Service: Buren Grand Prix with Buren 1420 Movement

Buren is (still) one of those underrated brands.

• Buren was a respectable Swiss brand that used in-house movements.
• They were 1 of the manufacturers of the “Dirty Dozen“.
• They invented the micro-rotor.

But somehow, the watches don’t receive much appreciation. Perhaps that will change in the future when people start looking for interesting brands to collect when others have moved out of reach.

This is a Buren Grand Prix with a Buren 1420 movement.

It needed a cleaning and fresh lubrication and the hour hand had lost all the lume, as you can see.

Disassembly

Remove the power from the mainspring and remove the balance and the pallets.

The pallet cock was dripping with oil. Remember to never lubricate the pallets, except for one of the pallet stones.

Remove the cannon pinion on the bottom plate.

Remove the crown wheel (reverse-fretted screw!) and the ratchet wheel and lift the barrel bridge.

The wheel-train bridge and especially the bearing jewels were dripping with oil as well. The bearing jewels were actually overflowing.

It’s a wonder that the hairspring coils didn’t stick together yet.

Remove the wheel-train bridge to gain access to the wheel train.

Remove the sweep second hand, 3rd wheel, and the escape wheel.

Take out the main barrel.

Remove the center wheel cock and lift the center wheel to completely empty the top plate.

Flip the movement and remove the motion works.

Disassemble and take out the keyless works.

Clean all the parts in the watch cleaning machine.

Assembly

Start with the center wheel, the center wheel cock, and the main barrel.

Install the escape wheel, 3rd wheel, sweep second wheel and fit the wheel-train bridge.

Reinstall the barrel bridge, the crown wheel, and the ratchet wheel.

Flip the movement to the bottom plate and install the keyless works and the motion works.

Leave the hour wheel and the washer until just before you refit the dial.

Flip the movement back again and replace the pallets and the pallet cock.

Finally, install the balance and clean and lubricate the Incabloc endstones.

I fitted the dial and before I continued, I needed to relume the hands.

The hour hand had lost all the lume but I always relume both hands to prevent 2 different colors.

I wrote an article on how to relume watch hands if you like to know how to do it yourself.

Do you own a Buren Grand Prix or another Buren model? Let me know in the comments below.