Repair: Folded Oyster 9315

Spent the better part of a week taking this 9315 Folded Oyster back to its former glory. Challenge accepted! Suffering from bracelet stretch, dents on all links, to torn steel on the clasp, nearly every surface on this bracelet needed attention.

We also noticed the clasp wasn't snapping as it should. Close inspection revealed both tabs were very torn. We will need to repair this. If you look closely the rivet that hold the flip lock is also in bad shape. We will need to make a new rivet as well.

Dents are repaired the old fashion way. Dapping with a ball peen hammer and an a steel block. For pieces that are very thin we use other metal forming tools that we have modified for this exact application.

Each link is carefully unfolded.

This link is really badly bent

After first round of dapping and forming

Forgot to take photos along the way but after a few more rounds of forming and a bit of smoothing on an abrasive wheel we are left with this!

Here is what this piece look like in our tray next to all the remaining pieces awaiting smoothing on an abrasive wheel. Each piece has been professionally formed to minimize the time on the abrasive wheel. More time on the workbench, less time in the polishing room, leaving more metal left on this 40+ year old band. These pieces often arrive foil thin and generally unworkable. The last thing we want is for that to on our clock.

Notice the slight curve on the top of each piece. This curve often gets lost over the years. They often arrive flattened and dented.

The finished piece next to other awaiting smoothing on an abrasive wheel

All the center pieces after smoothing

With the center pieces in good order, the pieces are reassembled. Additional hardware is added to each link to adjust the gaps in between links. Sorry this hardware is proprietary.

Long Side

Short Side

Back side

Fully assembled

Remember the tears on the clasp? After some laser welding, smoothing, and a new rivet...

Fully assembled. With this much metal forming, it's almost unavoidable for us to complete the repair without the bracelet looking new-ish. This is not so great for some.

We can distress to put back some of the character. We can do this from a little to a lot depending on the spec giving to us. Here is what it looks like before distressing.

Thats was easy!