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Small But Important Tudor Chrono Upgrade


jmb

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I have loved my "community" Prince Date Chrono since I got it put together and I've found myself wearing it more and more. Kurt went above and beyond the call and mailed me a gen Tudor Trip-Lock crown and tube set! After helping my youngest finish the 24k mile service on his BMW R1200ST this evening I wandered out to the shop and proceeded to tear apart my "pride and joy".

After I de-cased the movement and removed the old tube I tried the gen tube and it would not even start so I dug the proper tap out of the toolbox. The amount of chips produced by the tap indicated to me that the original hole had a completely different thread, smaller diameter, or both. After running the tap through a few times, and cleaning out the swarf, I trial fitted the tube and found it stood rather proud of the case. Looking at the tube under magnification revealed a tapered portion at the top of the threaded portion so I put a shallow countersink on the crown tube hole in the case. After doing this I could screw the tube all the way in so I then applied thread locker, screwed in the new tube, and then greased all of the O-rings and installed them into the tube.

The final thing was to install the new crown onto the stem after removing the old crown. I tried to unscrew it but it wouldn't budge and I didn't want to risk snapping the stem. I had originally installed the crown using blue Loc-Tite so I can verify it does it's job well! I had to heat the stem to break the thread-locker bond then I was able to unscrew the two pieces. I then screwed the gen crown onto the existing stem and, to my surprise, found the stem length did not have to be altered as it fit perfectly.

Below are a few pics of the finished product with a "before" pic for comparison.

Before, with rep Rolex crown:

done 3.JPG

After, with gen Tudor crown:

Gen Crown 1.JPG

Gen Crown 2.JPG

Gen Crown 3.JPG

I didn't realize that such a small detail would be noticeable but I can now see why people always seem to want to change to a gen crown.

Thanks for looking and thanks go again to Kurt, Ubi, and Lani for making this project a reality.

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That is exactly what you said: Small but very nice addition.

This kind of details are exactly what we watch enthusiasts love.

PS: That's a lovely Tudor chrono. Justasgood pm'd photos of his blue version. Great watches. :good:

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Thanks, BT. Yeah, I love his blue one. I saw a blue dial w/hands on flea-bay the other day and it didn't last very long - I was very tempted but it cost more than I have paid for any complete watch and while I waffled about it somebody snagged it...

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shultz, yes, I do need to do that but I may wait until I can find a source for end-links that have a "tube" that will accommodate the larger spring bars. When I drill these out at least every other one will become unsoldered from the link. :angry:

gpl, no problem - I like reading what kind of things people run into as well.

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shultz, yes, I do need to do that but I may wait until I can find a source for end-links that have a "tube" that will accommodate the larger spring bars. When I drill these out at least every other one will become unsoldered from the link. :angry:

gpl, no problem - I like reading what kind of things people run into as well.

Hey J,

the spring bars on this version of the Chrono aren't 2mm bars. It is a standard hole size so don't drill them like a sub.

I'll put the caliper to mine to see if I can determine the size.

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Hey J,

the spring bars on this version of the Chrono aren't 2mm bars. It is a standard hole size so don't drill them like a sub.

I'll put the caliper to mine to see if I can determine the size.

Yes, you are right. The lug holes on the Tudor chronos are not as tight as on (early) subs. But I can imagine that will be a challenging job to drill the lugs :g: Will cost a couple of drill bits....

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As soon as "we" come up with a diameter I'll drill 'em. Are y'all saying that even though there are holes a "standard" spring bar is used? If that's the deal I can just poke some holes about half way through the lug since the ends of the spring bars won't be showing and that way I won't disturb the holes on the inside of the lug where the spring bars actually locates into.

This is sounding almost too easy...

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red, Cool!

I found a crystal in the junkbox that had the cyclops a lot closer to the edge and was going to put it on the Tudor until I was cleaning it and found a "coronet" etched on it! :thumbdown: Does anybody know if these A7750 Daytona cases will take a gen (or aftermarket sapphire as gen replacement) crystal? I routinely see them on flea-bay for not a whole lot of money...

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I agree that it should be repped, all the parts are "off-the-shelf" except for the dial and that should be rather easy...

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Does anybody know if these A7750 Daytona cases will take a gen (or aftermarket sapphire as gen replacement) crystal?

J - would you do me a favour please and measure the diameter of that coronet crystal? I have flying some crystals around, perhaps one will fit the daytona case.

Cheers

F.

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