Tale Of 2 Movements

[Shasta]

The 1 on the left is the current incarnation of the Swiss 6497/2 offered on some models. The same movement, as far as I can tell, as the previous version but with 1 major improvement - the bridge plate finishing is as good as gen!! The 1 on the right is the current FrankenSwiss 6497/2 that The Zigmeister did his review on.

So my question to the movement experts is this: can the balance & regulator assembly of the 1 on the right, be married to the very nice movement on the left, resulting in a 6497/2 that would be as close to gen as you can get - would even fool most of the so-called experts, me thinks.

Edited February 7, 2007 by Shasta

[Guest avitt]

I'm betting that you can make the transplant. (I believe that The Zigmeister has already mentioned that the balance wheel on the "cocked" movement can be exchanged with the Swiss part).

One correction though: Both of these are 6497-1, not -2 movements. That little difference (the size of the balance wheel) will be the tell-tale, to those who are looking.

[Shasta]

How about the 6497/2 balance from the Asian Unitas, the regulator of the FrankenSwiss, married to the new 6497 Swiss?

Is that doable? Would the resulting movement beat at 21,000 BPH, or maybe because of other factors, just wouldn't run at all?

Edited February 7, 2007 by Shasta

[dachshund]

Can't use the balance out of the CN movement for 6497/1 Swiss, even if the would physically fit, they run at different beats, you would have to change the gearing inside the watch to make it run properly.

[Logan]

Swapping the whole balance would be a disaster.. the gearing would be all wrong, if it would even fit.

What you "might" be able to do its remove the older style incabloc shock protector and adjuster from the asian movement and fit it into the plate from the swiss one which has the newer novodiac shock protector (also made by Incabloc so presumable the same size??). You will need some specialist watch makers tools to do that job though. Specifically a seitz press with incabloc tips. The regulator part is really just a collar rotates around the main body of the anti shock. so should swap over, again assuming diameters are consistant.

Also you would need to disconnect the Asian hair spring from the regulator and re attach the hair spring from the swiss.

Even with all that the real Panerai anti shock is very slightly different again so you still wouldn't be perfect in the strict sense so it all seems like a lot of work for nothing to me

Oh and does anyone know which dealers are reliably supplying watches with the swiss g series movement above?? I want to track one down but most "swiss" 6497's advertised are clearly the asian variety.