First ever project: ham-fisted milsub tinkering

[Cross7]

I thought I'd share my initial attempts at putting together a couple of watches. I've only recently started to dip my toe in the rep market but being slightly obsessive about things, dipping my toe in was never going to be enough, so I ended up diving in head first. I've always loved divers and Rolexes, so the Rolex milsub was a perfect place to start. I started by reading all the posts on the forum about people's milsub projects and took things from there.

 

I started by buying a couple of 5517s from dealers with a view to using the cases and any other decent parts to build up at least one fairly good milsub. I then used all the information on this forum to research the various parts that would go towards making at least a half-decent rendition of a 5517. Some of the milsub work documented here is brilliant and this gave me inspiration and something to aim for.

 

I'd never even removed the back of a case from an automatic watch when I started tinkering, so there was a distinct possibility that things would go pear shaped. I bought a cheap set of the various tools that I thought I would need and went from there.

 

The whole experience has been a baptism of fire. Many evenings my wife has had to listen to me screaming and cursing when things have not been going well and to be honest things went badly more than they went well. However, I have learnt a lot from my mistakes.

 

I lost count of the number of times that I ended up crawling on my hands and knees looking for a dropped watch hand or a screw. I've knackered a movement, cracked a couple of crystals, ruined sets of hands and bent a bezel insert so much that it snapped but, like I say, I have learnt a lot from my mistakes and have slowly developed an understanding that working with watches is all about patience and finesse. 

 

The result of my ham-fisted tinkering is a couple of milsubs that I know are not perfect but do, at least, reflect aspects of the original and give me decent starting points for further tinkering.

 

Specs:

The case on the watch with the fixed lug bars and darker lumed dial is a HR 5517. The case on the watch with the lighter lumed dial is from Joshua.

Both dials and sets of hands are from HR.

The movement in the darker lumed watch is a Swiss slow beat eta.

The movement in the lighter lumed watched is an Asian eta.

Both crowns are the ones that came with the cases.

On the darker lumed watch, the bezel and insert is from WSO.

On the lighter watch, the bezel is from WSO and the insert is from roleyshop on eBay.

Both crystals are Clarks Tropic 19.

Both straps are Phoenix natos- one in black, one in admiralty grey.

 

I know that the second hands could do with trimming, the bezel pearls should be replaced with acrylic ones, one of the cases needs fixed lug bars and each watch could do with a bit of subtle ageing to improve the overall look. These are things that I'll look at when I've lived with them for a bit.

 

Although intensely frustrating at times, I've found the whole process extremely rewarding. It has all been inspired and guided by the amazing people that have shared their expertise and advice on this forum, so many thanks to all.

 

Apologies for the 'iPad photography'.

 

PS The last photo is my highly disorganised workstation, which I have subsequently sorted out into a state which is not quite so embarrassing...

[Sogeha]

Very nice, it seems far from ham fisted to me. 

[alligoat]

Nothing beats on the job experience! And I promise you my watch bench is twice as cluttered as yours. Keep up the good work.

[DavidModic]

Welcome to the beautiful and frustrating world of horology! Many things you wrote resonated with me, especially the wife bits :). I am in a similar position to yours with the only possible exception that I am at the next step, where I invested into the next level of tools, because I realized how quickly I am destroying the cheap ones (like screwdrivers and pincers). I also invested into a timegrapher and wr tester. But I started much like you. And now two years or so later, I cannot even tell you how many times I had to rebuild the keyless works, re-set the hands, etc etc.

Thank you for posting!

David

[Nanuq]

Those are some nice results.  Well done! 

 

 

[automatico]

Good job on the mil watches!

As for work areas...I have known three top tier pro repair guys in my life and all three had cluttered benches most of the time.  They would clear their work space and in a day or two it would be back to looking like a garage sale.

My work area usually looks worse when working on quartz character watches because I may have 4 or 5 apart at once. 

I see Hattori PC21 and Miyota 2035 in my dreams. 

[ogladio]

Great story and very fine results! Love to see another person passionate about the 5517 reference, besides what you already mentioned you might also consider putting on a gen crown.

[jackflash]

Very nice work! Congrats on a great result!

[Cross7]

Thank you for all the positive comments people. Much appreciated.