PAM 111h AR Strip/Removal Tutorial (Large Pics)

[jimbean]

Greetings,

Well, I finally did it. The blue fake AR (extreme crazy electric blue tint!) was driving me mad! Every time I looked at my watch, it was blue! I couldn't even enjoy the sweet looking black sandwich dial. What pushed me over the edge was when I went to the local jewelry shop and saw that they were an AD of Panerai's. I looked at an 111h and saw no visible AR. Right then I knew it was time to get rid of it. I was tired of wearing the blue light special on my wrist. Below outlines the process I went through along with pics. Enjoy!

Step 1: Disassemble Watch

For this I took off the straps and used the duct tape method to remove the back (worked like a charm).

To remove the crown, I used the tutorial from a fellow member:

http://www.rwg.cc/members/Pam-Crown-Tutori...emove+pam+crown

It worked perfectly! (Tip, I turned the screw in quarter increments until it slid right out. You should not have to turn it more than 1.25 times)

To remove the movement from the case, I just unscrewed the two screws holding down the tabs and movement.

I then placed the parts in the zip locks bags so I wouldn't lose them or get dust on the dial and movement.

Step 2: Strip AR with 100% Acetone

For this I used my girlfriend's nail polish remover and a plastic scrub pad.

And wow was that a failure. I was hoping it would strip right off, but it didn't. After 30mins of scrubbing, my beastly strength had failed me. On to step 2.1.

Step 2.1: Strip AR with Metal Polish (Brasso)

With a sore thumb, I had to bring out the big guns. Metal Polish! But the watch is a $158 111h. Even though we website says it has a sapphire glass, one should know better. It's not. What a dilemma! Live with the blue light special? Buy a new crystal? Or roll the dice and strip that mofo and risk scratching it to hell? I'm a gambling man, it's in my blood, let's strip it!

Well, the metal polish was some pretty gritty stuff! It took that fake AR off pretty quickly!

I rinsed it between polishing to check on the progress.

Step 3: Polish The Crystal with Glass Polish

Well, I hit an Ace high flush on the flop, but the board paired on the river and lost to a full house. The metal polish produced some scratches. They are very faint and hard to see. So I picked up some glass polish to hide/fill the scratches. It did a fairly good job and the scratches can only be seen under certain like and that if you looked really really closely. Naked eye and under normal use and examination, it looks as smooth as water.

Step 4: Reassemble Watch

To ensure there is no dust on the crystal, I polished, brush and vacuumed the lens right before placing the movement back in.

When pulling out the crown in step one, I made some notes on a piece of paper noting the screw position for the crown screw. I popped in the crown and tightened the screw. Good to go.

Then on to the screws holding the movement down. Wow are those screws and tabs are small! After a few failed attempts in lining up the screws to the tab and hole, I finally grabbed some tweezers. I placed the tabs in a fashion similar to placing the wishbone in the game Operation. I just lined it up and dropped it in. The tweezers also aided in lining up the screws.

Duct taped that case back shut and I was good to go.

Wow! What a difference!!!!! Bye bye blue light special, hello PAM 111h. It looked a million times better and I was no longer embarrassed to wear my sweet piece! It look so much more Gen! I recommend this mod 100%. It's a very easy mod.

The Most Important Step: Step 5 Enjoy A Beer With The Reborn PAM111h

[siesta181]

Its amazing that you managed to do it without removing the crystal from the case....

[dluddy]

Good on you for taking it on. Nice results.

Thanks for sharing

[bkwbkw]

Are all of the rep PAMs AR'd on the inside? The AR is probably the most annoying thing about my 127.

[caracarnj]

Thank dude for the tutorial!

[milesd]

Nice tutorial, imho No AR is better than crappy rep AR.

[l3x]

Great write up. Thank you....now I'm thirsty :-)

[thumpr]

Just a quick heads up for anyone considering attempting this on a DSN watch - the Brasso alone wouldn't budge the AR.

It needed the brasso and steel wool combo to get it off, and a fair bit of elbow grease.

[jr718]

Great write up. Thanks for taking the time to post!

I was researching AR coatings to see if I could do myself. What I found was that there are a lot of supplies for stripping AR coating that are used in eye glass fabrication(Opticians). 1 qt. bottles are not too expensive. I might want to try the stripper , since it is a dip and dissolve process, especially for the coating. Maybe it would make the overall process a little less labor intensive. I am also checking with my local optometrist to see if their lab can do the coatings. I'll post if I get any good info.

JR

[poopypants]

a google search takes me here:

http://www.optiboard.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-231.html

AND this one just sounded way too easy:

http://clipmarks.com/clipmark/62919417-A38...4-C8759CBC5208/

[Zackb911]

FYI:

I tried removing some scratched AR from a 3717 the other day. This just didn't work... I have some scratches I can see and uneven removal. I tried it by hand and with a dremel, using brasso and then trying mothers aluminum polish still didn't work.

I have both green rouge (what Chieftang uses) and diamond polish in 6 & 1 microns coming to try and get the rest. I guess not all AR's are created equal.

[Ronin]

Personally, I would change the crystal to one without AR or a Chief AR version. (I have 2 DSN PAMs that the AR is bugging me a little bit)

Does anyone know a source a for PAM crystals that fit reps? Since DSN is pretty popular, anything for those?

TIA