alfe

Any help on this please. Just ordered a 1680 white from PC but want a nice dial. Anyone know if a 168000 'gen' dial will fit? I think the dial for the 1680 is 26.5mm diameter. Any help much appreciated, Alf

Thanks Andy, yes, the dial recess in the Josh 5513 case is 26mm exactly and the ingod dial is 1/2 mm too wide and the raffles one is 3mm too wide. Any idea where to get a 26mm wide dial for the 5513? Regards, Alf

I'm trying to upgrade the dial on the Josh 5513 but the Ingod dial is 1/2mm too wide and the Raffles one is 3mm too wide. I've worked out that the dial recess in the Josh 5513 is exactly 26mm. Anyone know how to get a good 26mm dial for the Josh 5513? All the best Alf

Will a Raffles Time 29mm 5513 dial fit my Josh 5513 case? They say it fits the DG 2813 movement which is in the Josh sub but 29mm seems a bit wider than the dial that's there at the moment. Any advice gladly received. Regards, Alf

No go I'm afraid but thanks anyway - seems to be rock solid. Next stop the watchmakers! Regards, Al

I've taken the day off, set everything up to spend the day painting my dial and can't get this damn movement out because the stem won't release! I know it's the button to the left of the little cog which depresses to release the stem but it wont release it no matter how hard I try. I have the correct 1mm screwdriver and can depress the button but whether the stem is in 'wind' or 'time setting' it won't release. I've pressed the button light and very hard and pulled the stem light and very hard but no go. Any suggestions would be much appreciated. Regards, Al

I've taken the day off, set everything up to spend the day painting my dial and can't get this damn movement out because the stem won't release! I know it's the button to the left of the little cog which depresses to release the stem but it wont release it no matter how hard I try. I have the correct 1mm screwdriver and can depress the button but whether the stem is in 'wind' or 'time setting' it won't release. I've pressed the button light and very hard and pulled the stem light and very hard but no go. Any suggestions would be much appreciated. Regards, Al

To anyone who cares - an update on my first Josh based 1655 project originally posted a few weeks back. Might be useful if anyone is mad enough to mod a 1655! CG's I have added to this by re-trimming CG's to be more accurate although pin point accuracy is difficult on this without compromising lug width. CG's on the gen 1655 are wider and thicker than the Sub and curve down into the lugs to form the apex at 4 and 8 on the bezel either side of the crown. Big lesson learnt here as I made the curve too shallow on my first attempt and on the second attempt carved the apex a little short of the 4 on the bezel. I think it just passes muster but could be better. Josh doesn't sell a case on its own so I may have to get a $98 1655 for the case and try again, or perhaps I can live with this one. There is a further complication - if you carve the CG's so that they swoop down to hit the 4 and 8 on the bezel as on the gen, you also have to shave some off the rest of the lug right up to the end of the lug to achieve the right profile which makes the lugs thinner than their counterparts on the other side of the watch, it's very slight and hardly noticeable really. GMT hand. Notoriously hard to set as true GMT hand but I understand it wasn't meant to on the gen. I would say forget about being able to set it as a GMT hand and just use it (as it was used on the gen) as a hand that denotes the 24 hour clock on the bezel. Colour - had much trouble finding the correct colour orange. I started with Humbrol Enamel Gloss 69 which was close but not close enough. Some old 1655 dials have faded GMT hands which are very weak Canary yellow which you just can't get easily or mix (yellow can't be mixed). However, some have a sort of flourescent red orange which I got close to by mixing some acrylics and applying over the original 69 yellow. Looks OK at arm distance and much closer to gen than red or yellow. Careful not to paint this too much or it will snag on the hour hand. Aging the dial markings. I discovered that using paint and thin brush is a bad idea as the aging looks purposely brushed on. I think the secret is not to overdo it and use a very small sponge dipped in weak muddy coloured paint. If the sponge is cut very thin and dipped in the water based paint and then pressed lightly onto the marking it looks more authentic. Careful not to press the sponge onto the black area on the dial because even water based paint wont wash off and it looks a mess. Bracelet Alteration The Oyster Band end link (the links that the springbar goes through) need to be replaced to be authentic as the Josh has a pressed endlink and the gen a smooth folded one. These are very hard too find on the bay and expensive when they do crop up. Then I had some luck - I was walking in town and noticed that many cheap market stall watches have folded oyster link bracelets and most of the men's size ones have links the same width and construction as the gen. So I bought a $5 quartz watch and removed the end links and put on the Josh bracelet - perfect match and stainless. Threw the quartz watch away. Materials and Tools Sternkreutz 25 116 302 Crystal from Cousins UK - $6 Diamond Jewellers Files Set - ebay $6 Watch Desk Clamp - ebay $10 Acrylic Poster Paint and thin sponge - ebay $5 Dremel Equivalent Drill - ebay $10 400 and 600 wet and dry 1.2 mm screwdriver to remove stem - ebay $5 1.5mm screwdriver to remove case clamps - ebay $5 Very Cheap Market Watch for Oyster Band Parts - $5 No 5 29.50 Case Back remover and Die for Rolex - $8 Tweezers (for picking up small case clamps etc. Razor with holding edge to get bezel off Heavy Plastic Pipe to force bezel on Humbrol Black Gloss for Bezel Etching Infill - $4 You will see one of the pics is the first attempt (yellow GMT hand) and the others with the orange GMT hand are the second. Hope this is of some use.

I would say the Sterny is perfect for this watch, Date mag is as good as gen maybe slightly better and no discernable difference in quality compared to the gen crystal on my 6694. The great thing is the top edge of the Sterny 25 116 (302) is curved identicaly to the gen used on an Exp 11. It is also exactly the correct height. Looks great.

I think it was Sterny 25 -116 (302) crystal from Cousins UK and whichever one I used there was 0.13 difference between outer edge Josh crystal and outer edge of the Sterny. The Sterny was OD 30.2 (same as Clark) and the Bezel Inner Diameter was 30.05. And the difference between the Josh fitted crystal and the Sterny 116 was 0.13 too wide. However as this is an interference fit anyhow, I figured that this would fit with a bit of an extra shove. I used a bit of 600 wet and dry on the inside of the bezel (maybe 10 sweeps by hand) but not much sanding and the bezel pressed on with the help of a thick pipe (correct diameter for bezel) and gentle use of a small sledge hammer. The crystal went on the case perfectly. Hope this helps. Alf

Sorry about delay. Crown and tube are factory as supplied by Josh. They are pretty good and compare well with gen - smooth action and screw down well onto tube so I thought that it wasn't worth the bother of changing them. Anyhow, not sur e if they would fit. Perhaps someone has tried on the forum? I'm glad I tried this as a first build - fairly straightforward and because the basic watch from Josh is so good (dial is accurate), a good result can be achieved for little effort. 1655 is not one of the real superstars like the Sub but is an easy watch to live with and it grows on you. Cheers Alf.

Some shots of my 1655 Exp 11 Orange Hand project. Based on a recent Josh watch with an ETA movement. Some notes on my (probably incorrect) method: Crown off and stem out, movement out (somehow I managed to jam the movement which required the services of a local watchsmith to get going £40!) GMT hand painted with 69 Humbrol enamel with very fine brush Hour minute and second hands ‘weathered’ with grey watery acrylic mix. Bezel off and black rubber filling removed from etched numbers . Bezel polished with Dremel. Etched numbers re-filled with 21 Humbrol black enamel gloss. I know it’s not usual to polish the bezel but I’ve seen a lot of gens with this and I think it looks good. CG’s re-shaped with diamond half round and full round mini files. I was a bit over-zealous with the filing and made the curve away from the CG’s a little too severe so it arrived at the apex just before the 8 and the 4 on the bezel (on the gen the curve is slightly gentler and reaches apex exactly at the 8 and the 4). Silly mistake but I think it just about gets away with it. Polished with Dremel and polishing rouge. Sterny crystal fitted but bezel struggled to fit using an ebay watch press, so I improvised one from a hard plastic pipe. The circular plastic end of the pipe fits the bezel well and it hammered (gently) on eventually and is waterproof. All in all a fairly straightforward first project but I’m worried I’ll get to like this and progress onto bigger projects – already looking at Subs etc - help! I’ve included my gen 1957 Oysterdate Precision 6694 in the last shot.

Thanks guys for all the help. I've ordered a Sternkreutz 116 from Cousins and will hope for the best. It certainly seems good from a mag point of view. Alf

Thanks Andy, very helpful - I worked out that the Clark and Sterkreutz crystals were 0.13mm wider outer diameter than the crystal on the josh 1655 but I would think a decent press should get the bezel on. I don't want to start shaving the crystal or bezel if I can help it - might go too far!