mellons

Anaconda

The thing

The crease on the caseback underside of mid-cases bothers me so i decided to do light modding on the river 6154 case- did a little more reshaping than planned. nothing done yet to lugs- need to look at case a bit more...

There has been a fair bit of discussion in some threads about 6154 shapes, domed plexi options and casebacks etc. so I thought I would do a trawl through a few bulds and combos I have tried in the recent past. These are no way exhaustive and are mainly variations of athaya's 6154 case set. There are some other super builds out there and I am sure other will chime in with super builds (oyang case, river and silix modded etc) but I thought it might be interesting and informative to show a few different options for anyone planning on doing a 6154 build. Most of the cases shown have been modded (softened and creases removed etc. with minor work on lugs). As the gens are quite varied I think it boild down to personal preference for combinations of parts. I like both main options: high plexi + thick caseback; and also thin low plexi and thin caseback. IMHO the thin build-up shades it for me but I will probably end-up with two separate versions, one "thicker" and one "thinner". Here's a previous older build using athaya case- slim athaya display back, slim bezel etc. this is probably my preferred configuration for the 6154- it accentuates how slim the mid case is. Some hf'ers hav actually slimmed the mid-case down again also. solid caseback (athaya slim one) here it is with slim plexi + athaya thick caseback (not as attractive imho) with a higher dome + slim display caseback comparisons thinner solid plexi + thin caseback modded athaya case- looks very slim

A big blonde lol...

Imho one of the nicest plexis was a 3mm solid made with a slight dome, in an athaya single-piece solid low bezel. Looked great and as it was single domed you got that nice distortion at an angle....

thanks guys tbh i am torn between the two main variants on this case (there seems to be quote a variety in the gens). i think for display caseback athaya's super thin engraved caseback with low single-piece bezel and low plexi is the way to go (plexi will have no vertical sides at all). This makes for a really nice thin "dress" watch- fantasy build with a nice older molly or cortebert looks great. for solid caseback i actually like this chunky one (slightly thicker than gen) and the slightly taller plexi. I have dsn's one here and has a lower dome (it is also very nice)- this one seems to be half-way between dsn's low one and a proper very curved tropic. For a daily beater this is the way to go- asian 6497 etc. with a nice bit of weight. I will probably end up with two as I will end-up changing one build around etd.. (lol) i have a heavily modded reshaped dsn "6154" incoming which will be interesting to see how it compares to this one. Am resisting the urge to take out the files on this.....

here is a quick-and-dirty mock-up using river's 6154 case set (unmodded). plan will be to mod case but i want to compare this with heavily modded dsn 6154 case set incoming form necky's first aid hospital! this will be a super daily beater- nice weight with caseback and well finished out-of-the box. here is build: ingredients as follows; river case + solid caseback + plexi southy gaposis rp dial athaya high-collar hands + cp mod roland kemmber seagul 6497 "arillo" strap + elias vintage buckle (sterile)

river/ southy goodness today!

Nightwatch in uk

Nice looking build with top notch parts!

Nice work!

kpoy plexi on the mm in all its glory!

it is only on inspection that i see how much work was needed to get my "simple" requested mods done in order to remove lip above and below midcase and get bezel sitting on midcase, joe needed to do the following: taking off the top lip and bottom lip recess the case back recess the top of the midcase for the bezel rotation to sit in (bringing the bezel closer to the case) drilling and tapping the bezel rotation ring for larger screws + making said screws machining the bezel rotation ring for the crystal to sit into making the crystal (truly awesome) internally pressing in of a movment sleeve and machining it to fit the movement (6497) proper disassembly will be documented- case is now a top-loader for 6497 exact fit! trial movement in place- perfect fit!

getting the lugs was ok, doing the bezel more curved took ages on bezel, vertical face above bezel teeth has been removed and crease line on top of bezel curve also has been removed....

mock-up of dsn neckyegi!

mille metri on heavy blasted strapcode today

watertight at moment- haven't tried in pool but showerproof etc. critical dimensions for gaskets etc. confirmed by esdee and as per drawing (1.75mm high dim is the critical one for the lower section- if higher ok lower and wr may be affected) iir ennebi have a 1000m rated plexi model in their range also....

Now that I know it actually works time to post up this mille metri mod. Special mention to esdee, tan, dow without whose input this mod would not have been possible. Kpoy was great to deal with and very patient making these. When looking at a number of gen images we concluded that at least one gen had a domed plexi: http://rolexfan-world.blogspot.ie/2012/12/panerai-mille-metri-prototype-divers.html After some too-ing and frooing between Esdee and Tan/ Dow here is final drawing of plexi mod (top is esdee's sapphire, bottom is 6mm domed plexi) I got onto alex (kpoy) to make these and he didnt disappoint- measurements were spot on! Here is one polished plexi I didnt polish sides, just top and bottom surface, and it looks much better installed than mineral (gap) and also slight texture looks great on surface. There is no distortion whatsoever, and sharp edge on upper surface did polish out. On the batch i received i should have polished and sanded the upper sides: the bezel did not move freely and i sanded after installation: this would be better to complete in advance of install. Here are some progress shots (thanks tan for step-by-step instructions!): mineral crystal out! Plexi in! Now some beauty shots (after sanding in sides to get bezel moving freely): nice lens-effect at oblique angle finally wristie: slight lens looks cool at very oblique angle and there is no distortion!

Its a hard case to photograph. Its a lot more comfortable than fiddy on. Shape is strangely reminiscent of a radiomir!

I have only held a dsn 52mm egi in my hands once, and thought although impressive it was a little impractical- the height more than the diameter was the dealbreaker at the time. After seeing a few egis posted here and on hf and getting occasional egi-itis looking at them i re-read one older post and in particular a superb egi build of joe's (neckyzips) with mods to the caseback of a stock dsn egi (removing "lip" on caseback). As with a lot of builds i find myself going back over posts and looking properly at the amazing work done... Anyway after seeing this I got a rush of blood to the head and put up a wtb for a dsn 52mm egi case. Enabler blueradish dutifully obliged and sent on the egi case straight to joe, who made his considerable skills available for the project. while re-reading the thread I noticed some comments by clint, who also confirmed to me that he had also removed the upper lip on the dsn case by hand: the plot thickens.... after some research it would appear that no one has ever done both to a dsn case, but gen images suggested that if it was possible this would be a superb mod. Joe went at this like a tiger, and after three days of machining (he has already told me "never again" so dont ask him! lol) here are some shots of the case from "the lab" case is now considerably slimmer and is now a front-loader (like gen)!!! 3 words.... OMG images courtesy of joe:

EDIT: Comparison between dsn reshaped and reduced 6154 and a silix vintage build (thanks uwe); dsn is on rhs

that is soo good!