u/Kashio73

Finally got my hands on an Orient to add to the collection. Picked it up relatively dirt cheap, but emphasis on the dirt. Tons of grime that made it impossible to unscrew the caseback (along with its unusually narrow notches). Some isopropyl alcohol and WD-40 later to loosen things up (including interior cleanup and pusher lubing) and it's back in perfect working order.

The picture doesn't capture it, but the days-of-week bar has a mirror finish that really shines nicely. Another nice feature is the split colour screen with red arrow indicator. Might be the best-proportioned dial I've seen on these old Orients.

After restoring the module display, I fixed up the dial alignment and threw on a fresh mineral glass crystal. Can't get enough of the metallic dial style.

I was stoked to score a couple of Crystrons with working modules, but the degradation of the screens made legibility quite difficult in even slightly dark conditions. Managed to get them good as new through a combo of replacement parts, front polarizer, rear polarizer and rear reflector upgrades. I've done front polarizer overlay updates before, but this was the most involved project yet; pretty proud of myself.

Biggest takeaway tip: The glass screen will typically be sandwiched between TWO polarizer screens (this was news to me) that are positioned at 90 degrees to one another. Having just the front polarizer left the digits faded with only darker outlines; combining with the rear polarizer got them fully nice and dark.

Next step will be to replace/clean up the crystals.