1962 Jeffrey

Back in February I showed you a 1963 Gregory.  When I bought it I thought it was another watch, a 1962 Jeffrey but I was fooled by the dramatic similarities.  That's okay though - it happens occasionally and I had never seen a Gregory before.  Plus, it meant I still had an opportunity to find a true Jeffrey.

The 1962 Jeffrey is the second model to bear that name.  The original Jeffrey came out in 1951 and is a totally different style watch.  The second Jeffrey was produced through 1964.

The Jeffrey came in a 10K rolled gold plate (RGP) case with a stainless steel back.  The white embossed dial has a radial finish and gold-colored markers and numerals.

Under the dial is a Swiss-made Hamilton 686 movement with 17 jewels.  The 686 is based on an A. Schild 1200 grade.

As I said above, I was still on the prowl for a Jeffrey and, as luck would have, I found one.  In fact, I double checked before I bought it to make sure it wasn't another Gregory.  As received, it was very grungy and the crystal was heavily scratched.

The back of the watch has a sticker.  It looks like it's been there quite a while.  I think it's funny that it says Not Running but the Not has been crossed out.

With the bezel removed you can see the crystal is rather beat up.  Deep scratches like this are tough to buff out - so I will just replace the crystal.

The movement is surprisingly clean, considering how dirty the rest of the case was.  It does have a giant  finger print on the back though.  Hopefully that will come off "in the wash".

The radial-finished dial is in excellent shape.  I like this style of finish - it's apparently brushed in all directions from the center when it's applied.  It's very reflective, almost like a giant pearl.

Everything gets cleaned and dried before being reassembled with fresh lubrication.

My newly reassembled movement goes onto the timer.  The timer listens to the ticking of the watch and compares it to what it should sound like.  The results are displayed on the timer's screen.  A running watch can look like total crap on timer.  It's really fascinating to "see" what it "hears" - and it's especially gratifying when it shows that I fixed whatever was causing a noise it picked up.

A little tweaking to the regulator is all that was needed to get the timing of the watch to be spot on.

And here's the finished Jeffrey, with a new crystal and paired with a new old stock vintage Gemex strap.  It's a sharp-looking watch with clean lines, don't you think?