Date wheels on 2836 and 2824

[richard591]

I would appreciate a bit of advice on this issue before doing some surgery on my latest ARF Baselworld Seadweller.

I have a minor problem with the auto wind mechanism on the installed 2824 movement and will be taking the movement out to send off to my watchmaker in the Uk to correct.Meanwhile I'm going to install one of my spare 2836 movements by first swapping the dial, hands etc over from the 2824.

My issue is the date wheel on the 2824. The jumper mechanism is different to the 2836 and I think therefore that the under proflie of the date wheel is also different from the pics I've looked at. Therefore it seems that the date wheels are not directly interchangeble. Can anyone just confirm that for me.

If that's correct, it's not a problem as I also have spare 2836 datewheels with Rolex overlay already fitted to a 2836 movement. I would use the dial spacer for one of those also, as the spacer on the 2824 is marginally taller to accommodate what seems to be a slightly thicker datewheel. Otherwise it's a fairly easy swap over.

I've already done a trial run with the 2836 assembled movement, currently set up with a spare DSSD dial and everything fits and lines up perfectly. So that's already checked. Case spacer is ok as well and winder is in correct position. So, this is just to confirm before I disassemble the 2824 movement and swap the parts over.

[jmb]

The main issue you are going to run into is the stem position is different between the two movements.

[richard591]

Thanks for that, but I've now resolved the issue.

I decided to just dismantle everything to see what the issues might be and this is the result.

1. A 2824 datewheel will not swap over on to a 2836 movement as the underside profile is slightly different.

2. However, a 2836 datewheel does swap over on to a 2824 movement.

3. This seems primarily because the underside of the 2824 datewheel is completely flat, therefore will not engage properly. Whereas the underside of the 2836 datewheel is slightly raised/profiled and does engage on the date change mechanism.

4. As a consequence, I've now swapped a complete 2836 movement over into the watch with the dial and hands from the 2824 all swapped over, but using a spare 2836 date wheel fitted with Rolex overlay This all lines up perfectly in the case and the watch is working as it should again. As luck would have it, the 2836 movement I've used happens to be (by complete luck) probably one of the most accurate I've ever had and is keeping time to about +1 sec per day

 

This now allows me to send the 2824 movement back to my watchmaker to correct the main problem, which appears to be located in the autowind mechanism. Something has become either detached or just broken, so after that's fixed all should be ok as that movement was also very accurate after having been properly serviced some time ago.

Hope this is helpful.

 

[mymanmatt]

I'm surprised if the crown works properly. The stem position on the 2824 is different than the 2836. The stem must be lower in the case tube than the 2824. I don't see how the stem can be in the center of your case tube and everything working correctly. But you say it's ok, and that's good enough. When cases are made, they are made for a 2824 or 2836. The only difference in the cases is where they place the case tube. Up for 2824, down for a 2836. Good luck

[richard591]

Well, all I can tell you is that I very carefully checked the exact position of the stem in the tube before doing anything daft like screwing anything down and the winder stem was slap bang in the middle of the tube. Everything is currently working exactly as it should be, with no deflection on the stem. Also, the winder stem on the 2824 swapped over on to the 2836 as an exact replacement.

The possible reason for this may just be that when I was dismantling the two movements, I noticed that the date wheel on the 2824 movement was noticably thicker than on the 2836 movement. That meant that the dial/date wheel spacer was also noticably thicker/higher. I think this must have the effect of raising the movement slightly in the case, thus producing the alignment I've actually got. The now installed 2836 movement uses the original date wheel from a DSSD set up and the corresponding dial/date wheel spacer, which is thinner. That is then mated to the Baselworld Seadweller dial, but using the hands from the DSSD, as the shanks on the Baselworld hands are too long, probably because of the different spacer size/height issue. However, the second hand from the Baselworld did fit quite nicely.

This is the only plausible explanation I can think of, but it works perfectly without any need for other modifications. So, once the 2824 movement comes back from sorting out the autowind issue, I'll just swap it all back for originality. Pity though, because the 2836 is actually more accurate than by genuine Sub after it's recent service. How long that lasts for of course is anyone's guess.

 

All the best and thanks for the replies.

Having just thought about it again, it may just be that, because these models are available with both 2824 and 2836 movements, then why would you make two different cases? It would make much more economic sense to just make one case and make the adjustments required cheaply by doing what seems to have been done ie, adjust spacer sizes. As an engineer, that makes sense to me, but who knows.