verbal Posted February 25, 2007 Report Share Posted February 25, 2007 Not easy but possible... for an amateur that is... This type of work must be a walk in the park for the The Zigmeister's and RBJ amongst us, but hey, i pulled it off and am very pleased with the result. Here's the idea; I got a Valjoux 7750 off Ebay some time ago (I was planning to install that in my Ti GST but failed miserably (lesson learned)), and it would be a good candidate for the new Carrera, the datefont bothered me so initially I figured out that a simple datewheel swap will do the trick but decided to swap the movement and see if I can do the trick.. When the Carrera arrived from King the datwheel looked like this: You see what I mean with "wrong" A side by side , on the left the Swiss Swapping the movement is easy, even for me but then the challange started, the hands and especially the center seconds hand. I've read The Zigmeister's post before and knew the hands weren't interchangable so I ordered the correct size from Ofrei. I was planning to use just the .25mm bus and glue it on the rep seconds hands, but is was easier to cut the hand down to just the center piece holding the bus and glue that on the rep seconds hand.. here's what I mean, hope it makes sense: The Ofrei hand didn't fit right away, it was a pain to get in on, mainly caused by the fear of breaking the movement in the process... All in all I very pleased with the result, it does look a lot better than the original datewheel plus I get the bonus of a real smooth running movment.. Thanks for reading Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrgod Posted February 25, 2007 Report Share Posted February 25, 2007 Wow... I really like it! The ETA datefont looks so much better than the stock Asian one. Correct regulator on the movement and correct date wheel.. I am thinking about doing the same, I just bought the Racing Carrera from Dani, and I have a stock ETA 7750 in the drawer.. Congrats! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richard_uk Posted February 25, 2007 Report Share Posted February 25, 2007 Nice work! practically a gen now Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bosk Posted February 25, 2007 Report Share Posted February 25, 2007 That looks awesome. I hate putting on subdial hands! Thats one of the toughest things to do when putting your watch back together unless I'm missing some trick. -bosk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
verbal Posted February 26, 2007 Author Report Share Posted February 26, 2007 Putting back the chrono hands is indeed a pain. To make it easier, try using either a bit of Rodico on a toothpick, the hand will stick on the Rodico and it won't leave any staines, or cut a cotton bud in half and use that as a 'pick-up and place tool'. That looks awesome. I hate putting on subdial hands! Thats one of the toughest things to do when putting your watch back together unless I'm missing some trick. -bosk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maxmilian Posted February 26, 2007 Report Share Posted February 26, 2007 Thanks for the updated information. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
z3k0 Posted February 27, 2007 Report Share Posted February 27, 2007 ... Swapping the movement is easy, even for me but then the challange started, the hands and especially the center seconds hand. I've read The Zigmeister's post before and knew the hands weren't interchangable so I ordered the correct size from Ofrei. I was planning to use just the .25mm bus and glue it on the rep seconds hands, but is was easier to cut the hand down to just the center piece holding the bus and glue that on the rep seconds hand.. here's what I mean, hope it makes sense: The Ofrei hand didn't fit right away, it was a pain to get in on, mainly caused by the fear of breaking the movement in the process... All in all I very pleased with the result, it does look a lot better than the original datewheel plus I get the bonus of a real smooth running movment.. Thanks for reading Whoa, great post and great result. I'm planning on something similar, but still hunting for Swiss 7750 on bay. How much did you pay for it ? Did you have to get small subdial hands also ? In The Zigmeister's article it seems they are also different. Do you happen to have part numbers you ordered from Ofrei ? Congrats again on your almost-gen bye, Ivan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alligoat Posted March 3, 2007 Report Share Posted March 3, 2007 Nice job verbal, now you've got a nice Carrera with a Swiss movement- all at a fraction of the price of a gen. I keep hoping we'll see this watch come out in TT in the near future, that's my favorite. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
verbal Posted March 3, 2007 Author Report Share Posted March 3, 2007 @Ivan, The movement came off Ebay for EUR 140 (about USD 170) and the subdial hands fitted right away, I'm sure it's not a 100% fit as The Zigmeister mentioned, but the hands move smoothly when chrono is running and they all reset to "0" perfectly, but more importantly, they don't fall off when wearing The second chrono hand is a .025mm hand (http://www.ofrei.com/page499.html#12932) I've cut off the 'hand' and used only the bus plus the base.. Thanks for the compliment, I'm still waiting for a replacment dial from King, but I guess it's lost in the mail. The chrome ring around the bottom subdial is croocked, but that seems to be the case on all "red needles" Whoa, great post and great result. I'm planning on something similar, but still hunting for Swiss 7750 on bay. How much did you pay for it ? Did you have to get small subdial hands also ? In The Zigmeister's article it seems they are also different. Do you happen to have part numbers you ordered from Ofrei ? Congrats again on your almost-gen bye, Ivan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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