SSD+gen dial build pics

[sneed12]

I got my gen SeaDweller dial last week, and my SSD Lite arrived today. Thanks again to Ryaku. I've got a couple of builds on the desk at the moment, but I'm waiting for parts for all of them, so I decided to just go ahead and knock this out tonight.

I was a bit disappointed in the condition of the gen dial--it had a TON of light scratches on it as well as the "mark at 9" that the seller disclosed. Oh well. I did pick it up super cheap, I guess that was why. I'd love to send it to Uwe to get it polished, but I'm a do-it-yourself kind of guy, so instead I polished it LIGHTLY myself. I used a felt Dremel buffing wheel (not the hard felt ones, but the kind that are layers of cloth stitched together) and went over the biggest scratches very lightly. It helped, or at least it didn't hurt.

Anyway. Here's everything laid out:

Gen dial on far left, a Swiss ETA, datewheel + overlay, WM pearl, original 21j guts + SSD dial.

Comparo shot of gen dial (left) and SSD rep dial:

and close ups of each. You can see the scratches on the gen dial, and the text in Rolex is slightly messed up

However, you can see that with a little light on the gen dial, the damage doesn't show very well. I'm hoping that means it's not too noticeable under a crystal.

Most important test: the gen dial fits in the SSD case. I was worried it wouldn't.

As you can see though, it looks a bit crowded. This case, like all SSDs, suffers from slight wokkiness.

I had big plans to fix the wokkiness on this case. The gen 16600 has a straighter rehaut. I went after the inside edge of the rehaut with a Dremel... I was pretty worried about ruining it, so I went really slow.

My original idea was to change the angle of the whole rehaut, but after about 10 minutes of grinding it became clear that wasn't going to work. There is no way I'd get the angle right all the way around, and I didn't want to ruin the case. What I settled for instead was "opening up" the inside edge of the rehaut, keeping the grind perpendicular to the plane of the dial. Here's a sort of diagram:

I ground the lip of the rehaut down, then used sandpaper by hand to soften it, then polished it, then rebrushed it to match the rehaut. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. You can sort of see the edge of it in this pic:

As long as the case is stripped down, now is the time to clean it, grease all the seals, epoxy the HEV, and trim the cg's a bit.

While the epoxy is drying, I trim the gen dial feet:

and install the dial and datewheel on the movement. I've given up on dial dots for this, now I just use glue. I find it's more secure. I've got to wait for this glue to dry now, too, so I install the WM pearl into the insert.

Movement cased up:

Next to it, you can see the hands that Ruprekt kindly donated to this project. I was looking for hands that have lume that will stand up to the gen lume, and these definitely fit the bill. Unfortunately, it turns out they don't fit--the hour hand collet is too tall! I dug up some ETA Noob hands just to finish the build for now, and I have some BK superlumed hands on order that I'll swap in later.

As you can see, the standard rep lume on the hands doesn't hold a candle to the dial.

I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out. The rehaut trimming made a surprisingly large difference. I'll post more pics when BK's hands go on it.

(Man, some of those pics suck I need photography lessons!)

[freddy333]

Are you sure that 'super cheap' gen SD dial (the 1 that says 'SWISS' @ 6) is gen?

[sneed12]

The lume is gen-like, it had gen dial feet, and it has the white gold with no baseplate markers... if it's not gen then it's close enough to fool me. What makes you suspicious about it?

[alligoat]

The dial looks fine to me. Swiss just means c. 1999-2000, luminova, as opposed to the current Swiss Made dials w/ SL.

Nice write up sneed! I like the idea of trimming the rehaut some. What I've noticed and don't like is the slope on the outside edge of the crystal on my SSD- V2. The crystal sits pretty high and the slope messes up the rehaut also, from the outside.

[Ephry73]

Sneed, you selling the SSD dial and bezel by any chance? I am in need of a noob SSD dial and bezel to finish a project.

Watch looks good, but the Dial is questionable, though it looks good.

E

[Tribal]

Nice project.

I like it a lot.

Think you need to trim the CG's a bit more inside.

They look to much rounded on the Tube area.

Maybe you have access to a Lathe, you can work down the Rehaut from top a bit. That makes the Crystal sit a bit deeper in the Case.

But looks nice anyway.

The Dial is Gen for shure!

[highoeyazmuhudee]

looks very good.

weakest point for me is the insert, CGs, and hands (which you are planning on replacing anyways)

dial is good, GEN, you can see the makers mark on the back and its perfect.

i think a gen insert will just complete it

[Dizzy]

Are you sure that 'super cheap' gen SD dial (the 1 that says 'SWISS' @ 6) is gen?

There are TWO versions of the 1999 swiss luminova dial probably from different dial makers. The one shown above looks like its probably gen or a repainted gen dial. Here are two pics from the Rolex Forums.... The crown on the above dial looks a little off thats the only reason i suspect a repaint but who knows, it could just be the picture.

Edited September 29, 2011 by Dizzy

[Eiderdaus]

to be more correct the SWISS printing was used from 1998 until 2000

[Watchmeister]

Great build. Wear it well.

[woof*]

Sneed,

I am curious about the rehaut. I have a gen 16660 dial going into my SSD and I want to know how much extra dial area you had to work with in order to mill your rehaut straight. Was it just right after milled, or just barely had enough to cover the dial?

[sneed12]

UPDATE:

OK, for the last few days I've been waffling on this one. Ultimately, I just wasn't happy with the condition of the dial. I wasn't sure what to do. I decided I had a couple of days to think about it because I was waiting on BK's superlumed hands.

Someone over on RWI made the suggestion of using car wax to clean the dial up. It took a few hours for it to click, but once the light bulb went on I knew exactly what to do... a dial is painted, and I know exactly how to polish paint!

So I went over to my car stuff and grabbed some Meguiar's Number 9:

I used a cloth buff on the Dremel and carefully polished the dial paint.

Here is a before shot:

and here is after polishing. (I know I take ****ty pics, but believe me, it's a 100% improvement)

That thing near the 12 marker is a piece of lint. That smudge near the 9 is an actual smudge, I didn't want to get too aggressive with the polishing.

While I had the movement out I worked on the CGs some more:

There's still a little nubbin in the corner, I now see in this pic :mad: oh well. I'll fix that later.

So now it's time to install the hands.

I cannot say enough how awesome these hands are. How bright are they? When I was unpacking them, you could see the glow through the tissue paper. That's how bright they are.

Like everything else associated with BK, these hands are absolutely top quality. They match the gen lume almost perfectly (definitely in terms of brightness). They're just a hair brighter than my WM9s.

Hands go on:

and watch gets cased up again.

I decided to try a comparo lume shot. Center watch is a BCE with standard rep lume, my BK/TW with WM9 dial and hands on the left, and the gen dial + BK/SL hands SeaDweller on the right. As you can see, the SL hands are torchlike.

I was this close to taking this watch apart and selling it yesterday, but now I couldn't be happier with how it turned out.

[sneed12]

Sneed,

I am curious about the rehaut. I have a gen 16660 dial going into my SSD and I want to know how much extra dial area you had to work with in order to mill your rehaut straight. Was it just right after milled, or just barely had enough to cover the dial?

There is more than enough, the rehaut still overhangs the dial quite a bit even after trimming. In fact, if anything I think it could stand to be opened up even more, I'm just nervous about destroying the case.

[Tribal]

Looks fantastic.

The BK hands make the difference.

Must order some for my Rolexes.

Great project and I love the result.

Congrats for this SD

[Gileto]

Very good work !! Great ssd you got here !

[sneed12]

Hmm, thought--if it's a ~98-2000 dial, should the case have lugholes?

[Ephry73]

Good question Sneed. BTW, I love the dial polishing idea! Crazy!!!

E

[senator]

the etched crown @6 would me drive nuts.......

[Guest zeleni kukuruz]

the etched crown @6 would me drive nuts.......

Well take it up with the Congres mr Senator

[Ephry73]

Have you guys tried the OFrei sapphire crystals? They offer these in different thicknesses. I'm still debating whether or not to use the semi-gloss dial or a Matte yuki dial with matching yellow hands for my build.

E

[JoeyB]

Nicely done!

[woof*]

Well take it up with the Congres mr Senator

Awesome Z! lol

Ephry, I've never heard of anyone solving the crystal problem.

The fact the gen dial fits leads me to think it would be at least possible to machine the rehaut to fit a gen crystal.

[Ephry73]

Awesome Z! lol

Ephry, I've never heard of anyone solving the crystal problem.

The fact the gen dial fits leads me to think it would be at least possible to machine the rehaut to fit a gen crystal.

I will find out

E

[Ephry73]

Silly question, does anyone here know where to source the correct case backs for these Z series cases? I received two cases with correct Z series numbers and the casebacks are plain outer and 2160 inner markings. The Oyster case backs I have at home are too small for these. I have five different sea-dweller case backs and none fit. Ideas? I have the "3135" movement(added correct silver DWO thanks to JMB), the correct crystal(BTW, it does fit in these cases with the correct gasket, so my previous findings were faulty) "gen" 16660 coming my way( I say Gen because I think it is a refinished early transitional dial and if this one doesn't work I will go the Yuki route) I will leave the Gen 703 crown and tube for later as this seems ok. Now back to the case backs, how and who and where?

Thanks.

E