RWG Technical

Job well done, Thank you for the kind words. Practice and more practice is the only solution, but it does demand a lot of time and patience...

Your welcome. If you do remove the bezel, keep in mind that installing it requires a crystal press and a large die, you'll never get it on by hand...

Every PAM I have handled had a separate case and bezel assembly, well all except a few that were DLC coated and the bezel was epoxied in place for some reason (it shouldn't be). The bezel is either held in place with a compression ring (like the crystal) or it is snapped in place. Sometimes a case back knife can be used to pry it off, but I find that a bezel removal tool works much better, especially on the tighter ones, especially the snap in place ones...

Well done. On the GMT movement, you only need to remove the teeth of the upper datewheel and glue it on top of the existing datewheel to make it work, there are no gears in the way. It is a straight forward and simple mod. As for drilling the bottom datewheel to make it "lighter", it is irrelevant and a waste of time. The spring detent for the dateweheel poses more frictional resistance to the movement during changeover that the additional weight of the extra datewheel does, no reason to do more work than necessary.

Glad to hear that it's working well for you, great looking watch.

Now that certainly is a slant I have never heard of before, movements aren't and can't be water resistant, the actual watch case is (or isn't) waterproof. All movements are stamped brass, the silver ones are Nickel plated, the gold ones, are Gold plated. If you find that in a catalogue, I would love to see it.

That is correct, Gold = Hong Kong factory, Silver = Swiss

My pleasure as always, great strap selection, it really finishes it off, and I am glad to see it on your wrist again... One of a kind for sure, I think the grey of the subdial and PVD compliment each other very well, it's come a long way from what we started with. Congrats on such a nice piece.

Looks great, wonderful photo's. Enjoy.

If there is one skill where low price equals shoddy workmanship, it's watchmaking. Your best low cost option is to have someone shorten the stem so the crown sits close to the case in the winding position, you will have the correct "look" but the crown won't actually screw down.

I would not say dumb at all, while it seems simple, the big problem is the gen parts are not the same size as the rep ones, so the replacement requires quite a bit of re-work, certainly not a mod for someone who doesn't have the tooling or experience.

I have been doing this mod for about the last year or so, so if it was done in that time frame, that is what you ended up with. It should keep water and air out, the brass bushing is hammered into the case, then the tube pressed (or screwed depending on the model) into the brass. It is a very tight fit, so if yours feels rock solid, it's probably got the brass insert, if you look closely with the crown unscrewed, you can probably see the bushing...

Some pop off with a simple press of the caseback knife, others need the bezel removal tool and get destroyed during the removal process... The only thing consistant with reps, is that no two are the same... You can never use an example of one to judge the others, they are all different, which makes it difficult.

Unfortunately many of the latest bezels will not come off, even with a bezel removal tool. Actually, I can get it off, it will simply result in damage to the case, and the bezel will get bent and won't ever work again. Now and then you get one that pops right off, but most of them are tighter than the hinges of hell, and attempting to remove it will end up ruining the case and bezel...speaking from experience here...

Not true. A gen tube is not the same size as the rep one, the case needs to be modified to accept the gen tube, you can try epoxy, but it will only work for a while before it pulls out of the case. The only permanent fix is to either weld the tube in the case, or make a bushing out of brass, press the bushing into the case, then press the tube into the bushing. If that wasn't enough to take on, the stem will normally be too short for the gen crown, and a new stem doesn't always work either and you may have to use a stem extender to make it all work... Not a 10 minute job, and certainly not a job for someone who hasn't the experience or tooling to do it...

Sorry, but it isn't... Try taking the bezel off the one in your avitar and let us know how you made out...

@ Osrep The specs on Grade A show 25% + improvement in glow, and a visible time of 700 minutes (normal C3 lasts 570 minutes). In person, the difference is noticeable between the Grade A and the normal lume. Is it worth it? I only picked up 1 gram to test and play with, costwise it's 50% more than normal lume. I guess if you want the brightest of all lume, and it's important to you, then it's probably worth it...but lume has always been a personal choice, some love it, others couldn't care. I bought it because I was curious about how it would compare to what I normall stock.

@hackR Agree, customization is the best part of the hobby, gets rid of same ole, same ole...

The Grade A is no different than the normal lume when it comes to application, it feels and looks and goes on the same... Short answer, No, call it marketing hype, or BS - which is what it really is...multiple layers make no difference to the glow, the final thickness makes the difference, all "layers" add is increase the time spend doing the job, and the chance of error. Lume glow depends on two things: 1. Thickness 2. Width The more lume you apply, the thicker or wider it is, the brighter the glow. If this thickness is achieved with 1 or 101 coats makes ZERO difference to the glow, given the same quantity of lume, you will have EXACTLY the same glow. A dial silkscreener would not apply lume in multiple layers, the chance of error goes up each time you place the screen on the dial, and there is no valid reason to do it, it will not increase the glow. Lume is translucent, so if you apply lume and then a reflective coat on top of it, you have just nullified the layer below. It needs to be one continuous layer of homogenous lume. Tritec literature spells and explains this out in detail, it is a known fact, but if your marketing a watch and want to make it stand out from the rest, you embellish the truth and people will buy into it hook, line and sinker...

According to Tritec, production results in a small quantity of C3 which has brighter glow and is longer lasting than the rest, they separate this from the other stuff, add 50% to the price, and people like me buy it to test it out... I think it's just variability in production like you suggest. It only comes in C3 - Yellow/Green, and they look virtually identical uncharged. As for the Rubberclad type, I think this can replace any C3 lumed dial, it just depends on how important glow is to you and if you want to pay the extra cost. This is the first dial I have done, and the difference in person is quite noticeable.

Super Luminova production results in a small quantity of lume that is a higher grade than normal. To qualify for the higher grade rating, the lume must glow at least 25% brighter than normal lume, and it must remain visible for 700 minutes (vs 570 minutes for normal lume). With any lume photo's, it's hard to capture on the camera what you see with your eye. Here is an attempt, first up, charged: On the Left - normal C3, on the Right - Grade A 5 minutes later The difference in person is more apparent than in the photo's, but I think you can see the subtle brightness change between the two.

Just finished the lume on this one, something different from the normal "green" glow...I like the results. Thanks for looking.

ETA's are, and will continue to be available in whatever quantity you like, to those who want them. I have a supplier that will give me a discount as soon as I order over 100 ETA movements, the rumours of no supply is BS and many are capatilizing on it.

Easy to remove, a bit of a challenge to assemble because of the mainspring and intermediate wheel arbor's that extend and have to mesh with the module...

Great article, thank you so much. One point to note, the comments by Sellita about interchangeability are wrong, ETA mainplates have "holes" for the alignment pins of the bridges and cocks, BUT Sellita mainplates have "pins" for the cooresponding "holes" on the bridges and cocks. So no, ETA and Sellita parts are NOT interchageable. You would think that he would be aware of this basic fact. As for the remainder of the movement parts, I haven't done enough testing to know if they are interchageable, but I would guess that less than 50% of a Sellita is interchageable with an ETA of the same caliber.