A6154 with NW engraved movement + Southy "gaposis" dial

[mellons]

Finally after a bit of a battle I have this one on the wrist. It is the end of a sequence of 6154 reshapes and builds etc. but has all the ingredients I had hoped for. The parts from this come from a few different sources- special thanks to tan for providing the very rare and beautiful (old school) movement and also to flotigglia for patience in servicing and bringing it back to 10o% health! Also thanks to Southy for the remarkable gaposis dial- hard to believe this was for sale twice with no takers! This is really the best bit, when a build does not go completely according to plan but patience finally wins out. Molly is ticking away like a champ and is spot on atm. Just realised I have not taken plastic protective film off caseback...

The parts list is as follows:

Athaya 6154 case set (reshaped)

two piece bezel (polished) with qplexi

Athaya 6154 BBB engraved slim caseback (will try later with thick one also)

Necky compression-fit lug bars

Nightwatch rhodium plated sterilised and engraved molnija 3601 movement

Southy "gaposis RP brown dial

Athaya lightly vintagised high-collar hands

Timeband 26.26 ammo with sewn-in gpf buckle

Here are some dark pics (will need to wait for a sunny day):

wristies

[ogladio]

That looks great Mel! Love the gaposis effect and of course - as always - your "flowy feeling" case

[mellons]

[tessa]

the molly movement . Who makes them and whats the story with rolex engraved on them

[mellons]

it's a molnija 3601 with sterilised and engraved bridges by nightwatch. he also rhodium plated them and duplicated the perlage... old school, not sure if he still does these. This one is one i had to take out of an older build: was hidden behind a solid caseback. I think oakabum did these also back in the day.

here's the gen inspiration with the gap...

http://panerai.watchprosite.com/show-nblog.post/ti-436436/

[mellons]

The gap and dial construction was due to the slenderness of the case and the fact that a 3 piece dial would not fit iir

.

. I have tried a few attempts to do a DIY one, 37mm dial on 39mm back plate but never got spot on. If the gap is too small then it will not read at all: likewise if you use a blackened or aged plate the gap will become less pronounced. For this be southy got it spot on IMHO.

If i was mounting in a bronze case I would blacken the plate:for ss leaving nos accentuates gap. Again as with all builds this is very subjective and gen images can be varied: I included that gen link of one build to show how little and large the gap can look depending on the angle of the photo, distortion etc. Scroll down through that and in some images there is nearly no gap visible, then front on at slight angle the gap is hugely pronounced: and this is h same build! Actually using a very small ap hs an interesting effect of making a build look more slender, and I have done this before on a silix build where the overall build height was higher than I wanted.

I remember looking at 6154 gen shapes for reshapes: oyang's seemed to be the most accurate until I came across a gen which looked identical to athayas! So there will always be a bit of variety in the handmade gens anyway IMHO. For hands I just prefer this type to the ones pictured also...

[drbatz]

I think nightwatch doesn't mod molnija's anymore.... it's a shame, beautiful movement, perfect for a vintage build

[mellons]

I have been hunting for one like this for some time

He still does bridge engraving not sure about the rest

[Archetypal]

As always beautiful work from a top guy.

The lines of that movement are mesmerising!