# Citizen C300 Navihawk Restore



## Sir Alan (Sep 10, 2010)

I have a fair collection of Citizen Navihawks, many of which have been bought either dead, or partially working.

Up until now, I have sent the watch to Citizen UK and for what I consider to be a fair price (Â£68) they will fix it (which I suspect involves just swapping a new movement in - the C300).

Today my most recent Navihaw arrived - and to be honest from the single listing photo, I was quite dubious about what I was going to get (the picture was out of focus, but what I could see from it was potentially worrying).

Still, I only paid Â£44 for it, and it has a dial that I hadn't seen before.

Here are some pictures ...



A badly scratched crystal (oh if that was all that was wrong!!).

Interesting lume colour on the main hands - kind of orangy.

But, the worrying sign that I'd seen in the listing photo was more evident up close.



see those green 'pips' on the top sub-dial? 

That is battery leakage ............... will it come off without ruining the dial?

It was also on the Citizen logo (above the word Citizen), and also on the 6pm sub-dial.

There's also evidence of damage to the LCD screen.

Here's the pesky battery:



The first thing I did was to drop the movement out to assess the damage to the dial, and also see what else was damaged.

Here is the inside of the case:



more battery gunk.

The next thing I did was to try and clean the dial. If this didn't work then that was going to be it with the watch.

However, those green 'pips' were crystallised, and gentle probing with rodico and a cocktail stick managed to remove all signs of them from the dial without causing any more damage than it had already suffered.



At this point I decided I was going to have a go fixing this movement, using the other dead C300 movement I had (which was already in bits having used a couple of parts from it when I did my C320 movement fix).

I must admit that I didn't hold out much hope, but figured it would be worth a go ................


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## Lionel Richtea (Aug 24, 2013)

Well done Sir Alan.

This is certainly a worthwhile project.


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## Sir Alan (Sep 10, 2010)

Right, hands and dial off



what lies beneath? ...................



that's not a very nice ghostly image is it!!

Flipping it over, there's also rust

OK, going deeper in .....



now that doesn't actually look bad, maybe there's hope after all



don't be silly!!!!

Those coils shouldn't have that gloop on them.



there's the rotary rocker switch spring.

Now then, what's under the train wheel bridge?



yep - lots of little pieces!!


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## Sir Alan (Sep 10, 2010)

Now, along with the gloop on the coils, there was also rust in the movement, and specifically the rotor stators



that's not good.



At this point I decided (realised) that I was going to have to take the whole movement apart - oh well, in for a penny, in for a pound!!

So I did.





cleaning up the mess, to end up with this


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## Sir Alan (Sep 10, 2010)

Now, rather than having to clean up the rusted rotor stators, I used the nice clean ones from the donor movement



that looks a lot better.

And here it is all back together



I used the best parts from the two movements. Best being the ones that looked the cleanest (not necessarily the best measure, more on that later ....)

If you line everything up, the train wheel bridge goes back on easily (trust me on this).



Now its time to swap in a better LCD



But, before this I thought it a good idea to have a look at the front side of the movement, under this plate



I was worried that the battery leakage could have caused damage here as well



the large wheel actually had a lot of gunge underneath it. Rather than trying to clean it, I just swapped the wheel in from the other movement.

So, putting it all back together we came to the moment of truth - new battery time.......................


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## Sir Alan (Sep 10, 2010)

Off to my spare battery box (having confirmed what battery is needed - a 395).

Battery in, battery cover on.

Is the LCD working?

No.

Perform an ALL RESET (ground the AR contact).

Woo hoo. There's life.



But not much.

So I popped the crown in, hoping that maybe this would bring it all back.

Nope.

Only some parts of the LCD are lit.

At this point I swapped the PCB's over.

I had used the PCB from the donor watch, thinking that this had more chance of working. Now I put the original PCB back in.

And .......

Same result, only a few random segments were lit. But, they were 'moving' so the watch seemed alive.

Then I found that if I squeezed the movement at the two ends of the LCD where the contact strips are (that connect the LCD to the PCB), then hey presto - all the correct segments lit up and the LCD was fully working.

It took me a little while longer to suss out why this was happening.

I had used the wrong green 'cage' that holds the LCD onto the movement. I guess there must be subtle differences between the two movements.

When I used the correct cage, sufficient pressure was applied to give this.



this is looking good. Dial back on, hands back on.



But, we haven't finished. I'm going to have to go back in.

The main hands, and the 24hr hand aren't moving .............

I'm pretty sure the coils are bad.


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## chris.ph (Dec 29, 2011)

whens part 2, im waiting with baited breath :thumbup:


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## jbw (May 6, 2008)

chris.ph said:


> whens part 2, im waiting with baited breath :thumbup:


Looking forward to part 2....You are a Jedi among tinkerers!


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## Sir Alan (Sep 10, 2010)

Well, this Jedi met his Sith lord today I'm afraid. :starwars:

7 hours straight resulted in failure.

Rather frustrating as I was so close.

I got the minute hand working, by swapping the coil. But try as I might (and boy did I try) I could not get the hour hand (and the 24hr hound which is driven in tandem) to move.

I must have had the train wheel bridge off at least 6 times, each time getting it back on quite easily. The only fiddly part is the rotor stator which doesn't want to sit centrally in the well it is in, but is drawn (by magnetism) against the side wall.

I think I found the problem, but as I never managed to fix it I can't be sure.

I think the problem was caused by this:



At some point last night I managed to snap the black stud off the base plate. :wallbash:

This is my only (so far) criticism of the Citizen movements - these plastic studs break off easily. They are either under tension, or a tight press fit. In both cases getting the part off is tricky and can result in breakage. Oh well, another lesson learned.

This stud came from here (at the top of the picture, to the left of the rectangular well)



and holds the stator plate in place on the base plate.

What I think was happening was that the stator plate was moving fractionally, drawn by the strong magnetic rotor stator. This was rendering the rotor stator inoperable. I think the coil was good, just that the rotor stator couldn't rotate. Hence nothing was driving the hour hand.

At this point I had two options. Give up, or transplant everything into the other donor base plate (which had its stud intact).

I asked my daughter, and she said go for it. So I did.

Moving the parts across was arduous, but I knew I could do it.



But, getting the train wheel bridge on was a real pain in the a$$ - typical.

I eventually managed it, but then found the mode select button wasn't working. At this point I gave up. 

Before I started today, I dropped the mostly working movement back in to the case it will live in, having first cleaned it up and fitted a new crystal and gasket.

So as not to finish on too much of a downer, this is what it will look like (soon).





I like the way the bezel highlights have faded to orange on this, they'll go nicely with the main hands.


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## jbw (May 6, 2008)

10/10 for effort though sir alan , may the force be with you


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## chris.ph (Dec 29, 2011)

you will definitely get there, as i said before your skills far surpass mine :thumbup:


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## Sir Alan (Sep 10, 2010)

Last night I fitted a new (donor) movement, so I now have a fully working, fairly distinctive / rare Navihawk.



the dial and hands are far from pristine, and the bezel is a little worn / faded.

But, there aren't too many of these about.


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## apm101 (Jun 4, 2011)

Nice job, Simon! It has a great patina, and you can look at it with a smile to know that you resurrected it from the grave with your own hands. Can't buy that... :yes:


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## jbw (May 6, 2008)

Did it in the end , well done.


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## Service Engineer (Dec 28, 2007)

Awesome - A great read and some fantastic pictures. Inspirational (I think that's how you spell it !)


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## chris.ph (Dec 29, 2011)

fantastic job :notworthy: :notworthy:


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## Misbah (Oct 31, 2017)

Hi There !

I am looking to restore my Citizen navihawk c300 but i am unable to find its spares. i need wheel which pushes main minute hand. If any one has any spare pls provide link or any reliable source where i can procure the same.

@chris.ph @Sir Alan


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## Fitz666 (Aug 22, 2013)

Fab read, well done!!!


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