blue.

The alignment was done on an old ETA plate, but you could do it also directly on the movement itself. Of course you should not forget to cover up the rest of the movement with thin nylon or similar to protect the movement from possible spilled out epoxy. As epoxy has a low viscosity (thick and sticky) it should not wander by itself once you had applied sufficient amount on the dial feet. The feet need to be locked in the movement a bit higher than usual, to allow the dial to sit clear of any other parts while being centred and the epoxy drying.

I can warmly recommend the following dial feet, as they have a thin wide base. When epoxied they sit very strong on the dial. Already did a couple of disassembly's of the movement, dial ... etc. Bear in mind they are a bit long and need to be cut. I did so prior to glueing, but it was necessary to shorten even more. Then I started to file down the already glued dial feet. This must be of sufficient proof that they hold enough. The first time I saw the Bergeon dial feet I immediately saw that the tiny base they have would be of a problem, due to mechanical forces involved. Here are the dial feet I have a positive experience with. Was a bit tricky to order as back then (2012 they had no online shop running). https://www.agtshop.co.uk/product/462-gents-dial-feet.html

Amazing 5500. Congratulations!

Cool to see your project finalized, looking very nice in the pictures. Wear and enjoy it as often as you can

Great job and opinions

There is right about microns of tolerance to the mainspring and balance wheel. Tough job but doable. The above one I did as a second attempt, the first attempt went also well on a test mainplate. All by hand with jewellers files, step by step, test fit, file, test fit ... Good luck!

Congratulations on the nice work. That Seiko movement is really interesting. I have a Seiko 5 with that movement and the power reserve is incredible. Movement has great reputation for being very rugged and if something happens ... well a on of Seiko watches for around 100$ (new) to just swap the movements... How tight do the hands snap on the cannon pinions (hour, minute, seconds)? Cannon pinion height might be a bit close to the dial, judging from the photos ... but on my Seiko 5 the height is comparable to H4 on an Eta, so there might be some factory variations. Love the way it worked out. Wear and enjoy it as often as you can in good health

Congratulations for this very nice Honeycomb Explorer! To my knowledge this is by far the only one built here in the last years, pretty unique and even the genuine version is quite rare to find too. I remember Lhooq mentioned that he might want to built one Honeycomb Explorer some time in the future ... Keep that Explorer this is the sort of builds that one would like to pass over to his kids when the time comes. Until then wear and enjoy as much as you can in good health!

Blindpirat, this looks like a nice service dial. To my eyes the "face" looks quite nice. The rear part of the plate looks strange according to my data base and knowledge of what I've seen the last years. This does not mean that the dial is gen or refinished. There may be that one version that was sold as shown. Nevertheless whenever I saw that particular face, the back looked like this: The shown engraving in the initial post with the star is somewhat unknown to me. Here some refs of a dial plate of a frog foot service dial, which has a specific serial number with a star in it (Stern manufacturer?): There were gilt 1016 dials with a similar engraving, though a different initial number and again all symbols and digits are in one line: If you look in detail the dial feet on the ref images of all the gen dials, they all are connected seamlessly to the dial plate, there are no concentrically brushed areas in the dial feet basis like in your offerd dial. I would say, if you have a low price offer like around 300$, 300Euro or 200 Pounds, or can get as low as this you may take that dial. Though a higher price point would have to be reconsidered with the information shown above. Should you look to build a top notch 1016, then you'd be ready to pay a higher price and should get a 100% sure to be gen offer, in NOS condition. The decision is on your side. Good luck!

Yep, I do remember this topic from a few years back. One may never be sure what will be lasting during decades in terms of supply, availability, etc. In recent services of my ETAs 2824s and 2783, prices have been quite high, as high as the price of the fresh new 2824 costed from Cousins in 2013. Sellita is a nice direct alternative, though not many known suppliers like Cousins list it (correct me if that has changed), price is also as close to an ETA as possible and at one point inherits ETA's politics. Then on the tech part clone or not, would we be able to use our ETA cannon pinions etc. on a Sellita? Miyota seems quite interesting as they have some GMT versions, hacking etc. But it is a different movement, what is the hands pinion size, stem compatibility with gen crowns, stem height and movement diameter compared to an ETA 2824. Lower beat Miyota movements alternatives? Dial feet position may be the least issue here. What if we need to change the cannon pinion height? Are there any higher cannon pinions available anywhere, saddly, higher grade hands like the ones from TC may not fit, then what would we be using instead? Recently saw that some dealer list a few watches with miyota movements, perhaps a newer trend? Then fitting parts may be somehow available if miyota's establish as a mass alternative.

Lo´ it makes sense to tryout to re-polish the hour and minute hands on lets say a solid edge where the hands a fixed and the person trying to achieve a convexity re-polishing. But I am afraid the hands have a layer of chrome above as mirror finish. If someone has a spare set to try it out it may work out and would see if there is a layer of chrome finish above or not.

He is a member here on the forum with that very same nick name.

Lo´thanks for uploading new images! The HR hands do look pretty good in fact and are a very nice alternative to TC´s. Maybe a few thoughts from my side. The seconds hand does look excellent. The length of the minute hand is excellent too. Regarding the overall shape, lume area cutouts: - in my perspective the hands lack sufficient convexity, which would add some amazing reflections - the cutouts of the hands are a tad too tight, meaning that the merc frame and minute hand inner cutout are too small. - the seconds hand is acceptable, though if we have to look 1:1 in comparison with the gen, the lume dot would have to be with much sharper frame, not so soft edges (TC´s seconds hand is quite spot on in this aspect). Here is a references from gen 1016 hands: Actually, the best way to judge those details is to see it in person, where the light dances over each chrome element. And here is the opportunity for it: https://www.youtube.com/embed/M20-N8XTL5E

This seems a bit different than NDT´s previous 1016 replacement case in therms of lug holes. The previous one didn´t have any! In all those years, I do not remember that someone had tested that case out. No one (from us on rwg) can tell if that case is compatible with genuine parts and is water resistant, put aside the details like side profile (unkown?) and one special thing that is evident is the bottom lug shape is lathed, it is typical more for a later 80´s Explorer 1016 case design not the 60´s 70´s versions. As far as I know the Space Dweller was introduced in 1963. Commenting the price of 900$, well it is galactically unrealistic! Neither Yuki´s case set is recommendable as someone had tested it out here on RWG years ago ... There are a few options you may have and those require specific modifications to be done by a modder. Either you get a gen 16200 (alternative 1601) case and let a modder modify the lug profile and bottom, add propper lug holes, or you get JMB´s 16200 case and let that being modded. I would warmly suggest JMB´s DJ16200 case to start from as it is the more budget friendly route and you would have a top notch condition case, because that stainless steel wouldn´t be aged like a 40 years old case.

Lo, thanks for sharing the pictures The combo does look very interesting indeed. That minute hand length is very tempting. Would be cool if those hands would become a bit more convex surface, that adds some more value, especially when reflections start to move on the hands.