabricate the bezel from brass and have it plated. Nickle plating is quite common for industrial applications, you can probably locate an industrial plating house in your area. The trick here is to allow for the plating build up. Your plater can tell you how much they will plate on, and they are usually pretty close, to with a 0.001 or so. Or try calling a machine shop and ask who they use. Most shop need this service. Another option is a nickle alloy stainless steel. The best bet for SST is 303. Its easy to machine and will take a high polish. It has a slightly grey color compared to other alloys with a higher nickle percentage, but it is a whole lot easier to machine.
Best of luck,
Jon

Thanks, Jon.

Good ideas. Now, all I have to do is clear up some extra time to get back into this project.

Best regards,

Greg

Greg,
If you give up on the signal corp I would sure be interested....
Thank You
John

Thanks John. While time has not permitted much time for watch work, I will not give up on the Zenith. In fact, I'd like to find some more Signal Corps watches.

Best regards,
Greg

Greg,
I have all the models... I think I have 4 Zeniths one had a bad dial... That's why i was wondering if you were done with it... I just sold one on ebay a couple weeks ago... Let me see if i may have a bezel...
Take Care
John

Thank you John, I hope you have one. It would make my day to have an original bezel instead of making or adapting a replacement.

BTW. If it would not be a bother, please consider posting images of the four different WWI Signal Corps wrist watches on the Military Timepieces Forum. I don't think I have seen all four brands together at one time.

Best regards,
Greg

Hello Greg,
I haven't found the bezel yet but give me a couple of days... As far as the Signal Corps go there are actually Eight that I know of... I have the Zenith, Omega, Cyma, Tavannes, Ulysee Nardin,Tissot, Rode, and Moser. I would be glad to post them somewhere if you could tell me how...
Take Care
John

I appriciate your looking for the bezel.

Eight brands! And you have them all. That's a great accomplishment.

Did you get any of the bands original to the watches? The original wristwatch bands of WWI is an area in need of research.

To post images, first save them to your computer in a size 555 x 416 size. Then, log onto nawcc-ihc and start a new discussion thread in the Military Timepieces Forum. After you write-up something about your post, click the "CLICK TO ADD IMAGE ATTACHMENT" message below the message screen. Then hit "Browse", then go to the area on your computer with the images, double click the image you want, and follow the instructions. After you are done, hit "post now" as usual and the images will be hosted on line by Ch. 185. If trouble, we must call on Lindell who is the wizzard with these things.

Best regards,

Greg

Thanks Greg for the information... I'll try and get them up sometime next week... I have some greatnews for you... I think i found your bezel... Email me your address and i'll send it straight away...
Take Care
John

That is great news! An email has been sent.

Best regards,
Greg

The Bezel Blues are gone. Though not exactly as anticipated.

Many thanks to John Barros for sending me an original WWI Zenith bezel. It takes great generosity - original period parts are so hard to come by. Unfortunately, the bezel was undersized. This was unexpected and indicates that even Zenith had considerable variation at least as far as the external dimensions of their wristwatch cases. They may have had more than one source for cases to get enough to fill the size of the American Signal Corps order. And so, with gratitude and maybe a little extra in the box, John’s bezel will be returned to him for his future repair projects.

Without regard for the size of the bezel, John’s generosity prompted me to again look through my watch-junk-yard for something adaptable. And this time I found something which originally escaped notice. This one had the right external diameter and it was made of the right shade of nickle to match the Zenith. Other, internal dimensions were too small, but could be opened up by turning in the lathe. With the aid of John’s example at hand, it was possible to get the appearance and shape of the crystal opening exactly right.

After some time on the bezel chuck the new/old bezel looks right at home. Here the Zenith is shown on a vintage wristwatch strap. This strap is not original to the Zenith, given that it is American made, but it is a WWI era strap.


Amazing, this watch is from the dawn of the wristwatch era, and yet this early timepiece still looks, well, cool!

Thanks again, John for your aid.

Best regards,
Greg

Greg you did a great job on the bezel.I hope one day to be able to do the good work that you do on bezels.
It looks great on the watch.
Thanks for sharing the job with us.

Greg,
Wooow!!! You are Amazing!! I didn't think anyone could do that!! I'm sorry the other bezel didn't work but I'm sure glad it inspired you and gave you what you needed to complete the repair!!!
Cheers Mate
John Barros

Hi Kevin & John, it's not that hard to do with a bezel chuck. I like to work from the back of the bezel, so I reverse the motor. A sharp graver and don't take off too much and it seems to work out rather well. A cross slide is not as good an option, it seems the slide does not give much "feel" to the cutting and it dislodges the bezel from the check.

Oh ya, I did not forget the rest of my deal with Jon Beeman. As you can see, as soon as I was done with the restoration of the bezel, I put it on my hairy wrist and posted it here on Chap. 185 as Jon requested when we made our trade.

Best regards,
Greg

Greg,

Excellent, excellent excellent! I am so glad to see this watch back in use. I had it in a tin for so long, all the time thinking what a shame it wasn't being appreciated. I'm still a little sorry I let it go, but very glad to see it doing it's duty again. Great job on the tricky lathe work, it takes a high level of skill to accomplish what you did. The strap looks great too! This is a lesson in encouragement, don't give up on that obscure part. And thanks for posting the picture.

Jon