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And yes it was possible....another mod to my ultimate Big Pilot


sander

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We all know the biggest flaw (beside the strap) of the BP.

You can have a gen dial, relumed hands, gen crown, gen strap, gen deployment and a moved PR hand to 7, if we (specialists) look at it, the first thing we see is the recessed date wheel.

It was bothering me so I took my tool kit again and fixed the problem. :hammer:

What did I do:

I had one extra BP movement and took out the date wheel

I cut off the teeth so I ended up with a circle with the numbers.

I glued it on the existing date wheel and voila problem solved.

The date wheel is 0.38mm thick and after gluing it, the original date wheel got 0.42mm thicker. (Guess the thickness of the glue is 0.04mm)

There is just enough room for it to move without toughing the dial.

So everything functions as normal.

Pretty easy fix which took me less than 1 hour.

I was planning to do a complete photo shoot but the batteries died after the second shot.

Luckily I have a fast charger but after the batteries were charged again, I was done with the job. :D

Any way, it is easy so not much photo's needed I would say.

Movement without date wheel:

post-9210-1234909801_thumb.jpg

Glued date wheel:

As you can see I marked the leg above the 15. I did this because this was the centre of the 15 on the original date wheel.

So no problems with lining up in the centre of the window. (don't look at the dirt. I washed it off of course ^_^ )

post-9210-1234909810_thumb.jpg

result:

post-9210-1234909819_thumb.jpg

post-9210-1234909828_thumb.jpg

post-9210-1234909843_thumb.jpg

post-9210-1234909852_thumb.jpg

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Thanks for all the kind words guys :blush:

Someone asked me if I was nuts, experimenting with an already great watch.

Of course I did take some measurements before taking out the Dremel. (by the way, I think it's great living on the edge :D )

There is an average space of 0.96 mm between the copper area where the date wheel sits on and the edge of the movement where the dial sits on (see pic).

The date wheel is 0.38 mm thick so that leaves a gap of 0.58 mm from the top of the date wheel to the bottom of the dial.

After gluing the extra disk on the existing date wheel, the total thickness increased from 0.38 mm to 0.80 mm. This means that the cap changed from 0.58 mm to 0.16 mm. It seems not much in figures, but it's quite a improvement when you look at it.

I can't imagine that the cap on the gen is smaller than this. There needs to be some room for the date wheel to change without touching the dial.

If you have some experience with working on watches, its quite an easy fix.

I just hope that the dealers are willing to help you with supplying the date wheels.

post-9210-1234949368_thumb.jpg

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Your mods makes this such a beautiful watch. Will you be offering this service. I love the BP but the recessed DW was the majoe deal breaker for me. You have now solve this! Great work!

BTW, do you trhink the gen hands will fit as well?

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I have a question. Can this fix be done to a DSN 088 it does have the recesed date wheel too. I have been wondering this for a long time already. If this can be done where to get the DW.

Thanks

I am no expert but dont think so for the 88. it uses a modified A7750 movment whereas extra gears are on top of the DW so I really dont think so. wish it could be done though. One fo the reasons I am giving up my 88 project. However, I would be happy to be proven wrong

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