ubiquitous

If I have it... It's yours, gratis...

Holy schnikies! That is one serious spec sheet that you've got into this build!

Killer gen!

Doh.

What size J12 does your girlfriend have, sul? 33mm?

I may have an old spare...

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The quintessential PAM GMT duo, in my humble opinion.

Killer pair, M! Some major drool factor with those two!

Mrs. Ubi would love to have an annual pass! And... I have to say, the idea is quite tempting!

Thanks for the kind words, gents. I do appreciate it!

Watch passed the pressure test and is good for 100m (though with the leather strap I doubt I'll be getting this one wet anytime soon).

Managed to get a couple of (hopefully) better snaps; the sun is setting so I kinda rushed these...

 

Some months back at the beginning of 2011, when the 111J had been released and it was realized that it made for a great Pre-V basis, I got the urge to start a 201/A project. I got on the phone with watchmeister who had also expressed some interest in such a project; as such we began brainstorming on the best approach to make a Pre-V Logo become reality.

I picked up some 111Js to start with. Procurred some FGD dials and after sandbagging on my ass for a few months (read: I was slacking), got the case up north to The Zigmeister to have the dial lumed, the threaded sides of the lugs drilled out and a new case tube fabricated and fitted for a gen crown. Along the way, w0lf had released some pics of a phenominal case reshape he had done on the 111J to give it just that much more of a Pre-V form and I knew immediately what the next step was to be. The case was promptly sent over to w0lf after it's return from the north, and hence some magic was to begin. Pics can never truly capture the complex curves that w0lf had sculpted on the shoulders and lugs... He's really done an outstanding job on the reshape and his efforts are more than apparent; this is not the same 111J case that started life some months back! I had also managed to procure a custom-made-1-of-10-in-existance Pre-V crown guard. The opening for the crown is nice and shallow; the crown guard itself is thick and chunky and the overall heft gives this watch a significant presence! w0lf had massaged the CG onto the case for a perfect fit.

Next to go on were a DW thick caseback, H-factory crystal, and some Pre-V lug bars. The dial and hands were fitted to an old Swiss 6497 I had sitting in the watch box... Things were finally taking shape…

I'm now 11 months into the project; some time has certainly passed since I first started. A lot of this is due in part to my own slow pace but I ran into some shipping problems which resulted in my case taking a slight detour to do some sight seeing in a few other states thanks to the USPS mistakenly sending the case around the country...

A few crude pics. Mrs. Ubi is running some errands and I asked her if she could drop it by the local shop to have it pressure tested. I'll snap some better images later today...

Case after being resculpted by w0lf...
 

Beautiful... I love the work he's done to the edges, shoulders and lugs...
Some quick pics after assembly... Just put everything together last night after coming home from our mini-vacation...

Thanks to my pals watchmeister, Zigmeister, and w0lf for helping me make this a reality.

Somehow, we just cannot stay away from the Happiest Place on Earth...

My travel companions for this trip...

5514 as per usual...

And my 16520.

Well, I say 'probably' as it's been quite sometime since I've had an MBW in-house. I currently don't have an MBW on hand that I can actively check my Phong 1665 caseback on to confirm, so I offer nothing definitive; however, my general experience with phong and MBW parts fitting one another is positive.

I wasn't actively looking to part with this piece, but the planets were just in alignment; if the 6265 was going anywhere, I wanted it to go to a good home (and indeed it has)

Chief- Hope the vintage Cosmo provides as much enjoyment to you as it was for me to get together. It's a great companion piece to the 16520 and I think it's a very fitting addition to your stellar collection!

Probably pretty good...

Pete,

I used to get friend requests all the time from people I didn't know (and usually with 0 - 2 posts under their belt). I finally enabled the manual approval filter on my profile to at least allow me to review these things prior to being added to my list.

I've always wondered what the motivation is to do such a thing... But #2 is what I've always suspected. Call me a cynic...

Killer piece! Absolutely top notch!

I think you need a dark dial build next...

Franken 16520 today...

Finally got around to knocking this one out... Gen crown/tube installed and I also swapped my old chief AR'd crystal for a fresh, minty chief AR'd crystal that I had waiting in the ol' parts box.

These additions compliment the gen dial, hands, Swiss 7750 and German day/date wheels nicely methinks.

Looking at the project thus far, I reflect upon my prior statement made at the subject header and can only reiterate- It is indeed all about the little details! It takes living with the rep parts to appreciate the gen parts even more

Killer build! Very nicely done!

What's to stop you from blowing your bollocks off?

Whoa-! You weren't kdding when you told me how big this strap was the other day!

Gives the entire watch a completely different presence. I like it!

Absolutely killer!

They're not the easiest to find, but they are out there.

Kinda pricey though...

I should have taken a 'before' shot, but I didn't... This is about as good as I can provide...

Before

After with the inner guards trimmed and cleaned up...
 

Most of the effort went into opening up the lower portion of the guards and what I call squaring of the inner corners (this is to make the inside corners at the base of the guards as sharp and with as defined of a 'corner' as possible). The difference is hard to detect, but the easiest way to see the difference is to compare the distances of the CG edges to the crown tube since that's really the only constant between the two pics. You may notice that the 6:00 side was much more enclosed (i.e. closer to the tube) than the 12:00 side, and the inner CGs much too angled. I straightened them out slightly, still keeping a slight angle but enough to open everything up as you should be able to see a good portion of the base of the crown...

Does anyone know what a hen's tooth looks like?

Stem height is crucial for this particular project. If the stem is not center inside the case tube (i.e. the stem is too high/too low) the stem is going to snap.