001A strap choice

[valerian]

Hi guys

I bought this a few months ago on a thick soft light grey strap and never really wore it.

Today I switched it to this black moo-crock for deployment and I quite like it.

Let me know your opinion? Over the top? Or can I go to work with this tomorrow?

Thanks

Valerian

[deniz21]

that looks realy nice my friend i like it, maybe i wouldnt wear it but only because i dont wear so much suits and somethin, looks great, dont worry val and your watch of course too

[w0lf]

Crocs are nice with T style dials but please do something about that lever pin!

p.s. there were no deployants back then either if you want to be period-correct.

[Watchmeister]

I say yes with a suit and no if informal. Croc really jumps out on a PAM because the watch and the straps are so big.

[deniz21]

and val when you need help with the pin , send the cg to me

[valerian]

Crocs are nice with T style dials but please do something about that lever pin!

p.s. there were no deployants back then either if you want to be period-correct.

Thanks for the hint. It's not the only problem: The cannon pinion is not good either.

I say yes with a suit and no if informal. Croc really jumps out on a PAM because the watch and the straps are so big.

Would be smart casual tomorrow. No suit, no tie, but no denim either. I quite like croc on PAMs. I got a TWB alligator I got from a member here and I wish there was a way to get another one here.

and val when you need help with the pin , send the cg to me

Thanks very much for the offer, Deniz. Very nice of you. I might try it myself but will need directions! Is there a link to how you do it?

Val.

[w0lf]

Val,

The procedure is rather easy, you will need the following tools:

- Dremel w/ a buffing attachment

- Metal polishing paste or jeweler's rouge

- at least 2 grits of wet/dry sandpaper 1000 & 2000 (I use 3M WetOrDry in grits 1000,1500 and finally 2000)

- Blue Loctite for lever tightening

- Bracelet pin pusher to knock the pin out

- Push pin with a snipped off/filed off pin to use as a "chisel/buffer" to drive the lever pin back in without scratching the CG

- Jeweler's hammer or regular hammer

- Double sided tape and a small block of wood for grip

Make sure you have your working area set up and well-lit.

1. Use the bracelet pin pusher to push out the pin from the back of CG

2. Put a drop of blue loctite in lever pin hole

3. Put the lever back into CG housing and drive the pin back in using a hammer and modified push pin

4. Close the lever and let the assembled CG sit for a day so that Loctite sets up

5. Work the lever when Loctite had enough time to set up and remove remnants of glue with a toothpick and papertowel from lever and CG housing

6. Put a piece of heavy duty doublesided tape on a wood block and press in the CG with pin surface facing up

7. Using the wooden block as a grip, move the CG back and forth across sand paper starting with low grit, checking frequently and going up in grit as you remove the initial "bulge"

8. When sanding down flip the block around a few time so you dont end up making the pin too biased on one side, also you will want to tilt the block slightly to match the sloping shape of CG. If you dont tilt you may end up flattening the feet (alternatively you may want to tape off the feet with some painters tape if you're worried you're going to get them)

9. When final grit finish is done use the dremel with paste / rouge to re-polish and restore shine.

The more you do it the better you get at it.

Hope this helps

[valerian]

Hope this helps

Wow man, that's great help! Thanks very much for taking the time and writing this down! I guess I will also use it on my other two PAMs.

Thanks again for all the help! Also to Deniz who sent me help via PM! RWG is such a great place!

Val.

[w0lf]

.:: Before

.:: After

As you can see my little block of wood is pretty grimy from all the CG jobs I've done over the years

[qwest905]

u should send that CG to me wolf lol...btw that croc looks great with that 001 =)

who's dial is that?

[fishgodeep]

Love crow on PAM's with a passion - nuff said

Superb looking watch as well , they look nice parts and dial is very nice

Cheers

FGD

[w0lf]

That looks like a DSN dial.

[valerian]

That looks like a DSN dial.

Yes, it is. Hands are relumed to match colour by Domenico.

About the CG lever pin: I took a shortcut. It was simply coming out on the top side so I just had to push it back in. See here:

Further comments are welcome.

I really want to thank Wolf once more, for taking the time to write the solution down and for taking and providing the pics accordingly. We noobs would be lost without friendly souls like you!

Thanks for the friendly comments (FGD among them! )

Val.

[w0lf]

Hahah, you're welcome, Valerian

I forgot to mention the fundamental truth of all modding- if you can achieve the same end result with less effort, go for it.

[qwest905]

awesome work..just like you i have a croc strap for my 001

here it is on a gunny caitlin II

and on a GSD crazy horse II

[hackR]

@Val -- no pix, but my 2 cents...similar to quest's first pix above, i like a tight moo grain with straw colored stitching in the same color family as the lume...i also like a dark deep chocolate brown strap color - dark thread for a more formal look, light color thread for a more casual look...

out of curiousity - can i see a pix of the grey strap you replaced?...kinda looking for a nice grey one - and certainly have plenty to trade with ya...pm me if interested in discussing and/or pix...

[dluddy]

Love the watch Val

Strap choices are a personal thing - part of the fun of it all IMO

I like the CrocMoo

[valerian]

I forgot to mention the fundamental truth of all modding- if you can achieve the same end result with less effort, go for it.

No need to mention this to me, mate. I'm fundamentally lazy. Sadly neither my job nor my leisure time activities accept laziness...

out of curiousity - can i see a pix of the grey strap you replaced?...kinda looking for a nice grey one - and certainly have plenty to trade with ya...pm me if interested in discussing and/or pix...

While searching for a stock pic I realized I made an empty promise: It' not grey but a vey light brown to beige. Sorry about that.

I'm happy to share the pix but it's not for trade atm. Hope you're not too disappointed. Here we go:

I honestly have no idea who made it but I can probably find out from the original seller, if you like it!

Thanks for the friendly comments once more.

Valerian

[babola]

"EDIT" ...on second reflection the watch/dial looks like a gen PAM001A/B one - LOL!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Wow, another infamous DSN 001/004A dial from early '06 with correct crossbar on 'A', great find indeed

These are long gone from his spare parts box, and made legendary in their own right.

Also, great work on removing the "-" from T-Swiss-T

Wear it well, mate!

Edited March 10, 2010 by babola

[gran]

black

[w0lf]

"EDIT" ...on second reflection the watch/dial looks like a gen PAM001A/B one - LOL!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Wow, another infamous DSN 001/004A dial from early '06 with correct crossbar on 'A', great find indeed

These are long gone from his spare parts box, and made legendary in their own right.

Also, great work on removing the "-" from T-Swiss-T

Wear it well, mate!

Babola, great to see you back and posting once again

I'd like to make a small correction. The original poster, Valerian is the one who has the infamous DSN dial meant originally for PreA watches. The one with extra yellow indices and T-S-T.

Qwest on the other hand has DSN's most recent 01/04/40 dial, it's available for purchase right now and it comes with no "-" in TST. The crossbars in A's are indeed high and the overall appearance is quite nice, however the dial is not without major flaws.

The dial print is off white and too thin, T SWISS T font is regular Arial family, the dial indeces are laid over topplate unlike the gen. Please see this gen picture, it should illustrate my points well:

Valerian's dial with a little bit of love from The Zigmeister can be made to look closer to gen.

P.S. The strap in question on PAM00164 looks like Paolo18 or possibly JR, they have very similar stitching.

[klocklind1]

"EDIT" ...on second reflection the watch/dial looks like a gen PAM001A/B one - LOL!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Wow, another infamous DSN 001/004A dial from early '06 with correct crossbar on 'A', great find indeed

These are long gone from his spare parts box, and made legendary in their own right.

Also, great work on removing the "-" from T-Swiss-T

Wear it well, mate!

Welcome back BABOLA

Very nice to see You back again !

Keep on posting

[valerian]

Wolf, I'm reading my eyes glued to the screen. Very interesting really.

I'm not sure I understand: My dial has no "-" anywhere. Just "T Swiss T". What does that mean?

Thanks for all the interesting details about my watch. I was not aware of anything like it.

Valerian.

[w0lf]

Valerian,

Try to take a close up of the watch so we can see the whole dial including the area under 6 o'clock. Perhaps if you could give us a little bit of history on this piece maybe we can trace it back and establish if the dial has been refinished or we're dealing with a totally different animal. To my eyes it looks like an old DSN dial similar to these:

Destro 26 from HackR:

and I believe this one is FGD's old PreA 01:

I hope HackR and FGD will forgive my linking to their pics w/o asking for permission...

[babola]

Babola, great to see you back and posting once again

I'd like to make a small correction. The original poster, Valerian is the one who has the infamous DSN dial meant originally for PreA watches. The one with extra yellow indices and T-S-T.

Qwest on the other hand has DSN's most recent 01/04/40 dial, it's available for purchase right now and it comes with no "-" in TST. The crossbars in A's are indeed high and the overall appearance is quite nice, however the dial is not without major flaws.

The dial print is off white and too thin, T SWISS T font is regular Arial family, the dial indeces are laid over topplate unlike the gen. Please see this gen picture, it should illustrate my points well:

Valerian's dial with a little bit of love from The Zigmeister can be made to look closer to gen.

P.S. The strap in question on PAM00164 looks like Paolo18 or possibly JR, they have very similar stitching.

Cool mate, thanks for a heads up about the new batch of DSN historic dials, been out of action for a while so need to catch up with all the recent happenings in general :-)

I spotted Valerian's DSN 001/004A straight away from his first photo (I own one of these dials myself...worth its weight in gold these days :-)), but thought Quest's one was one of the older DSNs as well, there's that recognizable "DSN-ism" in it, and if you'd be around long enough his dials you'll know what I mean ;-), I'm sure you do anyway :-).

Then I noticed the font's different, hence I thought it was possibly a gen, without too much looking deeper.

When it comes to thickness of the dial txt, I've come across many pics of A, B and transitional B series historic Luminors that come with anemic font, thinner than they normally are on those models. Basically for me the jury's still out on gen/rep font thickness. True, most of the gens come with thicker txt only replicated well one some of the rare early 2005-2006 EL/River/Honpo rep models and recently by FGD and maybe LH, but this isn't always rule-of-a-thumb when comparing rep to gen Luminor dials.

BTW, I managed to source one of the early EL old-school 001B-L dials recently, by total accident but can't complain...still a droopy A, but the best ever Marina rep dial produced by rep factories, bar none IMO. Fishing for a good case at the mo...

cheers and stay well,

b

Edited March 11, 2010 by babola