theapexseal Posted December 20, 2011 Report Share Posted December 20, 2011 I have been dreaming of building a vintage 5513 for years and years now, and finally decided to take the plunge and get underway. With the help of my friend Woof (whom I have to thank once again for all of his guidance and patience!) along with all of the great info on these boards I have just completed my first build! I already have my second vintage project lined up and really wanted to get everyones oppinion on this first one. What do you guys think? Please dont hold back, Im trying to learn as much as I can still! Please excuse the bad pictures, but here is a list of what was done: Josh 5513 base aged/ polished case and bezel numerous times CG shaped lugs drilled aged hands and dial bleached bezel insert Yuki tube installed yuki springbars gen 703 crown gen t19 crystal still waiting on a better pearl to arrive, and also have a yuki rivet band here waiting to install. I had originally gone a different route with the case shape, but after holding a few dozen gen vintage 5513s this past week I opted to go with a more agressively "overpolished" look. Dont hold back guys! Please let me know what you think! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theapexseal Posted December 20, 2011 Author Report Share Posted December 20, 2011 wow..I just realized how badlly those pictures sucked...gotta get on that.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Star69 Posted December 20, 2011 Report Share Posted December 20, 2011 wow - looks very nice ! i love the ageing of the dial and hands - also the CGs - i think you got the max possible out of Joshs 5513. cheers, Frank Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
highoeyazmuhudee Posted December 20, 2011 Report Share Posted December 20, 2011 also the CGs - i think you got the max possible out of Joshs 5513. was just thinking EXACTLY that. the pointys really work perfectly for this cases CGs Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freddy333 Posted December 20, 2011 Report Share Posted December 20, 2011 A full-frontal pic would be helpful, but I like what I can see. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mir36 Posted December 21, 2011 Report Share Posted December 21, 2011 Inspiring! I need to get my Josh 5513 out of the drawer and do some work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lolex_panelai Posted December 21, 2011 Report Share Posted December 21, 2011 wonderful! may I ask how you did the aging of hands, dial and bezel insert? thanks in advance! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lhooq Posted December 21, 2011 Report Share Posted December 21, 2011 Very convincing look! I love the smooth, polished sides. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theapexseal Posted December 21, 2011 Author Report Share Posted December 21, 2011 Thank you guys for the kind words and advice! I will try to post some better full frontal pics later on. For the dialI got a little crazy trying some stuff to age it.. I started by putting it in the oven for about 40 mins, checking on it every 3 minutes or so. It simply made the markers a bit darker then I sprayed it a few times with workable fixative to try to get a bit of texture. The fixative didnt really have the thick texture I was looking for so I bought some matte varnish spray. I sprayed a thick coat of matter varnish then as it was drying just placed some really really coarse sand paper on top of the dial (not moving it at all to sand) as a negative mold to create a 3d textured effect. After that coat dried I sanded the dust from a rusty nail onto the dial and spayed another coat of matter varnish on top of it. This sealed in small rust colored particles that added some discoloration to the dial. Finally i took a little bit of watercolor to the markers to make the color less consistent throughout. I think if I were to do it again I would probably do all the same steps with the exception of the oven. I feel like they may be a bit too dark in color for my taste. For the hands I started by scratching them up with a loupe and an exacto knife. I went as far as to remove a chunk of lume in the middle of the minute hand. After this I just dunked them for about a day in a mix of water, coffee, salt, rusty nails, mud, dirt, and brake fluid. Once I pulled them out I cleaned them up and added a touch of watercolor to make them a little more consistent with the markers. The look came out quite aged as there is a hint of green rusty patina in some areas. For the next one I am going to try to buy some lume and try to build up the puffy tritium marker look, but ive got to go in baby steps. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theapexseal Posted December 21, 2011 Author Report Share Posted December 21, 2011 Very convincing look! I love the smooth, polished sides. Thank you, in looking at the gens I noticed that they really generally all were repolished probably dozens of times, so I did the nail and coins in a can trick maybe three times with alternating polishes. There are some deeper cuts that I left "half polished" and still can be seen through, but in general I just repolished everything. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theapexseal Posted December 21, 2011 Author Report Share Posted December 21, 2011 With as much discussion as I have seen about Josh's crown guards I dont think that they are totally horrible..Deffinatelly short and very wrong without a doubt, but the gens come in so many different sizes and shapes now after all the repolishing that it really is impossible to call any watch out just because of crown guards alone. The thing that gets me the most about this watch is the caseback. Woud it be possible to flatten this one a bit? Has anyone tried grinding it down flat? Seems like there is enough material back there to support at least a little less bulbous grinding. If not is there any other case back that could be cheaply substituted back there? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redwatch Posted December 21, 2011 Report Share Posted December 21, 2011 For your first project (or any aging project for that matter), that looks amazing!!! And I love the details on how you did it!!! Well done!! Can't wait to see what you do with your Tudor project Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmb Posted December 21, 2011 Report Share Posted December 21, 2011 I love your "rusty nail" technique - definitely outside the box thinking at it's finest! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woof* Posted December 21, 2011 Report Share Posted December 21, 2011 P, I gotta say your a really focused person... you really just pick up the ball and run with it! Your watch came out great, and as already mentioned... those crowngards on this particular case couldn't look better. Dial rocks! Very creative aging. Job well done. Hate to think how good you'll be after youv'e done about ten more watches! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lolex_panelai Posted December 21, 2011 Report Share Posted December 21, 2011 Wonderful watch! Wonderful work! Congrats!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sishac Posted December 21, 2011 Report Share Posted December 21, 2011 Beautiful job!!! I'm getting ready to start on a 5513 project, but I am thinking of going for the safe-queen look! Your watch is an inspiration!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theapexseal Posted December 22, 2011 Author Report Share Posted December 22, 2011 Thank you everyone for the comments and encouragement. Just took a couple more pics... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jellytots Posted December 23, 2011 Report Share Posted December 23, 2011 Definitely one of the best aged vintage subs I've seen - do you take commissions?? (null) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hackR Posted December 23, 2011 Report Share Posted December 23, 2011 looks great...well done...very creative... when i baked my dial, the printing turned gilt...your printing still looks white...did it fade at all? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theapexseal Posted December 23, 2011 Author Report Share Posted December 23, 2011 No the white really didnt change color, it simply faded a bit in intensity but not yellow. I was really worried about overdoing it so it was being pulled out every 2 or 3 minutes or so. Did you just leave it in for a 20-30 minute shot at once? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smqsub Posted December 24, 2011 Report Share Posted December 24, 2011 Fantastic stuff, Well done mate! Blue is the colour! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.