hello guys(& gals if applicable)

i found you site a couple months ago & have been absorbing information here almost on a nightly basis. i finally had the time this week to fill out the application & join. i have collected, restored & reproduced flight jackets (mainly ww2 era shearling & leather) for a few years now & as my collection branched out, i found the a-11 & ord. dept. wristwatches to be a nice "complimentary" item to wear with my jackets. a trained watchsmith i am not, but more of a self taught amatuer. i have learned to navigate my way thru the mil. watches pretty well & diagnose problems ( & farm out the work that is above my ability ) clean, adjust, relume hands, polish crystals, etc. in performing my "little" amatuer jobs, i have have developed a great respect for you professionals & the tedious, precise work you perform !! i build custom cars & motorcycles as a profession, so i appreciate the minute details that most people miss, & my hat's off to you guys. now to my question:
i just picked up a longines "baby" weems to restore the other day. first, i see why they call it "baby". they are smaller than one would expect. if anyone has one, can you tell me what type of crystal would be correct? mine has a high dome plastic crystal, but if thats not correct, i'll change it out. i'm going to relume the hands & probably get the dial refinished. to remove the movement, do i need to also remove the ring locking crown? i just didn't want to start taking things apart & get any surprises, as the rotating ring asembly is in excellent shape & i'm not planning on taking it apart if it's not necessary.
thanks in advance, & i'll probably be asking more questions as time passes.

regards,
steve.

I'm not a Weems expert so I'll leave it to the others to answer your specific questions, but I did want to caution you on doing any kind of amateur reluming on any older military timepieces. The problem is radium. Most watch makers switched from radium to less hazardous lume materials around the 1950s or so but you can be pretty sure any lume on a watch or clock up until that era is going to be fairly hot in terms of radioactivity. In general there is not enough on the hands or dials to create a problem so long as you keep them away from small children and don't wear them every day, but the serious problem is when sometime tries to remove or clean up the old radium which creates microscopic particles of radium dust that are breathed in and lodge in your lungs. Over time this can cause some serious issues for a person's health (cancer). The half-life of radium is over 1,600 years so whatever was applied to a time piece in the past 50 to 100 years is just as "hot" as the day it was put on. The only reason it does not still glow is that the glow does not come from the radium - it comes from the phosphorus that is mixed in with it and that was burned out long ago by the radioactivity. The radium is the energy source that powers the phosphorus that is the light source.

Steve,

All of the original Weems I have owned were equipped with a low-dome, beveled glass crystal.

I'm sure low-dome acrylic would work as well. There have been some interesting discussions on this board, including this one, with some good detailed photos. Need a little Weems help...

Regards,

Cary

thanks guys!

yes, i'm aware of the dangers of the radium in the hands & am very careful when i remove the remainder of the material from the hands. i thought the watch would look better with a low dome crystal & the pic cary posted verifies that. i took the watch apart yesterday & cleaned the case up. guess i'm going to call international tomorrow about restoring the dial. this version has luminous numbers & hands & should look great with a "re-do".

thanks again,
steve.

Steve,

If you use International, they offer the option of "aged radium" for dial and hands. It's more of a khaki color (as opposed to mint green) and seems more in keeping with a watch like this.

And from your original question, no, you don't need to remove the locking crown to remove the movement. There should be case screws holding the movement in, that do have to be removed, in addition to the stem and the bezel.


Cary

i received the refinished dial today from international. they do an awesome job!! i am more than pleased with the quality of the work & the customer service. it was only away for 2 wks.

Sounds nice, could you please post a photo so we can see it?

jim,

i'll get some pics up as soon as i get my new camera. the one i currently have doesn't take closeup pics at all, just a blur.