Datewheel Swap?

[adrenalin]

Greetings all,

I find myself in possession of two noob rolex (rolex-ies??) with some problems. One is a noob mariner with movement and case issues, the other is a noob GMT II fantasy with bezel, dial, datewheel issues. Well, not really datewheel issues, its just that its green. Both are sporting Asian movements. This may seem obvious, but would it be possible to swap the datewheels, or does the GMT have different specs in alignment, diameter, etc...?

Any input would be apreciated!

Thanks!

-K

[freddy333]

Most likely, the answer is no. But the datewheel is made for a specific movement, so it is impossible to tell you if the datewheels can be swapped.

If you are able to post good, clear macro (close up) pictures of both your current movement's datewheel & the replacement movement's datewheel, someone might be able to give you some answers. Without that, that is all I can tell you.

[adrenalin]

Thanks,

I will do that. I am in 'crunch time' at work, and have very little time to do much of anything right now. I will probably post shortly after the first of the year.

Just trying to plan ahead....

-K

[alligoat]

Some datewheels follow the Rolex circumference (radius) line, and some are too far to the right. Same with the dials. Actual noobmariners have the correctly lined up date wheel- Asian and ETA, which is the same as Rolex. GMTII's vary- some are correct and some are too far right. Look at your cyclops- if it's on the edge of the crystal, it's too far right. All you can do on these deals is try. More than once I've watched my watchmaker try to swap out GMT dials for me to no avail. SOL!

[highoeyazmuhudee]

print your own datewheel and stick it

[adrenalin]

"print your own datewheel and stick it"

I thought of that... My thought would be to take the old date wheel and place it on a flat bed scanner and produce a high resolution 1:1 image. It is real easy to manipulate colors on the scanned image, but there is still a concern. I am worried that the thickness of the overlay will be too much for the tolerances required to have everything function without binding or touching something that it shouldnt. Has anybody else done something similar? What type of glue? Remove the old font? Ahhh, the questions could go on, and on, and on.....

Apreciate all the input!

-K

[highoeyazmuhudee]

i'm literally using a paper thin sticker, overlaying on the existing plastic datewheel with a spacer ring for the additional height. i tried gluing the overlay with a for paper glue stik, did not work well, so i used a 15minute drying permanent epoxy from a tube. same one i used to glue the spacer ring in place. just use the head of a pin to apply the glue sparingly. i tested it with the dial on loose, and it flipped through all the dates without any resistance.

the key is the spacer ring

Edited December 17, 2008 by highoeyazmuhudee