A lot has been written here about the 5402

I would suggest searching this forum for previous threads. There is much to learn before jumping in and buying one of these from anyone but a very trusted source.

Thanks to the AP Forum moderator, we now know that that the A series existed from the very beginning and that only the early SA (steel and gold) models were numbered without alpha leading characters. So, there was apparantly no initial series of 1000 pieces before the A series started. (see ThomasM's post: Horological meandering: .

Amanico, co-moderator of the JLC Forum, had his 5402 refurbished by AP and he provided a very interesting post for us on the subject: home.watchprosite.com . His post may help you to determine what you can expect AP to do, the things to look for, the compromises you may have to make.

I have thought about the very thing you are planning to do. But a few things worry me. It is often very difficult to know the provenance of these early ROs, that is you may not be able to find out who owned the watch before you and what service and polishing might have been done on the watch before it arrives in your watch box. If AP performed any servicing, they will be able to share that information with you, I believe. But if anyone else serviced it, then you will never know what has been "fixed" or replaced unless meticulous records were kept. If the watch has been polished too often and too much, it may be difficult for AP to restore the bezel to its original state with the vsharp angles, etc.

AP will very likely be able to get the RO back to good working order, but it may come at the cost of replacing certain parts, such as the dial and other visable (as well as out of sight) components with parts that are not original to the early ROs. I think AP does not still have all the parts available to replace everything. For instance, the bracelet may or not be in good shape (stretching is a common issue among the early RO bracelets after so many years), and while the bracelet has improved in design since the early ROs, you may have to decide if you want the original or if you can live with a newer version of the bracelet on your 5402.

Of course any of this refurbishment work is likely to be very expensive unless you are very fortunate to find a perfect example of a 5402. Such a clean example will be a rare bird to find, indeed, and you really have to trust the seller of such a piece to provide you with accurate and documentable information on the complete history of the watch.

As I said, I have not gone through this experience myself, and perhpas some of those who have 5402s will contribute to this thread. But what I mention above are some of the things I have thought about -- and the things that have held me back from hunting for one myself thus far.

With respect to the RO, this is one of the few watches where we have a good solution to the problem of finding a good early example: we can relatively easily find a more recent model of the same watch (e.g., a reference 15202) that is essentially the same as the 5402. Not exactly the same, of course, but wonderfully close, which speaks to the beauty of the original design that it has been in constant production for nearly 40 years.

Hope something above will help you.

respo