irate03 Posted October 12, 2012 Report Share Posted October 12, 2012 After two Pam homage builds that I am very happy with, I decided to try to build something smaller for my wife. She likes small watches but has never had a mechanical watch so I hope the weight is not an issue. DAY 1 - today my explorer 1016 Tiffany arrived from Silix, it came with a bracelet, the quality looked ok but i'm not an expert in bracelets, it is irrelevant anyway as I am going to use a leather strap or leather nato. I'm still very unsure what to use as my wife has small wrists and I want the leather to be very soft but I have a very limited budget. In the past for my Pam builds I've bought cheaper straps and aged and softened them myself which has worked out very well. The strap size is 20mm and I think the size for a plexi will be about 30mm but i'm guessing at the moment. The lugs are not drilled through, not sure if I can ignore that little details at the moment. Here are some images of the case before I take it apart. My first attempt at luming the indices. pre-mixed lume straight on. I'm thinking I could add another layer but maybe with some matt varnish added to the lume, what do you think ? some of the reference shots i've found have lume that looks quite fluffy like this. So here's the new vintage aged dial. I lightly sanded the hands as i do with my Pam homage hands, gently at 600 grit then softly at 1500 grit. dabbed with coffee, left to dry then touched up with a mix of waterbased paint., I also added a drop of extra lume to the seconds hand to give it a raised finish, then gave it the coffee treatment again. Here are some more close up's with a proper camera this time. It's way to small for me but i'm falling in love with this watch !!! :shh: The engraving is off, apparently it was made in SWITZERLADN I was scared about killing the keyless but had to press VERY!!!! hard to get the stem to release. The dial is quite nice as is, but I wanted to give it the full vintage treatment Play putty to cover the bezel plexi and crown tube and.......... in to the box of hard sharp pointy things you go..... so while I wait I took a crappy iphone lume shot It's done, the plexi arrived from Cousins today. it was a 30.3 high dome armoured, remove the armour ring so the inside recess fits on to the case, I think the stock plexi is a fraction thicker at the bottom as the bezel pushes firmly on where as with the new plexi it just sits on, so I used G-S Hypo cement both on the plexi and under the bezel, it's nice and solid now, I'm still waiting for a Clark Tropic 22, it may or may not fit. But for now i'm happy AND MY WIFE LOVES IT !!!!!! RESULT. here are some lovely pictures. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monkeypunch Posted October 12, 2012 Report Share Posted October 12, 2012 Looks good. The only thing that bugs me is the "Oyster Perpetual" seems to be in the wrong font, but on the wrist who the hell is going to notice that! Love that strap by the way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RG31417 Posted October 12, 2012 Report Share Posted October 12, 2012 The watch looks vintage and beautiful! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chou Posted October 12, 2012 Report Share Posted October 12, 2012 wow real nice! what strap is that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greed Posted October 12, 2012 Report Share Posted October 12, 2012 Whoa, Very nice, you make it look like it's such an easy way to do this. Wish I was this creative to build something like this. Been looking for a great vintage explorer or sub for a while now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tiyal Posted October 13, 2012 Report Share Posted October 13, 2012 Awesome!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronin Posted October 13, 2012 Report Share Posted October 13, 2012 Nice job on the aging. Also, nice strap. What strap is that? 1016's are the new black... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
irate03 Posted October 13, 2012 Author Report Share Posted October 13, 2012 (edited) Nice job on the aging. Also, nice strap. What strap is that? 1016's are the new black... Thanks for the great comments guys, this is the first Rolex i've done, I have been building vintage Pam's up till now. The strap is a budget one I bought off ebay because I wanted to get a vintage Nato but didn't think my wife would wear it, I didn't want to use the bracelet that came with the watch because it would have been too heavy for her. So I went with this and just vintagised it a bit and had to shorten it as it was very long for her small wrist. http://www.ebay.co.u...984.m1497.l2649 Edited October 13, 2012 by irate03 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lhooq Posted October 13, 2012 Report Share Posted October 13, 2012 Really good result, irate03. The texture and relume make the dial and hands so much more interesting visually. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dieselpower Posted October 13, 2012 Report Share Posted October 13, 2012 Very nice. 1016's are fabulous pieces. May both it and your wife live together happily ever after. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
irate03 Posted October 13, 2012 Author Report Share Posted October 13, 2012 after reading quite a few 1016 threads now, i'm a bit gutted about the lack of lug holes, but this watch came complete for about $80 and i've seen reps with holes for a lot more so I guess for a serious budget build I will have to live with it until I find someone with the right drilling equipment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iwc3 Posted October 13, 2012 Report Share Posted October 13, 2012 Thanks for sharing all the photos. Well done! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest accio Posted October 14, 2012 Report Share Posted October 14, 2012 OMG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
irate03 Posted December 19, 2012 Author Report Share Posted December 19, 2012 This arrived today. I bought it to go with a vintage sub build I'm planning but Silix cases were out of stock so i've decided to try it on my wife's vintage explorer, it's very comfy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Olivax Posted December 19, 2012 Report Share Posted December 19, 2012 Waouhh very nice and the nato is stunning! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vlydog Posted December 19, 2012 Report Share Posted December 19, 2012 This arrived today. I bought it to go with a vintage sub build I'm planning but Silix cases were out of stock so i've decided to try it on my wife's vintage explorer, it's very comfy. Nicely done! Love this combo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tmg Posted December 19, 2012 Report Share Posted December 19, 2012 Nice work and thanks for sharing! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markiemark Posted December 23, 2012 Report Share Posted December 23, 2012 im starting to make smeagol sounds... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beer Posted March 15, 2013 Report Share Posted March 15, 2013 Thats awesome! I have a question before I try to do this myself. Is the case size 34 mm as advertised or 36mm? Thanks! -beer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DVNE Posted March 23, 2013 Report Share Posted March 23, 2013 This thread inspired me to get my own. Not bad for a budget build!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sauravbhats Posted March 23, 2013 Report Share Posted March 23, 2013 This is very nice. Thanks for sharing.Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DVNE Posted March 30, 2013 Report Share Posted March 30, 2013 Can you share some tips on how you aged the leather strap.. It looks much nicer after your treatment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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