RWG Technical

Wow, great post, very informative and entertaining. It looks great, well done and thanks for taking the time to do up such a detailed and step by step guide. RWG at it's best.

If you have a cyclops, you need to have the movement and dial mounted for alignment. Just make sure that the movement is secured, insert and screw down the crown to line it up before installing the case clamp screws. Make sure you have the caseback also secured, before you press the crystal down. It is best to concentrate on the crystal installation and alignment and not worrying about it being completely dust free at this stage. Your job is to install, line up, and correctly seat the crystal, dust will be taken care of after - when you take the movement out again. You will save yourself a lot of grief if you plan to remove the movement after the crystal is installed and clean and make it dust free, trying to cut corners and do it all at the same time, can lead to problems.

Very nice classic piece, from the start of the quartz revolution, there weren't many folks buying mechanical watches during the time this one was made. Congrats, it's a beauty, although I like a strap better than the bracelet.

The biggest problem is not the fact that the pusher fell off, it is that the part that was holding the pusher is now loose and inside the watch case and will get jammed up inside the movement. You shouldn't wind or use the watch until you have the case opened and the part removed, otherwise you could damage the movement. As for the pusher, once you find the missing screw or C clip, simply glue the pusher in the case if you don't want it to work.

@ Omni Great photo, I forgot just how good this one turned out, it's certainly a one of a kind... @ fijikid You read it correctly, everything you see is lumed one drop at a time with an oiler...maybe one day I'll try and set up a camera to film the work, but I work from 2" (5cm) away from the dial, so there may not be room to view what I am doing. @ Slartibartfast It depends on which binder is being used. For the matte finished lume, the mix stays usable for about 10 minutes before I have to add a bit of thinner and make it usable again. For the gloss finish, the mix stays usable about 20 minutes. Mixing the lume alone takes a lot of trial and error (at $40 a gram...), if you put in too much binder, you will thin out the lume and it won't look right, if you put in to little binder it's not workable, when you thin it out with the thinner as it dries, you have to be very careful that you don't make it too thin, or it will not stay in place when you apply it. The most difficult to use is the gloss finish, the bezel on the cousteau and slevin are not only very time consuming to do, but the mix has to be exactly correct or it won't flow as you apply it, mix in just a bit too much thinner and it will flow too much, and run into the negative numerals and cutouts... luming these models is 1-2 hours of fast heartbeats and nerves shattered when your done.

The 2836 is not designed to be a GMT movement, it doesn't come with a GMT function, it is modified and turned into a GMT movement. Adding the GMT function requires: - a gear to take the turning motion from the hour wheel and transfer it to a new gear (the GMT one) - and the new GMT gear which sits on top of the hour wheel There is also one other gear added near the stem to allow you to set the GMT hand, the gear is not needed to make the GMT function operate, it is simply there to allow adjustment. The movement is technically changed, since you have added extra gears.

No disrespect taken. It is always a hard sell when someone pays such a low price (as compared to the gen) for a watch and compares this cost to the cost of servicing. Most times the commentator has never owned a gen or had to pay and experience the turn times from the authorized service center. Those who have, have a better understanding and appreciation for what goes on in the gen world. I am always leery of any watchmaker "servicing" a movement for what amounts to the same wages as someone flipping burgers would make. Knowing the time, skill, tooling, and experience needed to do the job correctly, I just can't understand why anyone would want to do it for so little money. If you want to make $5 an hour, why do it fixing watches? I can only guess what others have gotten for their much less servicing costs. I do know that what I do is a full and complete teardown to the last screw and spring with every servicing, not unlike what your watchmaker does for the fee's he charges. You do get what you pay for, the low price comes at a cost.

I thought I would share pictures of a sampling of the latest PVD coating I had done for members of RWG. My PVD coating service includes all the teardown, prep work, and assembly. As an added bonus, Super Lume application, fabrication of new parts etc, is also available. For example, I can manufacture a new flat CG pin to replace the crappy rep one, before the coating is applied. I deal directly with the coating factory and what you see is genuine PVD, the same coating and colour as Panerai used on the Pre V models. The quality of the PVD application is exceptional. Please PM or contact me on email if you are interested in getting in on my next PVD run, it is scheduled for January and is filling up fast. The end results speak for themselves, especially if you add a FGD dial... ...or maybe you're more interested in a custom model with genuine stealth Super Luminova...the possibilities are endless...

I think someone used steel wool on the case and what you see is bits left over. I have yet to see any rust on any of these cases, and highly doubt that it's the actual case rusting.

Like most things in life, watch servicing is one area where you do get what you pay for. I am sure you can find someone who will "service" the watch for less than $100.00, they are around... It takes about 4 hours of bench time to service this movement, thousands of dollars in tooling, and experience and skill. The seconds at 12 version of the 7750 is heavily modified and has 11 more gears than the standard 7750 design, 2 more plates, which all adds to the time and difficulty. The problem is that your comparing the cost of your rep watch, to the cost of servicing. While the price of the rep is 1/10th or less than the genuine model, the movement design is not 1/10th as simple or less complex. You can't compare the price you paid for the watch to the cost to service it, they are not related. The only thing that is related, is that this movement is as complex and is much more difficult to service than the genuine one. If you paid $5000.00 for the watch, the $200 servicing cost would seem like a bargain, and in reality $200 is a bargain...most shops charge 2-3 times this amount to service a chronograph, with the going rate being $450.00 and up, a quick Google search on "watch servicing prices" will confirm that fact. Good luck in your quest getting it serviced.

I didn't get around to taking some pics of it before it left, but I see it's arrived on Friday, so I'll have to get some pics before it goes out again. Although your picture looks great, not sure how I am going to do any better...

With shorter days here and the coming darkness and drearyness of winter, I tend to get the blues this time of the year. So, I though it appropriate to brighten my day with some pics of some watches I have modded with genuine Super Luminova Blue Lume. To the older members who have seen these before, I apologize for repeating these pictures, you don't have to look at them again. We have many new members who may have never seen these, so I hope they find them interesting. A bit of background information to those who aren't familiar with this procedure, the lume is hand applied on all of the watches, this particular Super Luminova looks white in daylight, but in darkness glows a nice blue colour. The handiwork you see is all applied by me - by hand - one needle drop at a time... Enjoy.

I suffer from the same problem, even more so at this lattitude... I have something similar, no where near as expensive though. I use it everyday, and I like to think that it works, at least it hasn't done any harm by causing me to have seizures...aorin^R67f8quwb alng.ln ashdiofna...or other weird stuff...

Genuine Fiddy's are pure 100% C3. The problem with a photograph is that the camera wants to correctly expose the black dial, which makes the lume over exposed and white looking...it isn't white, it's yellow/green C3. I have checked and confirmed it on a genuine Fiddy dial, Kruzer's dial in fact... I paint the back of all the hands I lume with RC Tritec white reflective paint, just like they do on the gen's.

A true 7750 has subdials at 12-9-6, 30-minute counter, running seconds, and 12 hour counter, if you have this layout, it doesn't matter if it's Asian 7750 or ETA 7750, they are interchangeable. If you have any other layout for the subdials than this one, it isn't a 7750 and you can't install an ETA in place of the Asian one...

I'll have to upload the pictures again, lost them when I was hacked this summer...

Right now it's perfect, if you don't have my email address, PM me your email addy and I'll send you my info.

Cousins UK sells luminous kits...no shipping issues...

Well done, your on your way and there is no stopping you now, soon everything no nailed down will be lumed in your house. Keep it coming, the next step should be to buy a lume kit with the real stuff, so you can put what you have learned into practice.

It looks great, beautiful picture, the lume sets it off very nicely. Can't wait to see more pictures.

German Day Wheel, DIE for Dienstag, or Tuesday... I only do as I am told.

The hands are correctly made, unlike the rep ones. The tubes are riveted and the top is rolled over and riveted flush with the hand. It not only looks good, it prevents the tube from slipping on the hand... So what you are seeing, is the top of the rolled and riveted tubes on the hands.

Excellent write up and pictures. You covered all the basis and details, well done.

My understanding is as follows: All the movements are "genuine" ETA movements. The sealed blister packs are sourced directly from ETA in Switzerland, the "loose pack" movements are sourced from the ETA distributor in Hong Kong. The movements take as much time to assemble no matter the source, the only advantage of the blister pack ones is that they don't need servicing as delivered. @RoninQ That is partially correct, it's a crap shoot buying movements from Jules Borel or Ofrei, since they are all loose pack movements. You may get a pristing movement that is correctly oiled and serviced, or you may get a well used gummed up one, the only way to know for sure, is to partially disassemble the movement and have a look at it carefully. It has always been misleading, how many times has someone posted that they have a problem with their ETA 2836, when told the cost of servicing, they refuse to spend the money, and believe that it's better to simply buy a "new" replacement movement from Ofrei and replace their movement with this one. The reality is that unless you pay for the blister pack, your no further ahead...

Great post, well documented and good details. Nothing like doing it yourself, it adds to the hobby and is a great sense of satisfaction once your done. Nice looking watch, enjoy, and looking forward to more of these posts. Well done.