Servicing / Reparing / Re-pivoting a 70s Heuer Carrera Automatic Chronograph with the lengendary Heuer Calibre 12

Here we have an early 70s Heuer Carrera powered by the lendendary Calibre 12 automatic chronograph movement. Much has been said on the web about how groundbreaking this movement is. It was created by the collaboration of Heuer, Buren/Hamilton, Breitling and Dubois-Depraz (the so-called "Chronomatic" team). However, this movement is not to be confused with the re-issued Tag-Heuer Calibre 12 or Calibre 15, which is totally different.

This watch belongs to a friend, who has had it serviced several times by the official Tag-Heuer service centre. (According to him, the watch has never been touched by anyone other than the official service centre.) It failed a couple of years after the last service and considering the cost of servicing it again, he put it in a drawer where it has been ever since.

Before the service, the watch does run, but doesn't manual wind and will only wind automatically. The chronograph module doesn't work, the start stop function doesn't engage and the reset lever doesn't reset the hands, which are all over the place. So I was more than intrigued as to how the movement would present.

Here is the result. Sorry about the quality of this quick shot of it on my wrist. I was rushing to get the watch back to the owner, and so didn't manage to put into my photo jig to get a better shot.

Click the link below to see many more pictures of it on the bench.

Heuer Carrera Automatic Chronograph with the lengendary Heuer Calibre 12, difficult but well worth the effort