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Gen-stein-franken-Tudor Project(s) Kickoff


hanski

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And so it starts, my headlong dive into a trio of gen-stein-franken-Tudors. It started with a 17j Tudor ETA 2784. Picked it up off VRF for a reasonable price. Or so I thought until I discovered not only did it need a full service cleaning but replacement automatic works Bridge, keywords needed to be rebuilt, and a new balance required (still waiting on the balance). Regardless this inspired the first project, a blue 9411/0. 

- MQ Case w/ lugs reshaped, CG’s reshaped, tube retapped, chamfers recut, and repolished. 

- WSO Tension Spring (en route)

- Clark’s 7030 Tube (en route)

- Gen 704 Crown (I know 702 is correct but I came into this one for free)

- TC Hand Set (aged in organic Pacific saltwater, reluming forthcoming)

- Phong Insert (aging forthcoming) 

- Phong Dial (reluming forthcoming) 

- Erika’s Original MN Strap

The pleasure of working on genuine movements and gen spec VN cases inspired me to continue the trajectory into these gen-stein-franken-Tudors. I’m partial to them for their cost - Rolex movements are out of control. Tudor movements are still reasonable, parts are readily available, and easy to work on. 

Ive decided to continue working my way back in time. The next two movements that arrived today are an ETA 2462 and an ETA 2461. Both picked up for a bargain on WUS and sold as “great running condition”. Hardly the case...

The 2462 was missing a barrel bridge screw and someone installed the wrong screw in the  minute c o ck. I was able to harverst those from the 2461 and it was off and running nicely. It even came with an interesting Tudor crown. 

The 2461 is now missing the two above mentioned screws plus the winding pinion, and stem. Hopefully a few parts and it’ll be up and running. 

And now begins the hunt for 7021 and 7016 case/dial/etc. I think I’m going to go for a 7928 dial on the 7016 and a black snowflake on the 7021. 

Guess what this is all leading me towards? Hunting for a Tudor 390 movement to eventually build a 7922 big crown. 

Oh the rabbit hole....

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well, first step has been preparing the case to better accept a gen 7030 Tube and 704 Crown. 

As the case come from MQ, it has an afterthought of a countersink for the tube. This causes any gen spec tube to sit proud of the case - which also causes the crown to float away from the case. 

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I measured the two steps in the tube, 3.9mm and 4.9mm. Unfortunately I could not find those exact end mill, 4-blade, flat, carbide cutting bits so I ended up with a 4mm and 5mm. Thankfully it was close enough and the tube fit snugly into the end countersink. 


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As you can see, I continued to bore in with the 4mm and stepped up to 5mm for the upper portion. It was a process of cut, measure, cut, measure, test the tube, repeat. I was using a precision milking machine but I think a drill press would work fine as well. 


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Crown sits tight and flush. 

Next endeavor will be the lugs - reshaping a bit. 

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Finished reshaping the lugs this evening. Cut down the top a bit to make more gradual the slope from the rehaute down to the tip, then recut the chamfer, and repolished everything. I did intentionally ease the edges of the chamfer, I don’t want sharp, new cuts. 

It’s all slowly coming together. Now if only that new gluycdur balance wheel would show up from Germany...

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Really looking forward to seeing these pan out. I've got a hankering for a 9411 too so will be looking for hints and tips.

Here‘s a link to my 9401 build from a few weeks ago with the same MQ case. They take a some work to knock into shape. The biggest let down though being the Rehaut, which is slightly woky.
https://rwg.cc/topic/193248-tudor-94010-a-snowflake-for-christmas/?tab=comments#comment-1549011&searchlight=1
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Dial and hands relumed. 

So, I take back anything bad I have ever said about a lume application to a Tudor Dial - what a pain in the...every plot has four corners. But it’s done and I like it. 

Oh, and yeah, it’s a matte black dial now. Turned out Phong got a bad batch of gloss blue dials for gen movements. The date window misaligned to the date wheel. He promptly sent me a black one with a black insert. When the blue ones come in I’ll pick one up and swap it out. For now my 9411 will be a black dial project it seems. 

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My glucydur balance wheel arrived from germany! 

...but the staff had a broken pinion. NOS my @$$

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I decided to pick up a standard nickel balance wheel for now to get my watch going (it was supposed to be my Christmas gift to myself after all). That is installed and things are running smoothly. 

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Since I’m with a matte black dial I need to decide on the insert. Three to choose from: Phong Black, Slay Kissing 40 Black, or Phong Blue. Nothing has been aged yet but when I do it’ll be a light touch. 

Lets crowd source some thoughts on this, what do you like best? 

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Since I’m with a matte black dial I need to decide on the insert. Three to choose from: Phong Black, Slay Kissing 40 Black, or Phong Blue. Nothing has been aged yet but when I do it’ll be a light touch. Lets crowd source some thoughts on this, what do you like best? 
Wow! Very nice indeed! As lovely as Slays insert is, wouldn’t it be too early for this watch? If so the black Phong, lightly aged, would be my choice. Btw. That crystal has done wonders for the Rehaut, what’s the spec?

 

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  • 3 months later...

And so the saga continues. I picked up a gen Tudor snowflake dial from ChronoShop a few months back. It was cheap and for good reason, practically none of the dial was left. After discussions with the various, professional dial refinishers, Kirk Rich in CA took on the project. 

Given the condition of the dial and my desire for a blue dial, I opted to have them refinish as gloss blue. Interestingly, Lou said a lot of owners send in their black dials to be refinished in blue. Hmmm...

It took some time to get done, like 6-7 weeks. There was a bit of back and forth on the blue color - with a few tests and QC pics. Then it was from blue background to done and in my mailbox without another word. 

Lou was good to work with but I’m not 100% satisfied with the end result. I can see he used a screen print, not pad printing. The hour ticks touch the lume plots. And a couple of the lume plots are slightly misaligned. 

I’m probably going to end up keeping it without much fuss anyways. The time I’ve waited for it to be done combined with my excitement to continue on with my 7016 project overwhelms my urge to have him do it again. Anyways, since it’s been refinished, it could always be refinished again some time in the future. Which begs the question, when is something real? Sure, the providence of this dial and the process of refinishing it makes it “legit”. But in the end it’s just a piece of metal with a picture printed on it. Maybe thoughts for another thread...

Another note, I asked them to refinish without providing lume. I wanted to do that myself. I’ve gone ahead and applied a light pumpkin orange lume to the plots. Next, on to adding some patina to the hands, relume them, and start assembly on the Tudor 2461 movement. 

 

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Looks very nice to me. These are all big photos so once it’s built up it should be spectacular. Waiting for more ........

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19 minutes ago, jackflash said:

Hmmm, hate to say it. “Prince Oyster”, shouldn’t it be “Oyster Prince”? The date version being “Prince Oysterdate”.

Don't think so, with Tudor the model names were reversed

 

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