Lo' Posted February 2, 2019 Report Share Posted February 2, 2019 Hello, this is something I have started a long time ago; a pet project I have abandoned and resumed in leaps and bounds , that I would eventually stray from only to be back to from square one at a later time... Well I am quite happy (and relieved) to announce that, as per the title of this post, the journey has finally ended. Yesterday afternoon after having fought my way through one of the most impressively tamper/shock/weather-proofed packages I have ever had to open in my life, I got my freshly patinated, relumed, serviced and reassembled 1016 build: The recipe is the same old one: 192xx midcase (originally reshaped by Akira) JMB bezel and caseback gen tube and crown gen superdome gen service dial Helena's 13mm Mercedes handset 2824-2 ETA movement Modders: SSTEEL and NATAS78 (praises, kudos and standing ovations to both for the A W E S O M E work and for being all-around great fellas!) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Seamaster Posted February 2, 2019 Report Share Posted February 2, 2019 Holy crap thats a hell of a dial!Geez, Love it!Mind sharing some details on the process done to the dial?West it in good health.Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danielv2000 Posted February 2, 2019 Report Share Posted February 2, 2019 Very unique dial. Enjoy this classic! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lo' Posted February 2, 2019 Author Report Share Posted February 2, 2019 2 hours ago, Mr Seamaster said: Holy crap thats a hell of a dial! Geez, Love it! Mind sharing some details on the process done to the dial? West it in good health. Cheers Hi Sea, I am not familiar with the process NATAS78 used to bring my old, flat and boring dial back to life. He will perhaps jump in and talk about it himself. That would be very instructive! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Natas78 Posted February 2, 2019 Report Share Posted February 2, 2019 Hi guys, well there's no 12-step program to getting this result, it takes years of trying and testing to know what works. All I can say is, if you know how to make a professional looking, realistic airfix or revell model, then you know how to do this Glad you are happy Lorenzo, and it turned out to be a very handsome watch! Plexi has also come out very well. Congrats! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lo' Posted February 2, 2019 Author Report Share Posted February 2, 2019 7 minutes ago, Natas78 said: Hi guys, well there's no 12-step program to getting this result, it takes years of trying and testing to know what works. All I can say is, if you know how to make a professional looking, realistic airfix or revell model, then you know how to do this Glad you are happy Lorenzo, and it turned out to be a very handsome watch! Plexi has also come out very well. Congrats! Thanks N! This would not have been possible without your "airfix or revell" skills Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lo' Posted February 2, 2019 Author Report Share Posted February 2, 2019 A few more shots for your viewing (hopefully) pleasure: 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hanski Posted February 2, 2019 Report Share Posted February 2, 2019 @Lo' Very nice build. What’s the inspiration/history behind the dial? It’s very unique and I’d love to learn more. Also, that’s a 3156 movement, not an ETA2824. Is it gen or clone? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSebWC Posted February 3, 2019 Report Share Posted February 3, 2019 very cool watch.....really enjoy the dial would love to know more about the techniques to create it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
manodeoro Posted February 3, 2019 Report Share Posted February 3, 2019 [mention=49167]Lo'[/mention] Very nice build. What’s the inspiration/history behind the dial? It’s very unique and I’d love to learn more. Also, that’s a 3156 movement, not an ETA2824. Is it gen or clone? Hi M ... I would say cloneI'd be happy if I could get one GENCLONEEnvoyé de mon Moto G (5) Plus en utilisant Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lo' Posted February 3, 2019 Author Report Share Posted February 3, 2019 Hello, thanks a lot for your interest! I had acquired this unlumed service dial through a fellow-RWG-member. The original plan was that of having it glossed and lumed in puffy white to build a circa-1970 piece around it. As such I also had sourced an hi-beat hacking ETA movement which had died on me upon trying to operate the keyless. When I confied the project to SSTEEL I mentioned two options: - First one as per above, provided he'd succeed in reviving my movement and have the dial glossed. - In case glossing should prove unfeasible and movement could not be resurrected from the grave, then I'd go for a vintage piece with a replacement lo-beat ETA. As SSTEEL experiments with glossing a couple of dummy dials did not work out (see attached), I went for Plan B: The vintage solution, enter NATAS78, with which I talked extensively about tropical effect, patina and old weathered dials. Since I already was familiar with his body of work upon having had the chance to gawk at pictures of some of his otherwordly Panerai builds, I asked him to replicate one of those for me, which he eventually did thus achieving an incredible result imho. For what is about the movement, SSTEEL apparently was able to revive the one I had supplied and, upon servicing it, he replaced some parts with new ones and added a couple of touches for cosmetic purposes. Of course a 3156 is not coherent with a vintage build since these are modern calibers (circa 2000 if memory serves), and they never were used on 1016 models which carried 105x or 15xx calibers instead (again if memory serves), but SSTEEL did not have a choice since I had instructed him to use my movement if repairable, and that's what he did. At the end of the day this movement ticks loud and strong and keeps perfect time. So far so good! 😊 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lo' Posted February 3, 2019 Author Report Share Posted February 3, 2019 15 hours ago, JSebWC said: very cool watch.....really enjoy the dial would love to know more about the techniques to create it Hello J! We have tried to lure Natas into revealing some intel regarding his Mad Luming-Ninkja Skillz®️ but he kept mum about it. I suspect that making him talk would require extreme measures, such as abducting and confying him to the loving hands of Nanuq, @the shack atop the freezing mountains… 🤣 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSebWC Posted February 3, 2019 Report Share Posted February 3, 2019 1 minute ago, Lo' said: Hello J! We have tried to lure Natas into revealing some intel regarding his Mad Luming-Ninkja Skillz®️ but he kept mum about it. I suspect that making him talk would require extreme measures, such as abducting and confying him to the loving hands of Nanuq, @the shack atop the freezing mountains… 🤣 Well whatever you think it will take to make him reveal is techniques, Im happy to help lol its a beauty of a piece...we need some more pics and wrist shots STAT!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drummania Posted February 3, 2019 Report Share Posted February 3, 2019 Where can you find a 1016 service dial? These are super rare...Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSebWC Posted February 3, 2019 Report Share Posted February 3, 2019 18 minutes ago, Drummania said: Where can you find a 1016 service dial? These are super rare... Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk ebay, chrono24 choronostop Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lo' Posted February 3, 2019 Author Report Share Posted February 3, 2019 I did not remember this detail: This caseback belongs to a JMB V2 assembly he engraved with a relevant serial number placing it into 4th quarter 66. I could definitely use that case for another build, but although it's quite good it could still use some reshaping. I also have a spare Yuki dial which is already lumed and all, but the triangle feels a tad too small. Is there a way to reshape it with lume paste? Has anyone tried that or am I being obsessive once again? My service dial came from a notable RWG member, I did not enquire about it's original provenance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hanski Posted February 3, 2019 Report Share Posted February 3, 2019 49 minutes ago, Lo' said: Is there a way to reshape it with lume paste? It’s possible but there’s a few issues that make it tricky: - the lume changes appearance based on the plot below it. For instance, White is best as it help reflect the glow/lume base color. Black makes the lume darker and lume base tone appear darker. - it’s easy enough to mix a lume to match another lume but it’s far more difficult to get the two lumes to match in level of glow. If it is possible, remove lume, replot the white triangle then relume Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
automatico Posted February 3, 2019 Report Share Posted February 3, 2019 I like the dial! Here is one similar to it on HQ Milton: https://www.hqmilton.com/timepieces/rom6j13k/1965-rolex-explorer-1016-with-tropical-gilt-dial-8501 "Where can you find a 1016 service dial?" Best bet for the money might be a good used Luminova dial with 'T Swiss T<25' on it. The first run of Lumi 1016 dials had trit markings. Besides the $$ difference, Lumi does not fizzle out like tritium. I would go with a replica dial on a replica watch with Eta and only use a genuine dial on a $$ project with a 15xx mvt and high grade case...maybe a modified genuine 16200, 16000 case etc. I have everything but a case...been looking for 20+ years. If I could find a super ratty original case/dial I would send it in with a movement for one of their World Famous Extremely Reasonable Tune-ups and bite the bullet on a new case. Great-Damn-Big HA! on the Extremely Reasonable part. Trouble is...the replacement would be a '44' case making the watch worth a LOT less. Probably be lucky to break even. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lo' Posted February 3, 2019 Author Report Share Posted February 3, 2019 1 hour ago, automatico said: I like the dial! Here is one similar to it on HQ Milton: https://www.hqmilton.com/timepieces/rom6j13k/1965-rolex-explorer-1016-with-tropical-gilt-dial-8501 "Where can you find a 1016 service dial?" Best bet for the money might be a good used Luminova dial with 'T Swiss T<25' on it. The first run of Lumi 1016 dials had trit markings. Besides the $$ difference, Lumi does not fizzle out like tritium. I would go with a replica dial on a replica watch with Eta and only use a genuine dial on a $$ project with a 15xx mvt and high grade case...maybe a modified genuine 16200, 16000 case etc. I have everything but a case...been looking for 20+ years. If I could find a super ratty original case/dial I would send it in with a movement for one of their World Famous Extremely Reasonable Tune-ups and bite the bullet on a new case. Great-Damn-Big HA! on the Extremely Reasonable part. Trouble is...the replacement would be a '44' case making the watch worth a LOT less. Probably be lucky to break even. Thanks Auto! Yeah, there are some noticeable dials out there. I did a bit of research myself while discussing my options with NATAS and SSTEEL. Here are some I found quite interesting: The dial I got from Denimhead actually comes with T Swiss T<25 markings. The case was a lucky find LHOOQ made on the Bay while helping me hunt for parts, and the Superdome I just bought from my usual watchmaker. I originally wanted to go 'all gen' and was looking for a gen 15xx movement but, even back then, these came for such a huge premium that I decided to skip that part and go for a Swiss, much cheaper, alternative instead. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drummania Posted February 4, 2019 Report Share Posted February 4, 2019 9 hours ago, automatico said: I have everything but a case...been looking for 20+ years. Have you tried a vietnam 1016 case? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lo' Posted February 4, 2019 Author Report Share Posted February 4, 2019 Have you tried a vietnam 1016 case? Excellent idea. Minh Quy had some juicy ones back in the day, together with a bunch of flabbergasting 'professionally refinished' dials, the only downside being a somewhat steep price tag.... My 19200 case was reshaped on a computerized latte fed with digitized pictures of LHOOQ'S gen 1016 case. The whole operation did cost half the premium I'd have paid for the Vietnam counterpart. Additionally more than one well-educated RWG member had advised against the idea of walking the Vietnam path since the a.m. Minh Quy apparently was a slightly hard-to-deal-with character and, I was told, there was no guarantee whatsoever that the item I'd receive would be what I had paid for. I therefore decided for a perhaps more complicated solution which outcome I deem fairly good after all. Inviato dal mio EML-L09 utilizzando TapatalkA cold and sunny day back here. That's the weather I love....Inviato dal mio EML-L09 utilizzando Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lo' Posted February 4, 2019 Author Report Share Posted February 4, 2019 ... 'computerized latte' ...whereas that should be a lathe and not some technological coffee machine @ Starbucks... Darn autocorrect....Inviato dal mio EML-L09 utilizzando Tapatalk 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSebWC Posted February 4, 2019 Report Share Posted February 4, 2019 My goto guy for cases has always been JMB however Ruby does offer a nice example http://rubyswatch.com/products/c1016-3-|-vintage-|-explorer-|-1016-|-case-2060 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drummania Posted February 4, 2019 Report Share Posted February 4, 2019 Yeah, not sure anyone tried ruby's 1016 case. JMB's case is good on frontal and side profile, but I feel the 16200 case back is too thick and sits high on the wrist. 16200 case is designed for sapphire crystal. While plexi fits it adds to the thickness. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
automatico Posted February 4, 2019 Report Share Posted February 4, 2019 "Have you tried a vietnam 1016 case?" No but I have considered it. "...one well-educated RWG member had advised against the idea of walking the Vietnam path since the a.m. Minh Quy apparently was a slightly hard-to-deal-with character and, I was told, there was no guarantee whatsoever that the item I'd receive would be what I had paid for." This is the main reason why I never ordered a case from anyone in Vn. If the guy choked or the case got lost, I would be out the $$ and howling at the moon. Otoh I have had good luck with Reggie (MBK watches), Yuki (cases, dials), IG44 (dials, now gone south), DW (also southbound) and a couple others. The main problem is me...I get bogged down on projects and take too much time off. In the past month all I got done was taking an Omega D-D cal 752 apart and putting it half way back together. I stopped when I noticed the clear coat on the dial is coming loose from the dial and has pulled some stripes off the dial that stuck to the clear coat. I may end up removing all of the hour markers and sealing the flap of clearcoat with clear paint of some sort. Omega movement parts are also getting hard to find. I had to scare up two more movements for parts. Otoh I finally got a rusted stem (stuck solid in the main plate) out of a rlx 1570/5 in a 1603 after three and a half years of staring at it...melted it away with white vinegar. I guess that could be called progress. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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