Hi Marshall,
what a beautiful story, and what a wonderful watch...
I'm happy for you, wear and enjoy it in good health.
Cheers.
Gianluca

: 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