dow

Hello guys! It's a lovely watch... I also have a Mille metri proto, and I can tell it's very wearable. About the same size as a pam 47mm diver/fiddy.

Lume compound does not respond well with water. If you use a acrylic varnish, dillute with non-water based thinner...

Look at the skinny 6 fi... is it a deal breaker? IMO no...

Thanks! I think my mashup looks nicer than the uboat watch that the dial was designed for. It certainly is cheaper. ;-)

VDB left vintage pam scene AFAIK

Here is a previous build that I have reworked for the holidays The ingredients: *Jackson B&R homage case - Necky thick and flat plexi - Athaya screw-in brevet crown * Vintage Unitas 6497 hammered finish * Gen U-BOAT "Thousands of feets" sandwich dial * Swiss Vintage style Flieger hands from Ernie. The seconds hands tube was too short for the sandwich style dial, so I'm using a temp seconds hands until I have figured out a way to modify it. * B&R band strap. Originally with white thread, but I have dyed it brown.

What do you mean the balance being toast? Was it crocked after prior service or someone fiddling with it? Often there is a problem with the balance spring not being perfect in shape, or goey and sticky. Other than that a cleaning and polishing of balance staff and jewels usually is the cause of the problem... My puretime 6542 came with this vinty ETA and it definetly needed a service before working ok. I word of warning, be gentle with the stem release button, if pushed to hard the stem lever will slip and you will have to open up the movement to reset... I know, I just now did it... LOL

Reviving this thread. I have now taken the watch apart. First I can confirm it is a swiss movement in this watch, which is nice. The dial is 27 mm and the rehaut edge is 26.5 mm. So there is not much that can be taken in to reduce wookiness. I will do some and see how much a can change the appearance. I'm giving the dial and hands a relume. Changing to Clarks plexi. Will post up when finished.

I've heard good things about DW when it comes to low priced Dayto

Thanks for reminding me. I have not yet assembled the watch. Will do and post up my findings!

A little update: The GMT module works, but not flawlessly, it stutters, especially after I have set the GMT hand. But it runs. I will together with a friend take a look at it. The movement itself runs well now. First it was unreliable but now it ticks strong. Maybe the movement needed some time to tune in. Still it will be serviced. I thought I should make some overal comments over the design: I think this is a really nice watch. I don't know much about it's history, but I really dig the color palette. You have both red, blue and white in the inlay, orangey lume, goldish text print, red gmt hand, silver hands... It came with a riveted stretch bracelet. If you have hair on your wrist, it will be a PITA. I thought the bracelet was decent, but this watch, with all it's colors, screamed leather strap to me. The I found the crown surpringly small, but I'm used to big crown designs. I actually think it looks more balanced with a small crown, but I still feel for the big crown design. What also appeals to me about the 6542 is the case profile. It's really sleek and low, with pam 6154-ish pointed lugs: My plans are this: a relume of the dial and hands plus some ageing, dull the case a bit, swap to Clark plexi (already bought one), change the GMT hand - it looks off to me, and a leather strap. I was planning to make new plexi inlay, but this I have put on hold. The time is just not on my side at the moment. The plexi inlay is itself a very cool design feature. The one I have looks really crisp and perfect. Maybe too perfect compared to the gens, that has distorsions, blotched numbers and a creamy discoloration. Some seems to be slightly curved/rounded, some looks flat, like this one. I have dyed veg tan leather and made a strap just as vintage pam straps were constructed: double folded tail side and three folded buckle side. The buckle was taken from a NATO strap. A slightly meatier buckle would be preferable, but this is what I have in 20mm. I stitched the ends to make the strap more robust. It's a bit orangey now, but will darken with time, use and mink/neatfoots oil.

Thanks woof, that is good to know. I looked at the movement and I believe it is the gmt pack that slips. Should be fixable. And if the movement itself is worth a damn my watchmaking friend/mentor will give it new life. Otherwise I will probably shoot you a pm for that ebay source.

I should hang out more with you guys. I'm learning something by every post in this thread, including how you really service asian autos. LoL!

Panerai153, that is a very informative post you made which is valid and a good basic read for anyone looking into this scene. I must confess I have limited experience in buying ready made reps, and autos/chronos as well. I still cling to my position that a song should start in the right key. That said, if I buy a vintage movement, ETA, Molnija, Cortebert or Angelus or the likes, I never believe that the movement will work flawlessly without some TLC. However if the seller claims it functions correctly, I assume that it does so. Time keeping issues is though to be expected. But it will need to function reasonably correct. I have not posted that the movement we speak of also lost ten minutes first four hours running... Perhaps the underlying problem is I only have picked apart and serviced larger manuals, and that autos and chronos scare the sh!t out of me. So here is a good opportunity to break into servicing autos as well. Finally I can say I got a fast reply from Puretime, with a very fair approach to me and to the issue. I also talked with a pro watchmaker friend, that will look at the movement. So I feel confident that I will fall on my feet this time.

Thank you panerai153 for your info. This is my first time with puretime. I usually only buy parts and bits, and in a different arena of watches and movements. All said it's disturbing that someone sells a watch with a faulty movement. I can accept problems after a while, but the song really needs to start off in the right key. This fault was simply obvious when they made the watch... I think the case is not that bad. I do agree about the wooky rehaut, I'm hoping to be able to take it in a bit. But there might be to small tolerances... And I guess I should be lucky to have the roulette wheel installed. Jeee