Rolexman Posted February 28, 2012 Report Share Posted February 28, 2012 Hi Guys, I just wanted to share my latest project. I bought a pristine Breitling Evo from my fellow country man Wimpie007 because I'm a sucker for the Evo. To be honest with you I must have owned all dial colors and variation at some point. It started out with the Graphite from ANgus back in the days and over the years I owned the blue, Arabic, black etc. But somehow the Evo never sticked around. If I needed money for a project the Evo would be the first to go. Why you ask? I have no idea. Maybe it's so easy to just buy a new one Now enough with the chit chat. Over to business. This Evo has the Rhodium plate and let me tell you... that's something different. It must be one of the best looking dials I've ever seen. It shifts from colour all the time and it gives the watch a real high-end look to it. From all the BCE dials this one must be one of the coolest. With the courtesy of Wimpie007 here are some pics of the watch as I received it. It was brand new and not a single mark or scratch was present. Wimpie is real anal just like me so that is good. There it was a brand new Evo and I decided it was nice enough to keep so what was up next? First up was a full tear down and service! Here you can see the dial uncased. A true beauty Although the movement ran okay it was dirty, like all A7750s and there were blobs of oil everywhere. Look what I found mam! An extra jewel end metal part floating around .... Completely taken apart waiting for it's bath Movement ready and waiting for the rest. I replaced all the blue screws with silver ones. Makes a huge difference!! Now let's also do something about that ugly green pearl and hands. Funny how all V4s have that. Ready to be scraped clean... All clean and polished rim... Relumed nice and white Best looking pearl on the block And what about those green hands? (hour hand already stripped) Nice and white Ready to reassemble Also a little mod to the ugly white ´rep screaming´ etched ´B´ on the side of the bezel Time to make it Waterproof and check all the seals (yes, ALL the seals) 3 seals in the crown (2 in the tube and 1 in the crown [not on picture] Then it's time to put everything together, waterproof it and enjoy the fruits of our labour. All it needs is a genuine brown calf Hope you enjoyed it!! Cheers! -------------------------- UPDATE: As you can see in the pic above I used an Asian Breitling signed rotor. It can be recognized by the jig saw ball bearing in the middle. As it is a big tell I decided to try to mod it. Although Francisco did a write up over at Repgeek some time ago about changing the Asian ball bearing to a Swiss. I didn't like the fact he used glue to secure the Swiss ball bearing. IMO no proper watch maker uses glue.... So I experimented a bit with some Dremel pieces in order to create the lip that is needed to secure the Swiss ball bearing ring. As you can see in the picture below you need a 2 stage lip. I experimented a little and off course I f*cked up some rotors But after some trial and error and trying some different bits I found the exact cone shaped piece to create a perfect lip. Here's the Asian rotor with the Swiss ball bearing. Secured like it should, without glue! All it now needs is a balance C@ck with a regulator. I will be changing that tomorrow and after that it will look 99% the same as a genuine Caliber B13. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hackR Posted February 28, 2012 Report Share Posted February 28, 2012 R-man...this is awesome...a great watch and a great story...super pix... wear it well and thanks for sharing...R Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest zeleni kukuruz Posted February 28, 2012 Report Share Posted February 28, 2012 Woow great writen and all cool pics i always thought this b-ling was to huge for my skinny ass wrist, how big is it? And with the ss band i think the weight is pretty heavy right? A nice brown leather lie you said would be best!!! I found it very nice, its growning on me!!! Thanks for a great reading friend! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chronoluvvv Posted February 28, 2012 Report Share Posted February 28, 2012 thanks for sharing ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andreww Posted February 28, 2012 Report Share Posted February 28, 2012 Beautiful watch! Outstanding job mate! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
specialvat Posted February 28, 2012 Report Share Posted February 28, 2012 Lovely Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krpster Posted February 29, 2012 Report Share Posted February 29, 2012 Excellent work. Looks fantastic. Thanks for sharing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rogerthat Posted February 29, 2012 Report Share Posted February 29, 2012 Hot looking watch Love the rhodium dial! Care to share what your bezel mod entails? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AsiadeCuba Posted February 29, 2012 Report Share Posted February 29, 2012 you're def a talented watchmaker. good stuff here Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rolexman Posted February 29, 2012 Author Report Share Posted February 29, 2012 Thanks for all the nice comments guys. Woow great writen and all cool pics i always thought this b-ling was to huge for my skinny ass wrist, how big is it? And with the ss band i think the weight is pretty heavy right? A nice brown leather lie you said would be best!!! I have a 7,25" wrist and the 44mm fits perfect. I think the weight is just fine. On a calf it is nicely balanced. On SS it is kinda heavy. Don't have a scale so I can't weigh it. IMO you don't wear this watch on SS anyway as it is too bling Care to share what your bezel mod entails? The 'B' on the side of the bezel is lasered and has sort of a white sheen to it. It sticks out like a sore thumb. What I've done is give it 800 grid grind and a high polish afterwards. This way the 'B' looks nice and clean and is only visible under certain lighting like the gen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Logan Posted February 29, 2012 Report Share Posted February 29, 2012 Excellent work. I'm interested to know how you remove the hands? It's still my least favorite part of the job and I feel has the most chance of damaging the dial or hands themselves. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rolexman Posted February 29, 2012 Author Report Share Posted February 29, 2012 I feel has the most chance of damaging the dial or hands themselves. You are right. You need a lot of practice and the right tools. It's probably the most delicate part of an entire service. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slickdick Posted March 1, 2012 Report Share Posted March 1, 2012 This BCE needs a diamond bezel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rogerthat Posted March 1, 2012 Report Share Posted March 1, 2012 No diamond bezel please! If you like that look do it on an sa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
archierocks Posted March 1, 2012 Report Share Posted March 1, 2012 an amazing job and to rhodium it must have cost a fair whack to the old budget but makes it look ace congrats Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dluddy Posted March 2, 2012 Report Share Posted March 2, 2012 Gorgeous watch and terrific write up. Great that you are able to do all of that work yourself Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rolexman Posted March 3, 2012 Author Report Share Posted March 3, 2012 Rotor mod update in post #1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tribal Posted March 3, 2012 Report Share Posted March 3, 2012 Wow I Love this Dial. Great work and a fantastic watch Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rolexman Posted March 4, 2012 Author Report Share Posted March 4, 2012 Gorgeous watch and terrific write up. Great that you are able to do all of that work yourself Wow I Love this Dial. Great work and a fantastic watch Thanks guys! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wimpie007 Posted August 1, 2012 Report Share Posted August 1, 2012 Wow great read can't believe I missed it. Can't believe you got it back together hehe ;-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kal Vilmer Posted August 2, 2012 Report Share Posted August 2, 2012 1.- What's a "rhodium plate"? a gen dial? 2.- This is a "V4" right? how many clicks on the bezel? Great work and great write up! Congrats Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coolwatchdude Posted August 5, 2012 Report Share Posted August 5, 2012 Great write-up! Thanks for sharing as I have one inbound Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rolexman Posted August 9, 2012 Author Report Share Posted August 9, 2012 1.- What's a "rhodium plate"? a gen dial? Rhodium is the color: "Silverish" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kal Vilmer Posted August 9, 2012 Report Share Posted August 9, 2012 Rhodium is the color: "Silverish" Where did you source the gen dial? off from the flea bay? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rolexman Posted August 9, 2012 Author Report Share Posted August 9, 2012 Where did you source the gen dial? off from the flea bay? Standard replica. It can be bought straight from the dealer like that. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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