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Well I succumbed to the need to take a closer look at the updated Cartel 5513 and ordered one from Josh. http://www.pf-818.com/-p-9481.html At long last we can say goodbye to to the stubby crown guards, a good excuse for me start another build. Here we go The annoying "Stailesssteel" and 1665 model designation between the lugs. I will sand these out to leave a brushed finish. Comparison of case height with the previous stubby 5513 and 1665 Cartel models (both modded). First the 5513. 1665 with a phong bezel assembly Side by side with the modded 5513 Asian 2836 movement Replacement of dial and handset. Dismantling the bezel assembly and crystal removal in preparation for case work. So far so good. More to follow

C O N G R A T U L A T I O N S

that's what I bought and exactly what I intend to doing in the future.

Didnt know you had a 1680 ?? but congrats on your beatiful piece

I would imagine any eta 7750 stem will fit the movement. Plenty on Ebay. The stem should screw out of the crown, i would very gently grip the stem in a pair of micro pliers and anti clock wise (i think) turn the crown. Good Luck with the fix!

Awesome. Congrats!

Congrats! Looks great!

Very nice

Nice job , looks the business

We've got a deep bench here, that's for sure. What's not so obvious is that we also have plenty of members with more money than God. It's just that here on good old RWG, we don't measure people by the size of their wallet. Character counts.

Nice dial Jack. Look forward to another one of your excellent builds.

Great for you to give her an awesome graduation present. Check the sales area over on TRF. I would guess you can get a better deal through one of the trusted sellers over there. You can also get a good idea of market price even if you buy at your AD. Or if you have a specific model ask one of them to source it for you. I have used a couple guys over there. Pm me if you want names. Good luck man.

Actually it was sorta both....

I love seeing these step by step posts! Can wait to see more and the final product! Lookin' good already.

This week I finally got the new ZF iw5001-14. The "check on arrival" process showed me that the all was working but the date was changing between 8.30pm and 10pm. So today I fixed the hands so that the date change is midnight sharp and I regulated it to keep good time. It looks a well made movement to me. It is stable face up, vertical crown left, up and right. It gains around 10s/d when face down. It autowinds in both directions (like an eta 2824, unlike the Miyota ones or the 775x). The stem is easy to extract and reinsert with a bit of care that is always needed in this task, starting from time regulation position. It looked clean, but a bit dry of oil... I put a bit of Moebius ones where I could (didn't want to service it for now). Also the rotor screw was quite loose... Not the others. At the beginning I thought that the bezel has to be removed to extract it from the case, but luckily the case back removal is enough. Now some pic. Before and after regulation: A couple of pics of the movement and hands alignment after the repositioning. Cheers, GenTLe

More progress, this time with a T-39 installed. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Now, how's this for matching the hands to the dial! I am speechless, Mike has managed to find me the perfect handset. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Lol Phong never exactly cared about patent, copyright, etc... As all other dealer's, maker's .. He's more talented, has a better reputation, but let's face it, this business is illegal, producing those parts is highly illegal, selling those parts is a felony and buying those parts is a felony too depending of the country... But that is the game... Sometimes I feel that some guys forget it but that's the true. You can debate and argue as much as you want about the margins of the GEN industry etc.. There are some arguments.. But our hobby is illegal, make some western company loose money, loose jobs etc.. Without being catastrophic, this hobby is at least unethical but so much fun.

Thought I'd try my hand at one of these... Brief departure from the 1940's dress watches I've been working on lately This project started more as a curiosity; I was intrigued specifically by the whisperings and 'myth' of dials that were so close to gen, that they may as well be. So, my adventure initiated with a dial and hand set from cc33; great guy to work with and cannot say enough good things about him. He's truly an asset to the community and I consider him one of the great authorities on Big Crowns. He's really done a lot of research on these and it shows in his fantastic builds. The dial base is a genuine Beyeler, refinished to genuine specs in the same process that such dials were produced back in their time. The gilt fonts, chapters and index are all base metal, framed up with chocolate brown 'tropical', patina. Sealing everything in is nitrocellulose lacquer... Which provides a nice, glossy mirror-like finish. Looking at the dial at an angle, one can see that the gilt attributes are actually on a different, lower plane of the dial surface; adds a lot of character and depth to the watch. After seeing the dial up close and in my hands, I knew I had to keep going. Hands are a nice set of gilt with lollipop seconds; nice match to the markers. Had to have a small repair done on the seconds hand; the tube had separated from it completely and so I had to have a new one riveted on (but it's all set now). A project just wouldn't be a project without a few hurdles along the way; it would be a bit boring if there were no troubleshooting or problems to solve and everything just went together without any effort I love LOVE the big bubble of the lollipop seconds... Maybe one of my favorite details on this watch. Perhaps especially so, considering the effort needed to get it sorted out The insert is a near mint, pristine example of a fat font I had come across on luck. It appears to be, perhaps from a 1680/8, as the fonts are slightly beige in tone. They're a great match to the cream luminous markers on the dial. I also picked up a nice, even faded grey insert, but felt that it wasn't quite as good of a match to the overall feel of the watch. Just chucked that one back into the spares box and will maybe find a use for it someday... The movement is a clean 1030, fully overhauled by the master up North And wrapping it all up is a case from Phong, matched with a gen 800 crown that I picked up for a whopping $15. Took a bit of a risk on it as the pics were not great, but there were some small details that stood out that I felt comfortable with. That... And it was only $15! Sure, it's got some wear... A knick here and a small ding there... But for the price... I ain't complaining. As mentioned in other threads, my crown doesn't screw down completely; a common problem as many gen examples out there seem to suffer the same issue. On to some pics... Insert pairing #1 Insert pairing #2 All I really need now is to find a suitable rivet Oyster (it's on a NATO for now)... For this I can wait. Got some Pateks to start working on now... Thanks for looking! //ubi