Guest avitt Posted November 26, 2009 Report Share Posted November 26, 2009 It sure is nice to be able to buy genuine IWC parts from Concepta But franken reps don't always meet everyone's budget. Here are a couple of the infamous Portuguese Chronographs, which have been modified to both look as good as possible, and run reliably...All without the use of any genuine parts: The mods? On the outside, all that is needed is a nice Chieftang AR coating, and a brushed case back. On the inside, the DLC plate mod reduced the drag on the transfer gears, providing sweet seconds-at-six functionality: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redwatch Posted November 26, 2009 Report Share Posted November 26, 2009 Wow those look spectacular! Thanks for sharing! Are you going to be modding and selling these at all? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest avitt Posted November 27, 2009 Report Share Posted November 27, 2009 Wow those look spectacular! Thanks for sharing! Are you going to be modding and selling these at all? Thanks, RW! I can DLC coat the movement plates, but I won't do any modding work for others. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polaris Posted November 27, 2009 Report Share Posted November 27, 2009 Avitt! You're a legend. Only a few weeks ago I was pondering whether DLCing the centre gear on a AP ROO would be worthwhile in reducing friction, rather than the graphite treatment. Here, you have done better and DLC'd the plates. The mind wanders to Daytonas, AP ROO... Marvellous work, thanks for sharing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest avitt Posted November 27, 2009 Report Share Posted November 27, 2009 Thanks Polaris! But I was just following the work that had been done by Damasko, on their oil-free escapement, and others...And I had the means to get it done! I will also say that it's not only the friction that causes these things to fail, but also the construction. The center pivots of the transfer gears are press fit into the plates, and have a tendency to fall out. You might be able to see in the picture above that I've applied a bit of epoxy to the back side of the pivots...I recommend that this be done by anyone performing this mod. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member X Posted November 27, 2009 Report Share Posted November 27, 2009 Great mod, avitt As a question... would the graphite treatment on top of DLC treatment make it pretty much bombproof? That would seem a much cheaper way of guaranteeing long life, rather than shelling out a not inconsiderable amount on a gen movement! lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest avitt Posted November 27, 2009 Report Share Posted November 27, 2009 Great mod, avitt As a question... would the graphite treatment on top of DLC treatment make it pretty much bombproof? That would seem a much cheaper way of guaranteeing long life, rather than shelling out a not inconsiderable amount on a gen movement! lol Thanks Memeber X! To answer your question, I hope so! Because I did also apply the graphite treatment to both the plates and the gears! Before reassembling, I made sure that each of the gears would spin freely with a puff of air from a squeeze bulb. There is very little drag in the transfer mechanism. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member X Posted November 27, 2009 Report Share Posted November 27, 2009 Sweeeet... If they'll spin with just a puff of air, they shouldn't have a problem with the movement driving them! Although you realise that I am now going to have to add a avitt-tweaked Porto to my ever-growing list... LoL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fourayes Posted November 29, 2009 Report Share Posted November 29, 2009 That is really sweet. Well done! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FxrAndy Posted November 29, 2009 Report Share Posted November 29, 2009 Top work Avitt, i miss my porto Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graman Posted December 19, 2009 Report Share Posted December 19, 2009 Awesome! I love the porto....never had the confidence top pick one up! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mumum Posted January 11, 2010 Report Share Posted January 11, 2010 Thanks Memeber X! To answer your question, I hope so! Because I did also apply the graphite treatment to both the plates and the gears! Before reassembling, I made sure that each of the gears would spin freely with a puff of air from a squeeze bulb. There is very little drag in the transfer mechanism. major bump for a worthy thread. Avitt, if you have time, like Polaris, I am coming to you for this mod once I receive my AP Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomhorn Posted January 11, 2010 Report Share Posted January 11, 2010 (edited) I'm sure you will tire of the black dial soon ... I'll volunteer to be first in line when you decide to sell ... Edited January 11, 2010 by tomhorn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mbjoer Posted January 19, 2010 Report Share Posted January 19, 2010 Let us know how it turns out. The Zigmeister is positive and it sounds plausible. But Domi says no. He is not convinced that it will work. I so much want it to be a solution to the eternal Portu@6 problem.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ubiquitous Posted January 19, 2010 Report Share Posted January 19, 2010 Gorgeous pair of Portus! And even more so knowing that they have reliable engines under the hood! Well done, and very creative thinking in devising a solution to correct these otherwise problematic movements! Man, that Chief AR makes such a huge difference with regards to the aesthetics... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eton Posted January 19, 2010 Report Share Posted January 19, 2010 Great looking watches, one of my favorites! It's on the list for sure Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest avitt Posted January 19, 2010 Report Share Posted January 19, 2010 Thanks! Let us know how it turns out. The Zigmeister is positive and it sounds plausible. But Domi says no. He is not convinced that it will work. I so much want it to be a solution to the eternal Portu@6 problem.... Considering that I probably where each of these just a few time a month, it may take some time before I can give you any feedback. (I'm curious about why Domi is doubtful...Doesn't he offer the graphite treatment himself?) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mbjoer Posted January 19, 2010 Report Share Posted January 19, 2010 He does. But I was under the impression that this is in addition to the conventional graphite treatment?? If not, I can understand his sceptisism. The feedback I have seen on movements with graphite treatment has not been very good. I also have one which has had it and which does not seem to function in spite of the treatment. It is on the way back to him and (ever so wishfully....) I hope he will manage to sort it without cutting the gears to the seconds. If he can't, I shall hang myself and jump out from the Empire State building! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OSRep Posted January 19, 2010 Report Share Posted January 19, 2010 The Portus are way too sophisticated for me to pull off, but both stunning pieces, especially with the Chief AR.....amazing how the dials just stand out! A nice read about graphite coating too......Ive only come across it with rep watches......Hmmmmm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
forp891 Posted February 8, 2010 Report Share Posted February 8, 2010 I am big IWC 3714 fan. I have two of these I got from two different dealers. They are bought two months ago. So I believe they are the latest movement. The picture below, shows 2 sets of gears which is related to the friction issue that is widely known. I've increase the saturation of the image to show the wear of the gears. First two gears on top, came out from a portu that ran for roughly two weeks on and off. I pull the stem out to hack it when I am not wearing it. The second set of gears below, it probably ran for 3 days during the EMS transit. I hack it immediately after receiving it. You can see a tiny bit of wear on the left bottom gear, where as top gears suffer serious wear. Please note, the movement could have spend sometime running during assembly at the watchmaker's "office", so it could be longer than stated above. I gave up my worries, I got a bare movement from Concepta, the gen is a extremely beautiful movement. The seconds run smooth, less jittery and time adjust is butter smooth. Of course, it comes with a price but the gen movement upgrade is definitely worth it compared to buying a whole gen. But what about the other IWC? When Avitt decided to offer DLC coating, I had to go for it. My plates are still on the way to the master, I will report back once I put it to work for a few months. If this works, I hope Avitt could invest time in perfecting DLC coated gears. This would bring replicas to a whole new level. This is most interesting development after custom AR coating. You notice I quoted the word "office" previously? No matter what you do, please send your watch for a service when you get it. The amount of dust?/crap left behind when cleaning all the parts took me by surprise. I specialize in micro electronics but I can tell how bad it is. In another words, a new dirty movement in my new watch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gran Posted February 8, 2010 Report Share Posted February 8, 2010 Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeets:wub: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plaifender Posted February 8, 2010 Report Share Posted February 8, 2010 Avitt, not sure if you know, but you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
forp891 Posted March 18, 2010 Report Share Posted March 18, 2010 Hello guy, I received my DLCoated plates from Avitt. It's hard to describe the surface, it's close to my military Hard Anondized III Teflon sealed coated items. It's certainly thin and does not require much force to reinstall the two pressed gears. The only problem left with friction is the press in pivot/towers that holds the gears. I wish Avitt could coat them as well. I am wondering if it could be done with them attached to the plates without the gears. When installing the gears I tried to lube the two gear pivot/towers, very litte with light oil. Not good. The movement would stop randomly. So, I cleaned them and reinstall, it runs fine. So I guess I leave them dry. Alright I am going to let this movement run for the next 3-6 months 24x7 everyday then I'll do a detailed tear down and post my findings on the gear pivot/towers. Vincent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest avitt Posted March 18, 2010 Report Share Posted March 18, 2010 Nice work Vincent. Happy that you determined to remove the oil before building the watch! DLC should definitely be run dry! Unfortunately, the gears and pivots are just too small to coat (without risk of loss or damage). I think that postmortem analysis of dead seconds-at-six movements would show that many fail when the pivots pop out of the plates...I wish that there was something to correct this problem. (My attempt at a solution was to apply a small dab of epoxy to the back of the plate...So far, so good.) Will look forward to your updates Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnDorian Posted March 24, 2010 Report Share Posted March 24, 2010 Oil may actually cause more resistance sometimes. I think that is why graphite is used. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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