Update II: Modding a Pam 194 -almost done :)

[Andei3000]

Hi fellow members,

this is going to be a thread about my upcoming Pam 194 and all the mods I'm planning to do.

First off all I want to mention, that the whole submersible line of Pams never seemed to suit me,

until one day I saw a gen Pam 285 in person.

That was the moment where I thought: I have to get a submersible, but it must be a 47mm model as the dials

on the 44mm seem to be to small for me.

So, I started the search for a Pam 194 as there is no proper 285 dial in production afaik.

-missed one for sale of a member who is just 150km away

-ordered one from PT - everything was ok, but suddenly his factory decided to not produce the 194 anymore

-tried PWC - he won't ship to Austria (which I totally understand, as I got my second watch seized by Customs )

-tried PWC again - now shipping to a really nice member of this board in UK who is forwarding the watch to me -yehaaww, thanks Tim and Robert

Now to the initial point of this thread:

These are the planned mods on the watch:

1.) install proper datewheel with correct font

2.) raise the date if needed

3.) change the He-Valve for the correct engraved one

4.) remove the not painted metal border surrounding the crystal (if this one really exists, from the pictures I've seen it seems

as there is a small wall between the crystal and the painted indexes)

5.) remove and repaint the minute indexes on the bezel with flat black paint

6.) relume the dial, hands and "pearl"

7.) polish and make the cannon pin flush

8.) cg pin mod

wrong He-valve:

right He-valve:

after this mods it should look like this:

If anybody has a suggestion what I definitely should not miss as mod on this watch, feel free to add your input.

p.s.: an AR treatment on the crystal might be not possible due to the sandwiched construction of it, we'll see when the watch arrives.

thanks for looking and I'll keep you guys updated

[dluddy]

Sounds like a worthwhile project

Curious what you would do to accomplish #3 on the He valve mod?

Not sure on #4 and always wondered so curious o see how you fare there

[Andei3000]

Regarding #3

I do have a spare He-Valve from a Pam 243 on its way and I'm quite confident to make it fit to the 194 case

we'll see when the goods arive.

[dluddy]

[Andei3000]

First of all I want to thank Tim for forwarding the watch to me and Robert for such great offers he has.

At the first glance the watch is an absolute stunner, great lume, one of the best cyclopses I've seen

on a rep and overall a solid feel to the watch.

As planned I started immediately modding it.

For now I see no need for reluming the dial and pearl and no need to raise the datewheel.

Maybe there is going to be a Leo datewheel in the near future?

First steps were:

-disassembling the watch

-removing the crystal

-cg pin mod

-then I started with removing the old glossy pain on the minute indexes on the bezel

therefore I used some q-tips with acetone and afterwards I scratched the remaining paint with a screwdriver off

-next step was to remove the metal boarder between crystal and formerly black painted area

I used a grinding stone on the dremel, as there was some black paint left in the corner I had a real good indicator

for being totally flat when the color was removed.

-now I had to remove the boarder between the tiny minute indexes, I used a grinding wheel with the proper thickness,

unfortunately my hand was not steady enough and I managed to get some rounded edges on the indexes

I should have used a small file instead of the grinding wheel

-then I repainted the indexes with a flat black paint with a q-tip again and cleaned the remaining

paint with acetone.

Remaining works to be done:

-wait for the spare He valve to arrive

-flatten and polish the cannon pin

-eventually relume the dial

-get a new bezel, as the rounded edges on the indexes are really annoying me :(

here is a quick comparison shot from my modded rep on the left and a gen on the right:

thanks for looking

Andei

[dluddy]

nice work andei - looks good so far

[Andei3000]

The 194 is back alive :)

**** metal putty - I'm not a plumber I'm a master watchsmith

this was how it looked after removing the metal boarder of the minute indexes :(

and this is how it looks after soldering, grinding, repainting, swearing and 4 hours of work

Now I just need to reassemble the watch, get the He-Valve, do some magic on the cannon pin and clean the f....er.

hopefully everything works out

I'll keep you updated

Andei

[dluddy]

awesome work andei

[Andei3000]

Update number two:

After a second caseset , I'm almost done with modding the Pam 194.

Updated the He-Valve with one of a Pam 243:

Next Step was a new Datewheel from Taka - hell what a difference to the rep one.

The bezel has to be recoloured as the finish is not that even.

Last step was to relume the watch, hands and subdial have to be lumed - I ran out of time on this one.

I'll post a separate thread when everything is finished...

so long

andei