Guide To 'killing' The 6 Oclock Subdial On Speedmasters With Venus 175

[ajoesmith]

Ive just realized that i didnt post this here on RWG, I only posted it on TRC a long time ago when i just started out as a noobie.

If you havent already read it enjoy, its not up to the standard of Bytor or The Zigmeister but all the same its informative, i hope

here we go...

OK so im new around here but im just like you, IM CRAZY ABOUT WATCHES!!! Not just replica watches but all watches in general. I cant explain it but they just make me go ooohhhhh , ahhhhhhhh when im looking at them.

Anyway, I have an Omega Speedmaster Moon watch black face with Venus Copy movement. I thought it was the dogs [censored] until I came to this forum. I realised that the watch had several flaws. One main flaw was the 6 oclock subdial. I knew that the spacing wasnt correct but thats something we just have to live with, however the 6 oclock subdial functioning as a '12 hour indicator'??? whats that all about??. I read The Zigmeisters review of the Venus movement and asked a few questions as to how you can 'freeze' or 'Kill' this, so as the 6 oclock subdial hand would point at the 12 oclock position and so look more like the original.

The forum was really helpful and I got an answer in no time at all. One person suggested removing the 'intermediate wheel' and gluing the subdial gear another said just put a blob of glue on the hand and stick it in the 12 oclock position.

Well after a few more reads and thinking about the difficulty of this job and decided to tackle it myself. NOTE: Im not a watchmaker nor do I have any experience in watchmaking. Its only a recent hobbie for me and so I really dont have any watch skills - YET!!. Due to this lack of experience I encountered several problems and what should have been a 30 min job turned into a 2 hour job!!!!. Having said that I completed the job to my satisfaction.

OK so enough talking ill go through what i did if you want to try it yourself.

First off youll need tools. I bought mine from Ebay, cheap and actually not bad in my opinion.

Ok so first things first, I didnt take photos of opening the watch and removing the movement from the case and removing the crown/stem. This is all very straight forward. BUT please remember to WIND DOWN to watch so as to remove the tension on the mainspring.

OK so the watch is now removed from the case and now its ready to remove the hands.

Hands now removed. I used the presto hand remover. NOTE please be very careful as this tool can easily mark the dial!!!.

Next its time to remove the dial. 2 screws on the side. I didnt unscrew completely, just enough to get the dial off.

Ok now the dial side view with a nice plate showing what the subdials do. Remove this. In the above photo ive already removed the screws.

Here we see the intermediate gear and the 6 oclock subdial gear.

Next step, simply remove the intemediate gear, it will come off very easily.

Next remove the 6 oclock sub dial gear. It will also come off very easily.

Ok so both gears removed now we have to fix the 6 oclock sub dial in place. Someone recommended glue but I just didnt want to use glue on a watch so I opted for double sided tape. Safe, easy to use and no possibility of damaging the watch.

I cut a small piece and stuck in over the 6 oclock sub dial hole. I also used my tweezers to punch a hole in the tape for the 6 oclock sub dial gear to fit in place.

Now remove the top layer of the tape and put on the 6 oclock sub dial gear. I pressed quite hard at this point for about 2 mins as i wanted the gear to really stick.

I then put another piece of double sided tape on top of the gear so as it would stick to the underside of the metal plate covering the dial.

Ok now its time to reassemble!!!. The fun begins. The easiest part is now over.

Put the dial plate back on and tighten the screws, 3 of them

Now place the dial back on and dont forget to tighten the screws, 2 of them

Now put the subdial hand back on and carefully align it at the 12 oclock position.

I have a major problem when its comes to watches. I need everything to be perfect!!!!!. Heres a photo from my Loupe. I want this baby dead centered at the 12 oclock postion.

Do the same for the rest of the subdial hands. Easy

Ok next you need to put the hour hand back on. Now this is where my inexperience comes in!!!. The next photo shows the hour hand back in place but I pushed in right against the dial by mistake. ooops

This was a pain in the ass to get off and I slightly marked the dial but just only slightly. thankfully it isnt that noticeable when i wear the watch.

So put the hour hand back on using a hand press and then the minute hand, make sure they are correctly aligned. Finally put the chrono second hand on and align at the 12 oclock position.

The chrono hand gave me some problems as I thought I had it on correctly but when I started the chrono and reset it, the chrono hand didnt reset to 12 oclock - It was slipping. I realised that I wasnt on correctly. When it was put on correctly it make a small clicking sound. Start, stop and reset no problems now.

So put the movment back in the case. Dont FORGET to use the dust blower to remove any dust. Crown back in, scew on the back and your done.

Hope you find this helpful. Its taken me a long time to do this. I would be a great help if other people who have carried out modifications could post them for the rest of us to see.

Thanks and ENJOY

[tonton2000]

A Very good guide for a mod newbie to follow.

Bravo!

[pitimany]

excellent thanks

[gioarmani]

Excellent tutorial!

[vaccum]

Excellent!

I love DIY.

Cheers, vaccum