members keep asking me about Craig´s work, what makes him so special, is it worth the hassle of shipping watches from Europe to the US and back, asked for examples of work he had done.
today I received a parcel from Craig; whoever had that experience before probably understands the feeling I had when ripping it open, like a child finally getting those long awaited presents ...
first, a "project" we had been working on for some time. As you know I love the 810s and found a totally wrecked SS from 1964. Gisbert Joseph had a NOS dial, donors supplied the rest.
below the before/after collages:
second, a nice GP TopTime 810 from 1968:
third, a transOcean 7102, bought from Switzerland, but the date mechanism was broken.
Sent it back to Switzerland (very friendly and helpful seller), but the Swiss watchmaker could not find the parts. Lester Harrison in the UK (a great source) had them, shipped those to Switzerland, but the watchmaker claimed (rightly, we found out) they did not fit.
So the 7102 went to the US. Let me quote Craig "7102/7740 - this was a real challenge. When I removed the movement, the date would advance but after trying it for several hours it would stop working then start again. Got the dial off and noticed that the old date advance wheel was still installed. The old one works on a concentric and I suspect that it was either worn or installed incorrectly (cal 11-15's had a similar problem with the early date advance wheel). I could not find an illustration of what the concentric looked like or how to install it on line so I tried the new replacement. Problem with the one is that it must have been for a later 7740 movement because is was too tall and the attachment screw was too short. I measured the height of the old one and sanded down the new one so it was the same height - it worked perfectly!"
After about 6 months - most of that in Switzerland while the other watchmaker was trying to figure out how to repair it - and thousands of miles, back in Vienna:
fourth, an 18k 178 from 1946, bought as "non-running" (minor problems, according to Craig, "only" a broken column wheel etc.) and knew the lower movement holder ring was missing, Craig "happened to have one and "just machined it a little" to make it fit .....
let me quote Craig again: " I do like these kinds of projects because a lot of the watches that I get in are pretty boring to work on!"
Thank you, Craig, for your wonderful work !
(sorry Craig) 
