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Modding a 1680, suggestions are welcome!


CPTony

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Hi guys

just bought this beauty, but I am not totally convinced about the dial and other small details, so what mods should I get to make it better?

I am thinking about:

- yuki dial

- clark crystal 127

- bezel with vintagized pearl... (from who?)

what do u think?

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Don't ask me if these things will fit but as good a dial as your budget will allow. A better insert and pearl and a flat top 3 date wheel on a slow beat eta movement will transform the watch. Also have a good look at crown guards. They may need work. Am looking on my phone so can't really tell.

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"however, how can i make sure they would fit?

any way to tell before i buy them?"

It would help if you told us which model this is and who it came from. If it's a cartel sub, some parts may not fit.

You could start taking it apart and measure the dial, insert and crystal.

If it's a PT- Puretime- sub, you may want to leave the crystal alone, because if you take it off, you may have to get jmb to make you a new crystal retention ring since getting the old one back on can be impossible.

If the dial is around 26.5mm, any good aftermarket dial should fit- just clip the dial feet and glue it to the top movement ring

You might be able to pop your pearl on your insert and install an Ofrei pearl. That's a cheap fix if you're in CONUS. If you're not in CONUS, the postage can be a little steep.

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Some of the sub models use a bigger dial/ case than the genuine, so a yuki dial might be too small. If that is the case, a genuine of good aftermarket insert, genuine crown and a slow beat movement would really help. also crown guards, drilling out the lug holes to fit genuine springbars. Definitely and insert with a better pearl, yours looks nothing like a genuine1680 tritium pearl. A trip to one of the good modders here on the board for the work and have the duial plots and hands redone with more realistic vintage lume. Datewheel or overlay with flat 3's and open 6's and 9's

The problem with some sub models, you cna only go so far with modding as the case construction is not close to genuine and genuine parts won't fit. I would go back and read some earlier posts about modding the 1680, there aare lots of good posts with photos and plenty of good information.

Also some photos off the wrist with good head on shots as well as some of the crown /crownguard side. Who it came from is also pretty crucial as well.

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The seller bought it in Thailand, so it might be cartel or mbw, he is not able to tell me so the only option i have is to dismantle and measure the dial.

It has a low beat movement though, not sure i want to go for a gen crown and tube unless these parts are necessary to install the dial.

Anyway it seems this watch will keep me busy for a while :-)

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It looks like an mbw standard pearl but the crown guards look too small for mbw in your pic

A gen crown would be the second mod right after the pearl if it was me

the previous seller shaved it and put a better bracelet, this might explain why it looks smaller thant the standard mbw.

What about the rest? can i assume is a mbw then?

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It's certainly not an MBW dial! That yellow green lume would point to a cartel version and I've seen cartel versions with the flat white MBW-like pearls. Like Andy says, show us the SN and bezel construction and we can tell you more. Trimming the crown guards might help, but they do look a little stubby to me. i wouldn't worry about changing the the crown and tube at this point.

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Its not a puretime 1680 the bezel flutes dont go that close to the insert on the pt. its looks like a 29mm dial the pt watch is 26mm

here are the puretime 1680s one of the 1680s was converted to a 5513

post-27094-0-69360000-1349465841_thumb.j

And the left over dial became a victim of my experiment i put it in the oven 20min at 200c

here is the too shiny pt dial before the oven abuse

post-27094-0-94040600-1349466086_thumb.j

and here after the oven violation the 200c heat was too high and bubbled up the dial slighty so next time i will use less heat!

notice that the markers shine has all gone and see the unexpected guilt colour to the white printing

post-27094-0-94109700-1349466158_thumb.j

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dial then sprayed with mahogany laquer then as the dial was tack drying i rubbed it with dusty fingers this removed the gloss from the laquer

and gave an aged look

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I posted this experiment some time back, if you are building a budget watch then using the factory dial is an option

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I really like that dial aeromatic,I'm currently looking into a red 1680 build myself at the moment, wish mbw cases were more available

Thanks Rymeister! different colour tones can be made using different laquer tints and technics im thinking of ordering a number of dials from raffletime and experiment they cost between 19usd and 38usd
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You'll have to post up some pictures I'd be interested in seeing your results :) looks great

I will do this one is my first time ageing a dial i here are the merc hands aged too .

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Guys

the watch is still on its way to me so I will take some pics when I get it (the one above are from the seller), perhaps you will be able to tell me where it is coming from then.

Now i am going to buy a dial for it, which one is the best in your opinion?

Yuki

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Ingod

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for a 1680 i dont think there is a better dial than a white MBW dial,

for a red then a yuki mabe is the best but i think and expert will spot it as if they are an expert then they will know the red sub

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i have a RED dial i received from my dial printer that i was test driving in my prototype 1680 case.

my dials are made with feet for ETA, so you do NOT have to clip the feet, "singer" engraved plate. dial is brand new factory direct. i figure i should start recouping some costs to move my case projects forward faster :good:

let me know if its your taste in red.

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Ignore the date wheel print, its a faux date wheel to check the cyrstal mag size

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I want a dial like that for sure, i dont have any other parts for the 1680 but i would purchase a dial like that and then build a watch around it!

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