Hey all,

I posted that I had found a "high potential" 2446C on eBay, went back and forth with the seller a few times, bid a few times even after it had been taken down/relisted, and finally got the watch. It was listed as a fixer-upper that wouldn't keep time (he said he got it to go for an hour but then it would stop) and that the chronograph didn't work. It was also difficult to assess the dial condition as the pictures were not great and the crystal was super worn.

An excerpt from the listing:

"Runs but then stops- Being sold as is for restoration, parts or whatever you like to call it. I guess it could use a minor cleaning but that's for you to do if you would like! No returns offered.

UPDATE: I turned the handle and the watch ran perfectly for a few hours for me, so idk if it needs restoration or just a cleaning."

My expectation was that it needed to be cleaned and serviced, at the very least. My main concerns were the dial condition, the hands, and the condition of the case and movement overall. It certainly didn't look polished from the pictures, but who knows.

Here is how the watch looked when it arrived:

As you can see, it's well worn, and quite dirty. I confirmed that the chronograph wouldn't even start, but I could wind the watch as was described in the auction description. The crown also freely came out of the case. The case itself was fantastic, with a great worn patina and definitely never polished finish. The back was worn nearly smooth, but you can still make out the markings on the edge that describe the allowed depth and that kind of thing.

The crystal was in abysmal shape as you can see.

I took the back off (eventually..) and the movement looked great! I was expecting some damage potentially as the watch was (apparently) not fully functional and the chronograph was not working at all. But the movement looked great. Phew. Now the dial... it looked great too! Slightly worn overall, but with no issues of any kind. No marks on the subdials, no missing indicies or even lume markers. We had a keeper!

I put the crown back into the movement properly and then set to getting decent cleaning job done on the thing. As you can see, the pushers were really gunked up, and after some work I realized that they were actually what was holding the chronograph function back. I fully cleaned out the pushers, and boom! the chronograph worked! I couldn't believe it.

After posting on here, Stewart mentioned that it would be worth a shot to just go to town on the crystal with crystal polish. So I did that, and here is how the watch looks now.

After all the cleaning and resetting was done, I set the watch and put it next to my Speedy before going to bed for the night. When I got up, both watches were perfectly in sync! The thing keeps great time still as well.

I couldn't be happier with the purchase, and I wear the watch all the time now. I love how the worn metal feels and looks, and I love the understated design of the watch itself.

Thanks guys for reading!

- Marshall