Hello everybody!
Recently I was lucky to acquire one of my “holy grails” the ‘Executive’ 1950 from Gillette
As most of you probably know the mirror in the cases/boxes is very fragile and furthermore secured with some really bad glue when they left the Gillette factories.
These “defects” have often resulted in a cracked mirror with a bad glue spot. Of course mint/NOS examples without these flaws showing do exist but they are quite rare.
I started my research some time ago and got a bit bummed after watching this video from Matt talking about it being really difficult to replace the mirror:
I promised myself that if I one day was lucky to get a hold of a example of the ‘Executive’ with the described problems I would at least try to gather information about replacing the mirror. Maybe with a modern/better quality one but with the exact same specifications in terms of the edge and thickness if possible.
Well, today I can present the result to you. I contacted a high-end glas/mirror company here in Denmark who has been in the business for over 100 years and deliver products all over Europe. Apparently it was an easy task for them to replicate.:
As you can see on the pictures it looks really good and it’s made the proper way. After I received the mirror I prepared the "slot" by cleaning it and placing double sided tape instead of using some kind of glue. My solution worked perfekt and the mirror is totally secure
I was never in the market for a NOS example for 1000-1300USD so I’m really happy about the result.
I have only read about getting the mirror replaced a couple of times but I have never seen any results from other collectors. Hopefully somebody will find it interesting and maybe push them to get their own example restored.
The collector journey will continue
Recently I was lucky to acquire one of my “holy grails” the ‘Executive’ 1950 from Gillette
As most of you probably know the mirror in the cases/boxes is very fragile and furthermore secured with some really bad glue when they left the Gillette factories.
These “defects” have often resulted in a cracked mirror with a bad glue spot. Of course mint/NOS examples without these flaws showing do exist but they are quite rare.
I started my research some time ago and got a bit bummed after watching this video from Matt talking about it being really difficult to replace the mirror:
I promised myself that if I one day was lucky to get a hold of a example of the ‘Executive’ with the described problems I would at least try to gather information about replacing the mirror. Maybe with a modern/better quality one but with the exact same specifications in terms of the edge and thickness if possible.
Well, today I can present the result to you. I contacted a high-end glas/mirror company here in Denmark who has been in the business for over 100 years and deliver products all over Europe. Apparently it was an easy task for them to replicate.:
As you can see on the pictures it looks really good and it’s made the proper way. After I received the mirror I prepared the "slot" by cleaning it and placing double sided tape instead of using some kind of glue. My solution worked perfekt and the mirror is totally secure
I was never in the market for a NOS example for 1000-1300USD so I’m really happy about the result.
I have only read about getting the mirror replaced a couple of times but I have never seen any results from other collectors. Hopefully somebody will find it interesting and maybe push them to get their own example restored.
The collector journey will continue