Hi RWG,
Here's my first project-a homage of the Tudor Submariner 9411 Snowflake. A little background; like most WIS, I love vintage submariners and I wanted a homage to satisfy my craving for one. When I decided I wanted to build my own homage, I was torn between a 1680 and a 9411 homage. In the end I decided to go with the Snowflake because most folk in my area don't know the Tudor brand or their awesome watches! The movement is a Sandoz ETA2824-2 which does not hack, but I will be looking into the possibility of getting it to hack. I read online that the usual case is a missing stop lever so I might be able to get a replacement lever online.
The case was once a Rolex 16610 replica (I think) but does not feature gen-like construction. It also lacks lug holes-my favourite design trait in a vintage sub! The dial is from Tiger Concept and the hands from another vendor online.
All the parts-
Movement (the original datewheel had to be replaced with another one so the font is different)
Dial and hands. The dial is the usual 29mm size so the hour indices appear smaller than on the original-
Here it is before the bracelet arrived. It's on a padded black leather strap with burgundy stitching-
The blue bezel was nice, but I wanted a black one so it was replaced. Unfortunately I decided to practice bleaching on it so now it's a faded, teal coloured bezel
Here it is after the bracelet and bezel insert was installed. The bezel insert was the usual gloss black and since I wasn't happy with my bleaching attempts, I decided to give it a coat of acrylic matte black. It wore off now so I'm going to have to tackle that bleaching job eventually! I also removed the clicking mechanism and made the bezel bi-directional so it matches the vintage theme. The pearl does not match, but I had a hard time removing it and I thought I'd leave it on till it falls off on its own The bracelet is a sterile 93150 type but with a 78360 type sterile clasp.
No drilled lugs...
Matte black bezel insert-
Lume shot-
I'm very happy with how it turned out but I'd like to try out new mods on this to make it better. For starters, I'd like to add texture to the dial and relume it with a puffy lume, then work on thinning down the crown guards and softening the case.
So there you have it, my first project. I'm always on the lookout for a beautiful 1680 or 5513 case with drilled through lugs so I can make a true-to-original homage of the 9411. My next project is going to be a vintage Datejust build for my father. The base watch is on its way to me so I'll open a thread for that when I receive it.
Thanks for viewing my thread!
Jay.