'Restoring History: Repairing the Vintage WWII Bulova A11 Military Watch

In this video Mike takes on a small but mighty watch a Bulova A11. This watch is only 30mm in diameter yet it was commissioned by the American military for WW2. Watch had to be legible, a good quality movement 16 jewels or more, it had to have 10 minute scale on the dial for timings and most importantly it had to be hackable. This was so the troops could all synchronise their watches which was of the upmost importance.
Watch as Mike carefully unravels the years on the Bulova to get to the cause if its failure to run and show you how he takes on the challenge of cleaning and repairing this piece to keep good time again preserving this significant piece in military horological history.

My Facebook Group - Retro & Vintage Watches & Restorations. In here you will find a very large friendly community where no question is too silly and you will find no watch snobbery.
Stuck on a WATCH REPAIR? join and get answers from the watchmaking collective.

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About me:
My name is Mike and I am a hobbyist watchmaker. I am completely self-taught in watch repair and restoration. My channel is all about my journey of hobbyist of watchmaking. I have watch repair tutorials, watch restorations and watch repair videos. Some of my content you can easily follow along to if you are working on the same watch movement. My main focus is to document my journey and inspire more people into this wonderful hobby and demonstrate that this hobby can be very rewarding. I do not profess to be a professional watchmaker and in my videos, I show all my mistakes, mishaps, highs and lows and keep everything as honest as possible. It is easy to edit all the mistakes out and make my videos look perfect but I believe that keeping it real reflects the true reality of this hobby. So what are you waiting for? please check out my watch repair and restoration videos, get inspired and start your own watchmaking journey.

#watchrepair #watchrestoration #watchmaking

[johnhaddock]

Great to see one of these being refurbished. My 101 year old father still has his RAF issue Bulova with the original A11 markings overstamped by RAF 6B/234 markings. He was a navigator with Coastal Command and might be amused to hear your comment about hacking. Once I said to him something like "I guess it was very important to have your watches  synchronized so that you could arrive over the target at the right time". His response was that in practice they were lucky if they got over the target within 10 minutes of each other!

One turn of the winder is enough to make it start ticking and I don't think it's ever been fully serviced. It's been demagnetised and at one stage a small speck of dirt was removed from the movement (by a  watchmaker who didn't charge for doing it!) but that's about as close as it's got to being properly cleaned/serviced. Dad only wears it very occasionally now but it'll keep going for a day.


Keep up the good work.

[williamfavata]

You should be on TV. What an entertaining video. Your patience is abundant.

[gerryodonnell]

Just looking over the video again, The second pinion was attached to the cover plate when removed when it cuts away. It must have dropped off unnoticed between the movement and the storage container. Losing this is the best way to ruin your day - glad you found it

[LifeOfATinkerer]

Beautiful work, Mike. I think it's fascinating how much of a difference the new strap and polished crystal makes. Suddenly the case, to me, seems to have character instead of just being beat up.
Really a beautiful result. Thank you for bringing it back to life.

[WristwatchWorkshop]

Big fan of both 40s Bulovas and the A-11s and the dirty dozens as you know. This one came together well, and I'm 100% with you on keeping the condition as it is. It's part of the story of the watch. Imho it still holds up against the modern homages.

[mltrymn]

Fantastic work, Mike! I love these older Bulova movements. It's straightforward and fairly simple to work on. Your comment about not messing with the hairspring until you've had some proper practice is spot on! I have made that mistake myself, and I can confirm that more practice was needed. Especially when working on smaller movements. Thanks again for the video!

[csspinner]

I loved this video! I can definitely relate to the sentiment around going to bed happy after achieving a milestone in the repair process. Sometimes I refuse to sleep until I have a breakthrough on whatever I’m troubleshooting, and I really have to peel myself away from the bench. Very very nice outcome on this one. The worn case looks great in my opinion as it’s worn pretty evenly all around. - Chris

[aubreyrussell]

I really enjoy my tripculor micro! Can't imagine working with out it!!!😊

[stephaneedy]

Thank you Mike for showing us that hell of a battle... and stunning result 👌

[greendomeno]

Great stuff Mike, love the old bulovas!

[brieeloise]

Love the final look, the patina is beautiful!

[robertlangham]

Great video, really useful for when I start on my Bulova A-11's!

On the "blank" caseback, check the inside. Hold it to the light at an angle, and you might see the "ghosts" of the original stampings.

[kenlawrence]

Excellent images with the new microscope - amazing detail!

[andyfletcher]

That was one of my favourite videos, Mike 👍 .... it was inspiring. Thanks for sharing it

[oengelen]

Another outstanding video — can’t recommend your videos highly enough! What an interesting watch you got back to life. Great craftsmanship and really helpful explanations. Thank you!

[Bristol]

Glad to see this one running again! Good job bringing this back to life. Cheers!

[WristwatchMedic]

A great video Mike. The watch turned out really good. I enjoyed watching. Thanks Mike

[Van_Der_Lay_Industries]

Looks great. Nice inspiration for me as I get started in the hobby.

[kimbedworth]

Thank you for this fantastic video. I’m learning so much from you. Happy 😃

[Supercruze]

What a cool project. Very nice service and restoration. A treasure for someone to enjoy going forward. Well done.