Tudor caliber 390, similar movements?

[Ephry73]

I want to know if with all of awesome knowledge existing here about rolex and Tudor gens and replicas, if there is a movement that can be used as the 390 or similar to the 390 for an early Tudor sub project. Thanks in advanced. E

[woof*]

I'm not your expert ...but did you see that gen Tudor 390 with vintage dial for 450$ the other day at Vrf?

I fretted over buying it for five minutes too long and it was gone

That would have been easy to make a killer franken!

[Ephry73]

Yup!. There was a movement on fleabay that I was watching and it disapeared. The dial I have would be lovely with the case I'm working on and a gen movement and hands for authenticity. This is for that 5514/Tudor hybrid fantasy watch. I was looking at Omega movements Caliber 360 but I am pretty sure that these are not compatible.

E

[automatico]

The tudor 390 is a 12.5 ligne FEF (Fleurier Ebauche Factory) 380/390 base movement and is known to be an Ok base movement but with a troublesome autowind assembly (I do not know if this a/w assembly is exclusive to tudor or not). For this reason, autowind parts are very hard to find so if you buy a movement needing parts, it can be an expensive project.

Some 'rolexperts' claim the tudor 390 can use parts from a rolex 1030...I seriously doubt anything will interchange.

My guess is the cost of a Yuki etc 5513/1680 case/dial with rolex 1520/1575 would not be much more than a Yuki etc tudor case/dial with a tudor 390 needing a few parts.

Tudor projects with an Eta 24xx/28xx cost much less to put together.

I had a 390 autowind assembly in my watchjunk but have not seen it since I moved my shop in 1997.

[Ephry73]

The tudor 390 is a 12.5 ligne FEF (Fleurier Ebauche Factory) 380/390 base movement and is known to be an Ok base movement but with a troublesome autowind assembly (I do not know if this a/w assembly is exclusive to tudor or not). For this reason, autowind parts are very hard to find so if you buy a movement needing parts, it can be an expensive project.

Some 'rolexperts' claim the tudor 390 can use parts from a rolex 1030...I seriously doubt anything will interchange.

My guess is the cost of a Yuki etc 5513/1680 case/dial with rolex 1520/1575 would not be much more than a Yuki etc tudor case/dial with a tudor 390 needing a few parts.

Tudor projects with an Eta 24xx/28xx cost much less to put together.

I had a 390 autowind assembly in my watchjunk but have not seen it since I moved my shop in 1997.

On that note, I wonder how the 1030 hands would fit on the 390 movement. I can always just assemble this watch with the 2783/4 movement and use it as is for now and slowly collect the parts for the 390. Not for anybody else but for me.

E

[nick1972]

On that note, I wonder how the 1030 hands would fit on the 390 movement. I can always just assemble this watch with the 2783/4 movement and use it as is for now and slowly collect the parts for the 390. Not for anybody else but for me.

E

The second and hour hand wil fit ,the minute not. But if your handy you could enlarge the existing hole.

I tried it with my 7924 franken because I liked the big bubble seconds hand.

[Ephry73]

Looks really good. Where did you source the hands from? Yuki? I ordered a set of their eta aged/cream hands for the 2783 movements and will use the rose submariner dial with that combo on the 5514 slimmed down case I have. I really like that tudor you have there. What you know need is one of the tropic 17 crystals I have

E

[nick1972]

The hands are old ones from CWP. I'm gonna

use a superdome 39 for this project

[Ephry73]

WOW. I managed to source some service t-19 but the lack of dome sort of works for me on these older watches. I would love to get one of these cases for an early sub project. It is soooo funny how our taste changes and evolves in watches as you learn a little bit.

390 base plates go for really cheap. How how hard to source, or correctly mate are these parts?

Thanks for the input and sharing your project pictures.

E

[nick1972]

WOW. I managed to source some service t-19 but the lack of dome sort of works for me on these older watches. I would love to get one of these cases for an early sub project. It is soooo funny how our taste changes and evolves in watches as you learn a little bit.

390 base plates go for really cheap. How how hard to source, or correctly mate are these parts?

Thanks for the input and sharing your project pictures.

E

I would search the bay for a movement. The copper colored FEF 390's are not to expensive if you know what to look for.

The way I did it, learn about the different Tudor references with a FEF 390 caliber.

Search for the tudor ads where the movement is not visible and ask the seller what reference the watch got.

There is a Big chance you get a 390 for cheap.

The rhodium plated 390's is a different story, they are harder to get and to my knowledge not to be found in regular Tudor's.

My 7924 has a rhodium plated FEF 390 caliber.

Maybe I have a spare copper colored FEF 390, I will check it tomorrow.

[Ephry73]

Thanks for the tips. I have been scouring the net for information to see if I can learn more about this. As I "progress" in this hobby I am getting to appreciate the Tudor early subs more and more. Let me know if you have that

E

[Ephry73]

One quick question, does anyone know if the FEF 350 is similar to the 390 caliber? If so, this may be another and cheaper alternative.

E

[nick1972]

One quick question, does anyone know if the FEF 350 is similar to the 390 caliber? If so, this may be another and cheaper alternative.

E

No it's not the same or similar, 390 is 12.5 ligne and a 350 is 10.5

[Ephry73]

Oh well. I need to hit raffit for cross reference. Thanks Nick.

E

[Ephry73]

I guess a movement ring that can make up the diference in ligne. I keep finding 1030 Caliber movements, I wonder if these could be used. Any updates?

E