Serafino

JDS I think you want to check in at a place with lots of owners of that and related Omega watches to get your answer.  So many variables, but there will be some people who have had the relevant experience of lots of Omegas of that model range and age to give you some ideas.

While the collectors turn their noses up at non-originality (and only consider Rolex' position if you want a bit of comedy with your morning coffee), many buyers of vintage watches are fine with non-originality, even to the point of redials.  I think this trend could win out, and I keep expecting to see more and more aftermarket parts appear as one-off production becomes easier, or fine tolerance machining in batches becomes more possible for small operations.

Care to guess at the average cost to service a 1570 in 10 years, say with some minor part broken?

More excitement today in that same RF thread over "respected seller" getting caught selling a relumed watch as original.  Does the bottom fall out of that market someday when they no longer have the means of telling what's original or not?

I've puzzled over related issues so much that I can't resist taking a stab at this.  Automatico you may now laugh at my hypocrisy 

I have almost no knowledge about these things, so leaving aside parts compatibility, and assuming this is one of the details that is the same on Sellitas, the dial spacer on both the 2836 and the 2824 is .80 mm, so my GUESSES are:

-The stem height difference is reflected in the mainplate design;

-You'll need a way to space the dial from the movement;

Presumably your 2836 came with height 4 cannon pinion etc. so that will span the gap.  Probably the date wheel will also?

What case you have matters.  In the Rolex world some modders put 2836 movements into 2.15 mm stem height gen cases using a little trickery, so you want to be sure what you have.

Thanks yet again Automatico!  Yes I have been looking at the Caswell pen kits, The battery-based home brew is interesting.

Thanks!  Actually what I want is to chrome or whatever plate the gilt hand to match the others, so they are all 'silver'.  Oh and I don't mind about lume, going to get them lumed to match my dial when this all finally comes together.

Are all generic merc hands made of plated brass?  Are they chrome plated usually?  Is there anyone who can re-plate hands, for instance if a had a standard hour and second hand and wanted a "gilt" minute hand plated to match those?  Thanks again for any info.

Thanks to pompompurin I have some of the RT hands on the way.  Picked up some Clark's just out of curiosity, have some Yuki's from a while ago.  Has anyone got the ones from Startime lately?  They illustrate an intriguing seconds hand, but 3+ years ago they seem to have been sending out something different.

Sadly HR is still out of stock on hers.  Thank you for the very helpful post!

Well well there I go making assumptions again.  Looks like Yuki and Raffles sub hands are curved, my mistake.  Still looking for a supplier for 13 mm from center minute hand.  Thanks.

Also, has anyone had any luck setting a curve to a flat minute hand?

I'd be interested in hearing more about which aspect of the evolution you're referring to?

I'm focused on minute hand length.  It is my understanding that short sub hands are service hands or arguably very late originals.  As to the curved aspect, if that's an option this will be the first I've heard of it.  That would suit my project well, I would love to know where to get them.  I might even sacrifice minute hand length for that.  If you are thinking in terms of lume color, the hands will be relumed in any case.  Thanks!

My 1016 project is heating up, and I need to get my hands sorted.  Sadly the correct length ones from H are still out of stock.  Does anyone have any other sources or ideas?  At this point I would even pay a premium for a crafty one-off.  Thanks in advance for any hints, leads, or condolences!  

Yuki dials can be worth the price depending on the specific one, what else is available, how impatient you are, and how good your eye for 1016 dials is.

Thank you for this useful lesson in not speculating.  🙃

I have very little knowledge base in this so take me with a grain of salt, but based on the following facts:

-the only Chinese-cloned Rlx movement is the 3135

-Rlx no longer sells parts to anyone

...and my speculation that the 4130, being a significant development of their in-house models, can't be created through retrofitting a 3135, I would guess that there isn't a chance in the world of making one.

I wish I had access to him.  There are some things he does which hardly anyone else can, and as far as I can tell no one with as solid a reputation.  Unfortunately I don't ave any solid connections in EU.

Now I really need to know the stem height for these different variants.  Not that I'd pay for a GMT variant in the normal range, and not that I'm planning to buy a 157X in the foreseeable, but just because I never have been able to find it out.  I suppose since you've found a 3035 will fit in a 1575 case, that it's 2.15 mm, so then I guess the GMT is 2.25?  Also I'm having trouble fitting this together with 1570 o/a height of 5.75 mm and 1575 of 6.3 mm (I think I picked those figures up at the ra nfft site.)?  I must be missing something somewhere.

Great stuff!  I read somewhere that 15XX with date comes in different shapes of spacer or date configurations, does this seem right?  Something about one being 'cone' shaped and the other not?

Yup, and as ETA gets harder to access, that leaves a vacuum, and good things will happen, is my guess.

Now then, has anyone managed to find a way to give Helenarou flat hands (i.e. the set with the 13mm M and S hands) a curve / dome?  'Lo was going to give it a try back in 2015 ...

Alternatively, since people keep redirecting me to the 1570 option I gave up on a while back, is there a source for a hand set with long M and S hands, preferable with a curve / dome?  Maybe someone among the MQ crowd?  I looked at MQ and even the 6542 hands don't scale out promisingly.

That's niiiice.

Yeah this is one of the options I'd narrowed down to when I was thinking of doing it myself:

https://classic.onlinemetals.com/merchant.cfm?pid=14890&step=4&showunits=inches&id=902&top_cat=1

Now this is important.  I am going to post a link to a BAD site that uses content from here to lure people.  Don't trust links there and be very careful.  But you will find defunct pictures there although usually the names of the posters has been changed.

https://www.rw-forum.com/topic/57711-vintage-explorer-project-3-space-dweller/

A little more on that "forum":

He is a member who had 4 1016 projects.  The threads about the projects developed a lot of useful information and inspired a lot of builds.  Not around much lately, but his threads are a necessary read if one is going to make a 1016.