The Tale of Two Tudors

[chiman12]

I've been getting a lot of builds done lately and here are a couple more of my vintage Tudor builds. I must admit, the title for the "King of Tudors" will always belong to JMB, but I do enjoy my Tudor builds.

Here are a couple of Tudors that I've recently completed and quick stories behind them...my Franken Jumbo Tudor Day-Date and my 7922BC.

The Story of the Jumbo Tudor Day-Date Franken....

I always mention that I have certain parts that just sit in my parts box.

What I do is buy parts that I think are hard to come by and they sit in my parts box until a project evolves that I can use a particular part. I've had a NOS Black Jumbo dial that has been sitting in my parts box for well over a year. One day I ran across an auction for a Jumbo Day-Date on fleabay...

The movement was obviously in poor shape, but I was more concerned about the shape of the case. Based on the pictures, the case was in worn, but good shape, so I decided to take a chance and buy the Tudor for just the case. The same day, an auction came up selling a Felca with a serviced AS1895, but the case was in poor shape. "This was mean't to be" I said to myself...

When I received the Tudor, I was correct in my intial observations in that the movement couldn't be saved and was rusted beyond repair. The only parts I could use were the day and date wheels!

The case was a different story, there was only a tiny bit of rust on the edge of the case back that could be easily removed with sandpaper. I proceed to put everything together and refinished the case and hands and installed a gen Tudor bracelet using rep Datejust endlinks. Here it is...

...and the Tale of my Tudor 7922BC

I built a 6538 quite awhile ago using a Yuki case, but with time I was a little disappointed at how the rehaut looked on the watch. I thought it was a little too wokky as compared to gen pics that I have seen. I also have a Tudor 7922 and was never quite happy in that the dial was a little small for the case it was in currently .One day, I ran across this pic of a 7922 on 10pastTen.com and noticed that the rehaut was also a little wokky.

So I proceed to take apart my 7922 and 6538 and convert it to 7922BC...

I think the conversion turned out perfectly, in that 7922BC with the 100m dials were actually very rare and that some 7922 actually used 6538 cases!

I love how the dial is properly displayed in in the rehaut and enjoy how the watch now looks.

So why are the pieces similar??? The size of the Jumbo Day-Date is 37.5mm while the 7922 is 38mm. With its shear size, the Jumbo DD commands the same wrist presence as the 7922, but will also go with a suit! In addtion, the Jumbo DD actually uses 2mm spring bars. The genetics of both pieces are so similar, yet are completely different watches!!!

[jmb]

My, you have been a busy little beaver!! Two great builds! The Jumbo Tudors are in a class by themselves. I think the current Datejust II size is a bit much but the 38mm just feels "good".

[TeeJay]

Absolutely fantastic work, they both look great

[Ylfig]

Great work, beautiful watches!

[sly]

Very Nice Tudors.

[chiman12]

Thanks guys!

My, you have been a busy little beaver!! Two great builds! The Jumbo Tudors are in a class by themselves. I think the current Datejust II size is a bit much but the 38mm just feels "good".

very funny J...very funny....BUT...I agree with you, the 38mm feels and fits "right"...now what the heck am I going to do with my Franken 1550 Date?

[Nanuq]

It was the best of Tudors, it was the ... um, well, the best of Tudors.

Nice!

[redwatch]

Great conversion!! And that jumbo!!! I love it!!!

[chiman12]

on my 7922, I thought that the "SELF-WINDING" text was too low to on the dial, but according to the pic below of a gen 7922, it is actually not bad! Now I got to git me a big bubble second hand from cwp!

[Eton]

Fantastic!!!