Leaderboard

.

"My 1655 attempt with low budget." It does not look low budget to me. My 'shortcut' 1655 is also low budget except for the movement. The watch I started out with had a DG 3804 in it. It was oem spec inside the case and I already had most of the movement parts so the project took off from there. First time I tried the 1575 movement in the cartel case it would not slip into the case but a day or two later I tried again and it went right in. I did not have the movement level the first time and it stuck in the case. "Also for the Vietnam bezel is necessary shave down the cartel and also the gen spec plexi sternutz or whatever the name is..." I will probably end up using an aftmkt crystal that fits the case neck properly and polish the OD of the crystal down so the 'too tight' bezel will slip down over it. I have a few crystals that fit this description and I will mount them on an empty case and sand and polish the OD down to fit. I mount an empty case in a lathe with the crystal pushed down over the case neck and sand/polish it while it spins. The crystals almost always fit the case neck tight enough to stay on but if the crystal is too loose on the case neck, I can put a piece of watch paper between the case neck and crystal to tighten it up a little bit so it will not come off. I decided sanding the crystal OD down is easier and better than machining the ID of the bezel. Rule #22: "Make the part fit the watch, not the other way around." Ha! I have a Phong '1655' case and there is really not much difference at all between the two cases except the cartel case has the slightly oversize dial and dial opening in the case...and the very good engraving on the Phong case. All I did to the cartel case is clean out the case tube threads, put a new case tube in it, drill the lug holes out, and change the crystal/bezel. The crystal that came on it did not suit me so I changed it out and got in a mess matching the crystal/bezel set to fit. From a previous post: "I just build a 1655 with BP Base watch and inside is engraved 1675." I have an Abay '1655' from 15+ years ago and it has '1680' between the lugs and inside the case back. It also uses a 127 spec crystal, 26.5mm dial, and has too much space around the 6mm crown. Back then they used any case that was handy. Most of them came with new swiss ETA 2836 and non adjustable china 24 hour conversions. Two of mine had new ETAs and one had a used ETA. All the sapphire GMT II I got back then had new swiss ETA 2836 with non adjustable china 24H conversions. The GMT cases were properly sized and laser signed. 'Replica Classics' Ha!

Screw you and your impossibly difficult tests with your amazing watches 😝😉👍🏻