Search the Community

I think I’ve finally completed my 5517 milsub that has been through a few different incarnations. It started as a complete HR (helenarou) milsub watch but I wasn’t happy with a number of things. Mods that have been made: Although the HR case does have fixed bars, they are the wrong diameter, being too narrow. I drilled them out and fitted correct spec 2mm stainless round bar. It is solid just using a press fit and didn’t require any soldering. I fitted a Clarks Tropic 19 crystal which has a different profile to the HR crystal. Although the HR bezel insert does have a serif font, the width of the bezel markers is noticeably too narrow. I bought an insert off eBay that has more accurate markings and still has a serif font. It turns out that it is a Phong insert. I swapped out the bezel pip, which was a bit strange looking, for an Athaya one, which I added aged lume to. The watch originally had the stock HR aged dial and hands which are good. However, I’ve always preferred the maxi dial, so I asked HR if they could get a maxi dial 5517 dial made. I have to say that dealing with them was excellent. They were able to get me a dial custom printed and aged and the result is exactly what I was looking for. Custom printing by the dial factory was $95 + $49 for the dial + $25 for aging. I got another set of hands to match and trimmed the end of the second hand which was too long. Unfortunately the minute hand and the second hand extend too far across the minute markers but I haven’t been able to source correctly sized hands, so this is not as accurate as I would like. I then added an Athaya 702 crown and a Phoenix NATO in admiralty grey, as per original milsub issue. Even though each mod adds a small change to the overall watch, I feel that the combination of them improves the feel and appearance of the watch over the stock watch. I’m sure that there are things that could be further improved but for the moment I’m happy enough with the outcome of my first project.