TK471

Honor your commitments. If you pledged to buy, please do so.

Here are a couple pictures of Mark's work. I think he's done a fine, fine job, and it shows what he's capable of.

Pulling the whole stack at once is not a standard practice, and there is a real risk of damaging the movement by pulling more than one hand at a time.

Standard practice is to remove each hand in turn, if done correctly, there is no risk of scratches to the hands, there is a real risk of damage to the movement caused by the stress of removing all 4 hands at once.

Simply hacking the movement at 12, and then installing the hands at 12 again, is not a realiable way to do any watch, especially a GMT model. You need to take more steps to ensure that the GMT hand lines up with the main ones, it's not a static installation but a dynamic one. There are many things to consider when installing hands, gear train, spacing etc...but that is all covered in basic watchmaking courses.

RG

I must say I have noticed that the GMT hand does not line up precisely with the main time. It seems to be just about 10-15 minutes ahead. In other words, it the main time is 12:00, and the GMT time is set for three hours ahead, the GMT is not lined up on the hour marker.

Basically that would have been a DSN sandwich dial that I simply filled in the markers with superlume that was coloured with inkjet ink to make it more orangey. Then it was sprayed with a satin lacquer. The hands were done with a more white lume as all the photos of gens I have are like this. Actually my own 5218 has had a few changes recently. Same technique for the dial. I had an old case lying around that was a sample from DSN when he first started some time ago and I was looking at this recently and realised that it had a very shallow bezel (just like the gen comparison shown on the Paneristi site) so I swapped that over and although it does not have a nylon retaining ring it fitted ok. So now my crystal sits proud of the bezel and the bottom edge lip is very shallow. My case is one of those odd ones that just happened to have the correct lug shape for the 201A and I also have a gen H series CG coming soon which will finish that off nicely. There may also be some developments with a more accurate 201A dial sometime next year - I have already been working on the artwork for it as the DSN dial could have been printed better but I'm not going to say anymore about that as it may not happen for a while.

That will be a heck of a development, I will wait for that.

That's good news for you on the H series CG. That will be a nice addition. I'm certainly excited for the crown guard project in the other thread. Thanks for letting us know that it's still happening.

One thing I've noticed on the 201A is that the printing is a bit thin, not as BOLD as the gen. Maybe that's a fix Davidsen can muster.

Thanks for the response.

Two things:

1. I hope that it's still going forward; and

2. I hope that the people working on this project are taking a break from it all!

Happy Holidays everybody.

Mark, I've got one of your watches (201/A) with the sandwich filled in with lume like you've done with this one. Can you tell me more about it? You just can't tell by looking at it that it's a sandwich dial. Also, this 201/A you've done is amazingly accurate.

It really does look great. Congrats!

It sure looks now, but I'm sure the final product will be worth the effort. Can't wait to see it!

What's the standard cyclops size that comes on the rep, what is it 4mm?

7 is a lot better than 4, so if it's between getting a new one that's just a WEE bit too big, and keeping one that's really too small, I'll probably go too big.

(he heh. that's what SHE said)

Mark, regarding the pics in your first post, is that a modified cyclops, as well?

Email sent! This is exciting!

It looks fantastic. It just reminds me that I need those last two pieces -- date wheel and cyclops. Then it looks as good as the 63 is going to look.

By the way, Mark. I just received one of your custom 201A's from another member. This is one hell of a good watch, my friend. Your work is stunning.

Well having serviced one, I can tell you that it is the most troublesome and difficult movement known to man...

The cage with the escape wheel, balance, pallet etc...took me 10 (TEN) hours to assemble...very hard to work on to say the least...

How much to service? If you can find someone, not cheap at all...I'll never do another unless it's by the hour...

RG

Your post made me laugh out loud. The mere fact that you were able to put it back together at all speaks volumes about your skills. Don't worry, though, Rob. I'll never hit you up for a tourby service!

Great post, but I thought it was going to announce that the H series CGs were finished!!

sorry for the newbie question (been at this for almost a year now and i am still a noob), but i'm guessing that these datewheels won't work for the 2836 eta version of the pam 36 gmt?

thanks,

dt

I don't think they will work, sorry.

I haven't seen this rep before. I like it. Very nice chrono.

It looks to me like your GMT hand is the right length.

Nice post, great to see all the correct tools, workmanship, skills, and an informative post with all the warnings for those that may attempt something like this themselves.

Well done, I like to see quality craftmanship and attention to detail...great job, and nice photo's as well...

RG

You set the standard here, Rob. You and Chris make this hobby possible. Thank you to both of you.

The gen hands aren't going to make the dial LESS accurate, but they won't make it much MORE accurate. And you're right, it's absolutely crazy to spend $200 on the gen hands, and I say that as someone who has. It's a printing issue, pure and simple. Davidsen's dial is not the answer here. The only answer is to have hands specially made that are significantly shorter than the genuine hands so that the fact the printing is set more inward is accounted for. IMO, not really worth it. The gen hands are MUCH better finished than the rep hands, but NOT for the amount of money you spend on them.

There is a bottom line here. It is do what you can to the watch, fix the obvious things: the crown, the date wheel, the cyclops. But learn to live with those hands. No one will notice, it won't matter, and the watch is going to be great.

Learn from my mistake fellas. Trust me on this one.

Many pics added here.

http://www.rwg.cc/members/index.php?showtopic=17508

the 063 has been one of my favorite watches for a long time.

your version is as good as anyone could make it.

So how much do you want for it??

LOL. Keep in mind that this watch isn't finished. It still needs the date wheel and cyclops.

I am especially interested in this watch.... though I don't know why.

Chris, you have far exceeded my expectations. Thank you so much for your effort!

EDIT -- and let me just also add a note about The Zigmeister. If you doubt whether the money or the risk to send to Canada are worth it, Flav's opinion of the work should confirm that it IS worth it. You simply cannot believe the quality of the lume on this watch. Zig warned me that because he did it by hand that it might not be uniform, but God help me I simply cannot see any imperfections. It is THAT good.

Too bad if it is, but I certainly understand where Mark is coming from on this one.

As an aside, I'm not sure the genuine hands will make that much of a difference in the visual effect on the watch. Another member sent me pictures of his rep dial with genuine hands installed, and they don't look much shorter than the rep hands. Here's the pic (gen on the left, rep on the right):

The issue is not with the hands, it's with the dial. The numbers on the rep are printed slightly more inward toward the center of the dial. We're talking about 1mm here, but that is what's making the difference.

Mine should have the gen hands installed in the next few days, so I will post pictures of those. It's possible that this other member's dial was an anomoly, but it's more likely that the dial printing is yet another rep difference that members (including myself) are going to have to learn to accept.

Yes

Well, then, that's GREAT news!