My old green-faced Astrographic

[rpmnow1]

Many years ago (1971 or 2) I bought my green-faced Zodiac Astrographic ("Airborne Watch") at the old "Airborne PX" at Fort Bragg, N.C.  Though not really knowing much about watches I must have thought it was beautiful - and I must have been right (not something I could always count on [being right] across time).  : )  However, being stupid at the same time I replaced the original gold band with a leather one, because leather watch bands were cool in the day, and proceeded to lose the original band / or threw it out or something.  And I wore the Astrographic for a while before putting it away in my dresser drawer where it stayed for many moon.

Last year I pulled it out of my dresser, dusted it off, put it on, and began to fall in love with it again.  It had a couple problems though;  the leather band just wasn't cutting it, and the crystal was badly scratched.  I found a similar gold plated band online.   As for the crystal, however, I kept hearing rumors about the existence of aftermarket replacement ones - maybe even some NOS versions, but was never able to find one for sale.


I also couldn't find any jewelers who were knowledgable and / or confident and / or willing to polish the crystal so I did some research and found diamond grease online and cotton-tipped conical Dremel tool type buffers and went ahead and polished out the scratches myslelf.  I have a habit of doing things myself, expecially if it's the only way I can see something getting done that's important to me.  I think for a polished (versus new) crystal it turned out just fine - and further deepened my love for Airborne Watch.  I've included some before (cyrstal) and after pictures.


Still, I woundn't mind having a backup crystal if anyone ever finds a source.  Thanks for reading about my Astrographic!

[Butch]

Nice story for a nice watch! Thanks for sharing it with us. Welcome aboard.

[rpmnow1]

Thanks, Butch.  Glad to be on board! 

[rpmnow1]

Blurry picture but shows the color and shape of a 1971/2 gold Zodiac Astrographic when I was out getting scratches on the crystal.