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Well... my 16520 is here.


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So today I called my mailman at 8 o'clock to find out if there is a chance my long awaited watch was at the post office and he said it was there!!!!

Jumped into the car and drove there asap.

Picked it up like 12 minutes later.

Opened the package.....

And it was there!! :D :D :D

BUT.... <_<

Oh guys- maybe I am just not supposed to have this watch? Maybe I am not worthy. I don't know. I thought I am there, I thought I can put a bracelet on and enjoy it.... and I can't.

Seems like postal services were not treating it with enough respect and the main chrono hand got off. Well almost off. Extremely loose. It just rotates freely around the dial when you turn the watch. Can you believe it?

I will now go and try to convince my watchsmith to help me... if I fail I am almost there but also almost back at the beginning. I don't know maybe I will just ask him to remove the damn chrono sec hand and think about it later. I don't know.

Here are some quick pics before I go to watchsmith... my beauty - more beautiful and ready than ever... but at the same time as useless as ever :)

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Looks weird, I am not sure what still holds the hand but somehow it is still there at cannon pinion. I didn't try to rotate the watch face down but I guess it should stay on even then becaue I am sure it was rotated million times during last 6 days of delivery....

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Cursed... yeah I start to think about it as well.

Serial was removed, maybe it has some history and does not want itself to be reassembled.

I will wear it anyway! With main sec chrono hand or not. I am desperate enough after 9 months.

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OK but I guess if it is loose than it might have not been squeezed enough (gen hands do not fit standard el primero without modding).

Putting it back again just as it is now may only help for a moment. I think it needs to be squeezed better and I am not sure if my watchsmith will be willing to do it.

That's where the fuzz comes from.

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Damn M.

Im starting to carry this cross with you now... from the last update i thought to myself finally it was all worth it for u and then u posted this ... sheeeesh :(

All do from what i see and note im not an expert i think this actually will be an easy fix/touch up. Pls. keep us posted.

Fingers crossed from my side!

regards Laz

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Thanks a lot for your words Laz.

Watch is now at my watchsmith - I will pick it up later today.

Keep my fingers crossed. Will update you all asap.

On a side note - I know it sounds stupid but we mentioned that curse - and guess what? When I approached my watchsmith's place, I parked my car, had virtually 3 meters of walk to the entrance of his workshop and during these 3 metres I managed to slip, fall on the ground so hard I thought I broke my back! Wounded my elbow and fingers a bit (but did not let go the daytona that was in this hand! :) ) I didn't slip like that in 10 years or more. CRAZY :) :)

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Called my watchsmith.

He didn't make it.

He says that there are two things he can do:

1. Push the Chrono Sec hand deep on canon pinion - then watch stops and does not work

2. Delicately push Chrono Sec hand onto the canon pinion - it is loose and rotates freely then.

So I am [censored]. I am now going to pick it up from him.

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tell him to squeeze the tube slightly with a stainless steel caliper

and try again. It must work like this. with the caliper he can control the pressure

Called my watchsmith.

He didn't make it.

He says that there are two things he can do:

1. Push the Chrono Sec hand deep on canon pinion - then watch stops and does not work

2. Delicately push Chrono Sec hand onto the canon pinion - it is loose and rotates freely then.

So I am [censored]ed. I am now going to pick it up from him.

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He said he cannot squeeze the tube of the hand because it is too short.

He asked me to find a hand with longer tube.

He is probably full of [censored], I think he just does not want to do it.

It is less stressful to change batteries in quartz watches than to bother with my Daytona.

I am tired.

But guess what? I realised I may have the rarest Daytona in the world.

A true "floating" cosmograph :) :) :) :)

Any suggestions would be helpful, maybe I could try to squeeze it on my own?

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sorry to hear about your troubles. Mine is with The Zigmeister right now and he just emailed me about the hands being to big. Hope he can make it work.

Oh please keep us updated.

I remember The Zigmeister said he assembled a number of these already - so he should be familiar with this problem.

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Oh please keep us updated.

I remember The Zigmeister said he assembled a number of these already - so he should be familiar with this problem.

Yeah I read an old post where The Zigmeister said that it's an easy job but his last email said he was not sure what the fix was and to

ask where to source hands that fit. I searched and searched but could not find anyone who bought different hands. Ubi and

everyone else made the tubes smaller by squeezing them. Hope he can do it.

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Oh my. If The Zigmeister thinks this is difficult then I guess I am in quite lucky position aftar all.

BTW my main chrono sec hand got stuck somehow pointing to 7 o'clock so it is totally wearable now :)

Only looks stupid. :)

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I have just emailed the seller.

He states that this set works with both Rolex and Tudor chronos.

I would be surprised to see tudor hands that need to work with eta/valjoux to be perfect fit for cal 4030.

So there is a chance it will work with a regular el primero 400 like we have.

I assume this person might not know if it works with both of these or not. As far as I know tudor submariner hands do not fit 3135 caliber just like gen rolex sub hands do not fit eta movements.

I asked about dimensions of the tubes. I do not really expect an answer with these dimensions but I think they are worth trying at 35 bucks.

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Looks like I have a problem with the second, hour and minute hands. I bought my hands used and maybe is the reason for the problem on mine. Also have another set of hands but not sure how to measure accurately.

Here is The Zigmeister's email to me :( :

I can modify subdial and center seconds hands to fit as long as they are within a few mm, your subdial hands are within .2mm of the required sizes and I could modify your subdial hands to fit this movement. Both center seconds hands are not usable, they are both damaged, have epoxy in the tube as well as on the outside of the tube, and both tubes are too short and can't reach the center seconds post. It is impossible to make the seconds hand work, I have had this problem in the past, I need a correct size hand with a longer tube to reach the post that the hand attaches to. I think this is one of the bigger differences between the rollie elprimero and the zenith ones.

For the hour and minute hands, I can make slight (1-2 mm) adjustments to them to make them fit, either larger or smaller.

The size of the posts on the movemenet is H 1.50mm, M 1.00mm, the hands you have provided are 1.60mm and 1.15mm in diameter, I can't shrink hands down by this much, this is a huge difference and there is no way for me to take out .10 and .15mm in diameter. The hour and mintue hands need to be almost the exact size to be able to install them. Other El Primero's I have built were provided with hour and minute hands that fit fine, or only needed 1mm of adjustment.

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My Hour and Minute hands seem to sit and work great after marsupilami squeezed them.

I don't know about subdial hands as I do not run the chrono.

The runnig sec subdial hand runs nicely and sits perfectly.

So what The Zigmeister said makes words of my watchsmith believable - this is exactly what he said - that I need to source a hand with longer tube to make it work.

What I also have here is a genuine 4030 canon pinion, I am not sure if it would help and I am not even sure if it is worth taking lot of movement apart to fit it in there. I don;t know if it would work with zenith hour wheel and all other parts inthere - I am no watchsmith so there is a chance I don't even know what I am talking about here :)

OK so what about 6 or 7 other 16520 Frankens that seem to work fine, hmm?

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From what I understand form his message, all three subdial hands would work.

Hour, minute are too big and cannot be squeezed down by that much and running chrono hand (second), the tube is too short.

I read before you replaced some parts with 4030 parts, can you tell me the part #s and parts ? If I can find the parts,

I will try to go this route.

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