Blancpain Rescue Project

What happens to all of the old watches that are broken, believed beyond saving, sitting in boxes in watch makers benches?  This was one that my friend Ali Athari had stashed away in a drawer with bits and pieces of other lost children.  This watch came his way about 5 - 10 years ago when he acquired it in a "grab bag" of parts and extremely damaged watches to "harvest organs" from.  That was until he showed it to me, and thus the great Blancpain rescue Project of 2010 was launched!

So as you can see, the dial does have some patina, but looks fairly good.  In better days, this Blancpain was a 2 hand mechanical (hand-wind) watch.

The "heart" of this Blancpain is a hand-wound Aurore Villeret (AV) movement - 11/2 Lgn.

Once Ali had the movement "opened-up" he went into "horological CSI" mode.  What he was able to figure out is that the movement had never been serviced, but the stem had been replaced. 

"So where's the case?" I asked, anxious to see the highly-polished stainless steel that once housed the dial and movement.  "Ah... you're going to have to use your imagination a bit on this..."

He reached into his bench again and pulled out this.

Essentially, this Blancpain was nearly "legless".  I was a bit puzzled and flipped it over.  

"Where's the bezel"?  Ali shrugged.  I was a bit bummed out.  But then a curious look came over Ali's face, he dug around a bit more and pulled out this -

This bezel started out life as part of a Rolex watch that was part of the same grab bag.  

So you now have seen the bits and pieces.  I will be checking in with Ali later to give you an update.