aeroflott Posted September 20, 2007 Report Share Posted September 20, 2007 The most common complaint I see on this board is about datewheels not being accurate in terms of font, or the wheel not aligning properly to the window. Is there no potential solution to this at source? Am I right in saying a lot of watches use similar wheels like the valjoux ETA 7750 date wheel? Why is this so difficult to rep accurately? Cheers T Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spa Posted September 20, 2007 Report Share Posted September 20, 2007 (edited) If i were you i'd transform your question like this: "why don't we, the collectors, co-operate to make our own correct datewheel overlays?" Thousands of people here and in other rep forums, still expecting "illegal" rep manufacturers to get the details of the watches always right... ...well they won't! Edited September 20, 2007 by spa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HauteHippie Posted September 20, 2007 Report Share Posted September 20, 2007 Why is this so difficult to rep accurately? Cheers T For the most part, they simply aren't trying to produce accurate date wheels. The movements they slap into these watches already have date wheels. The time required to customize off the shelf movements isn't really worth their while. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pugwash Posted September 20, 2007 Report Share Posted September 20, 2007 Why is this so difficult to rep accurately? They're using off-the-shelf parts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dachshund Posted September 20, 2007 Report Share Posted September 20, 2007 Why should they have to make perfect date wheels, we buy all they can make with bad date wheels. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sssurfer Posted September 20, 2007 Report Share Posted September 20, 2007 Agree. Still I feel that a correct date (datewheel + cyclops) would have a market. And there are rumours that someone is currently managing to get there... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smilingbear Posted September 20, 2007 Report Share Posted September 20, 2007 How hard would it be to do it ourselves? Couldn't someone do it ghetto-style and simply make some overlay stickers with the correct font/etc, all the user would have to do is paste it on? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pugwash Posted September 20, 2007 Report Share Posted September 20, 2007 How hard would it be to do it ourselves? Couldn't someone do it ghetto-style and simply make some overlay stickers with the correct font/etc, all the user would have to do is paste it on? You make it sound so easy. The fact that this has been done for a few watches should come as no surprise, but that you need to modify the watches in some cases to take the overlays. For instance, on my MBK 1665, I need to install a dial shim to lift the dial off the datewheel as the slight friction makes the date change not as instantaneous as it should be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
archibald Posted September 21, 2007 Report Share Posted September 21, 2007 How hard would it be to do it ourselves? The answer to that question is, "hard." More precisely... finding the right font and/or vectorizing them: time consuming alignment: tedious learning all the little tricks to getting the vectors, layout, registation marks, and colors the way the printer wants them: complicated Finding a printer willing to them near OEM quality: almost impossible Sizing and cutting: easy and expensive or cheap and hard. installing: easy...for a watchsmith. That being said: If you can provide me w/ an actual DW from the rep you want the correct font for, identify and procure the correct font, provide sseveral closeups pictures of the date window of the OEM watch, precisely measure the rep's date window, I can have a better-than-ghetto version for you in about three days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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