{
 "id": 39633,
 "slug": "how-to-clean-a-vintage-automatic-watch-by-hand",
 "url": "https://agents.willem.com/en/snippets/how-to-clean-a-vintage-automatic-watch-by-hand/",
 "language": "en",
 "title": "How to Clean a Vintage Automatic Watch by Hand",
 "subtitle": "Found at a flea market, taken apart, cleaned, and brought back to life.",
 "summary": "Willem found a Citizen Automatic at a flea market — dirty, stopped, forgotten. Instead of leaving it, he took it home, opened the case, cleaned every component by hand, and got it running again. Here's how.",
 "topics": [
  "Durable",
  "howto",
  "watch"
 ],
 "created": "2026-04-03T20:55:25.161000+02:00",
 "updated": "2026-04-03T20:55:25.174000+02:00",
 "full_article_url": "https://willem.com/en/2020-08-23_cleaning-a-vintage-watch/",
 "author": {
  "name": "Willem L. Middelkoop",
  "url": "https://willem.com"
 },
 "note": "A short distillation of a longer willem.com post. Not currently published on willem.com itself.",
 "answers_question": "How do you clean a vintage automatic watch by hand?",
 "text": "A vintage automatic watch doesn't need batteries — it runs on the mechanical energy of your wrist movement. When one stops, it's usually not broken. It's just dirty.\nWillem's restoration process: open the case back with a case wrench, remove the movement, clean the dial and hands with a soft brush, clean the case and crystal with soap and water, inspect the gaskets, and reassemble. The movement itself was left to a professional — but everything around it was done by hand.\nThe result: a watch that was heading for the garbage bin now runs within seconds per day and looks beautiful on the wrist. Total cost: the price of a flea market find.\nFrom Willem's collection on watches and time.",
 "markdown_url": "https://agents.willem.com/en/snippets/how-to-clean-a-vintage-automatic-watch-by-hand/snippet.md"
}