Deepseadweller Posted September 19, 2009 Report Share Posted September 19, 2009 Hi, A noob to the forum but I have been collecting reps for some years. After having succesfully ruined a number of watches (all of them inferior reps and gens) and having completed a watch making seminar I am thinking about building one of my personal grail watches: a Milsub 5517. I would like to ask the seasoned members and roles experts of this forums for advice on which parts to get. My first thoughts on this: - case The best case probably is the one from Phong but, even if I'd be able or willing to pay 1.5 grand for a case, it justs fits the gen. 1520 movement, right ? So, this leaves the question which case to get correct engravings, a nice caseback (also with correct engravings) solid bars and so on. Any idea on a good case or a basic rep that could function as a base for this ? - movement It appears that the original 5517 used 1520 (19800 bph) and 1530 (18009 bph) movements ... so it would need a slow beat movement. Which rules out 2836 or 2824 movements which have a beat that is much too high. What do you think ? And obviously this would also affect the choice of my ... ... - Dial Where can I source a 5517 T-dial ? Obviously Yao used to do those and they were great ... but it doesn't seem that there are any of those floating around. and ... - Hands Omega Sword Hands ? - Bezel insert. I suppose the one from jewelryandwatch is the best ... - Crown, tube Guess it would be worth to spend the money on gen parts ... Oh well ... and then there is vintage lume, general vintagizing of the watch ... sigh ... Oh ... I hade to promise wifey to keep it below 1 grand all together ... So, if anyone could help me to get started, happens to own parts I could use, please reply. TNX in advance Deepseadweller Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tmg Posted September 20, 2009 Report Share Posted September 20, 2009 DSD, I just completed a 5517 project and can tell you a gen 1520 movement does not drop right in a J&W/Phong case. Either the the interior of of the case has to be milled down or the mainplate on the movement will have to be ground down. I believe J&W is the only one with a 5517 case at the moment but doing this all for under $1000 will be impossible. As for a dial if you really want to do it right I'd suggest getting a gen matte 5513 dial and have a "Tritium Circle T" printed onto to it. Vintage Omega Seamaster hands(with mods) or CWP offering will both work. Your budget option would be a stock MBW 5513; drill out the lugs to take a 2mm steel dowel and have dowel soldered into place, swap the dial with a Yukiwatch or Eurotimez 5517 dial, swap the hands with MkII sword hands (I have a vintage lumed set FS BTW ) and add Classicwatchpars insert and call it a day. You could have the caseback engraved to take it a step further if you wanted. Good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deepseadweller Posted September 20, 2009 Author Report Share Posted September 20, 2009 (edited) Hi TMG, thank you very much for your advice. With a case from J&W as a base a budget of 1K would be out of question. Your budget opttion looks very interesting though. Is any of the trusted dealers selling MBW 5513 at this time ? I will do my homework on the other parts you mentioned and would be happy to hear from you regarding the set of hands you are selling. The downside of using an MBW 5513 would be that the case engravings would be wrong as they wouldn't say 5517 but 5513 though ... but I guess I could live with that. Cheers DSD Edited September 20, 2009 by Deepseadweller Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tmg Posted September 20, 2009 Report Share Posted September 20, 2009 Sorry I might have misunderstood, did you mean the case for $1000 or the entire project? If only the case yes for $1000 then yes a ETA movement does not fit right in the J&W case though due to the stem alighnment so that rules out the route. BTW, I've read that some 5517 deliveries to the MOD had 5513 engravings on them so it's not necessarily incorrect. I can't speak for Eurotimez right now, but I think Narika sells MBW's too. I'll PM you later about the sword hands. -TMG Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deepseadweller Posted September 20, 2009 Author Report Share Posted September 20, 2009 Actually it was the complete project for 1K so Phong's case it out. I have emailed reg regarding a 5513. Cheers DSD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freddy333 Posted September 20, 2009 Report Share Posted September 20, 2009 As toomuchgear suggested, you will pretty much have to modify whatever case you get if you want to keep the costs to a reasonable simmer. Although I have not built a 5517 myself, I suspect 1 of Silix's low end reps (most cost less than $100) could be tapped for a donor case. But you will still need to mod it as toomuchgear described. On 2nd thought, I seem to recall stumbling across a 5517 rep on one of our collectors' sites that had permanently fixed springbars. Unfortunately, the rest of the watch was rubbish, but if you can locate that collector again, it might save you a few bucks & a bit of work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deepseadweller Posted September 20, 2009 Author Report Share Posted September 20, 2009 Are you referring to the 5517 from Trusty ? http://www.tt88time.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1_103&products_id=15 Cheers DSD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TeeJay Posted September 20, 2009 Report Share Posted September 20, 2009 I'm not sure how accurate this case is, but it has 5517 etchings, and costing just under £40... My one concern is the bezel profile, as so far, I have been unable to remove it at all, but I hope this might be of help One more for luck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freddy333 Posted September 20, 2009 Report Share Posted September 20, 2009 Are you referring to the 5517 from Trusty ? http://www.tt88time.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1_103&products_id=15 Yes, I think that is it (40mm diameter x 16 mm high) A gen 5517 for comparison (40mm diameter x 14mm high) Toss in an NDtrading dial (better, but not exact) & swap out the crown/tube for a gen 24-703 Triplock the crystal for Clark's Tropic 19 (if it will fit the case - someone else might be able to answer that question) the (incorrect) pearl for Ofrei.com's illumines dot the ETA 2836-2 (28.8kbph) for a slow-beat ETA 2846 (21.6kbph - the gen 1520 beats at 19.8kbph) (you will need to search the watch parts houses for this) & strap it to your wrist with Corvus's RAF-style 18mm Bond strap (I would remove the 2nd metal ring, which the original did not have) & you have a pretty nice military Sub for under a grand. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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