Nicely done. I think the commando is perfect in a 36mm size
Being an explorer aficionado I had to have a commando in my collection.
I had one member on RWI working on a commando decal dial for me but I think they stalled out on the project or busy with other projects.
Cruising Yuki's site one day I found that they also offer a commando dial . my impulsive nature took over and I ordered one.
it doesn't come with hands like many of the other dials they offer but I bought hands from Ofrie that are the closest available
My formula. :
34mm case set with tudor solid back and rolex 5.3mm crown from Raffles.
- sanded down the tudor engravings on the caseback and gave it a light polish.
yuki domed plexi ( ID of bezel needed to be enlarged to fit the domed plexi . a few mins work with a dremel
Yuki dial
Ofrei hands set
seconds hand - datejust handset - ebay / aliexpress - dont recall
clone eta 2824 movement .
raffles 19mm rivet bracelet
I bought the white lume dial and then aged it and the hands with airbrush paint so that the hands and dial lume would match.
assembly and voila :
On a 7.5" wrist
My sweet spot for watches is 36-38 and I was really apprehensive of trying 34mm watches as I thought it would look like I was wearing a ladies watch...however if you wear it a bit loose it looks fine and feels great!! light on the wrist and very comfortable , especially in the summer heat. This piece has been getting alot of wrist time lately and when I do put on my 1016 it almost feels unnecessarily big..... I know , crazy. right?
The one thing about the raffles cases is that they are said to be fully functional with an eta 2824 and they are 11.5 | linge however with the solid caseback it is too tight to allow the rotor to spin. Its fine on this build as it is a handwind reference anyway but I wonder if anyone else out there had been able to get their rotor to spin with this case set.
@pompompurin had suggested to dremel the inside surface of the caseback and sand down the height of the rotor, to which I will be attempting on a ranger build this coming week but I am not using a dial spacer at all and the dial is attached with dial dots.
comparing my build to a gen commando there are a few tells.
cornet on yuki dial is slightly off....the base of the crown is not as squared off as the gen , nor is the opening the proper size. biggest tell .
the ofrei hands appear to be slightly narrower and the hour hand is a bit too long compared to gen
All things considered to be able to own such a rare and now quite expensive watch for $300 is a bargain as far as i'm concerned
(gen for comparison)
.
I came across this seller and dial on ebay a few weeks back he had one listed and he also had a commando for auction (6429 with this dial and dj hands)
It is the closest I have seen of the two options presently available online
once the dial sold I contacted him to see if he had any more but he said no. however it is still on the site? I
I think I would upgrade to his dial to have my build one step closer in accuracy