I've always wanted a manual wind vintage piece and I fell in love with this dial. The seller is selling the dial and 283 cal movement but the movement is in need of repair(pics below). How hard would it be to purchase another 283 cal watch with a much better movement and simply swap out the dials. I don't have any watch making experience but from my inexperienced view point it doesn't seem like it would be that hard to remove the movement on a watch and swap the dials.
I could answer this, but I am not going to do so. I'll instead try and get Al, @Archer to answer this, as he has a wonderful way with words for these kind of questions.
One thing to consider is that although your dial will fit another 283 movement, the dial might not be interchangeable with the case of the new watch. Different watch cases could require different dial dimensions, so unless you know which references your dial was used in you will be guessing as far as fit.
It seems to be the same dial as this watch which is ref 2496. So in my head any 2496 ref would work but i don't know how true that is.
This turkey is rusted, and missing pieces. There are often nice examples of these in decent original condition offered for sale on this site. The best you could do by gathering unrelated bits with which to try to assemble a watch would likely result in an expensive, not so perfect frankenwatch. More so since you say you have no experience doing this kind of work. Save your money for something good, complete, and not needing a lot of work.
For what it's worth, for someone with a little experience working with watches: Getting hands off: fairly easy Getting the dial off: fairly easy Putting the dial on a new movement: fairly easy. Putting the hands back on: not so easy. If you really want to do it yourself, buy a cheap old pocket watch, some tools, and play around with it (bigger hands on a pocket watch are easier to work with).
Also, if you are going to dabble in hand removing, make sure to get some dial protectors so that you don't scratch it when removing...
Getting hands off: fairly easy When you find them after they have flown away... Getting the dial off: fairly easy After you opened the dial feet screws
There are seldom good reasons to buy project watches and I say that as someone with about 20 unfinished project watches. If cost / value for money is at all important avoid it at all costs, projects like this are the most expensive way to buy a mediocre watch.
look, if you want to experiment with that, your example might be the right low cost start. you need to buy a few tools for that task; and pls. buy not the cheap stuff; you will ruin the new dial. it can be an easy learning curve with the correct tools, but if you really only want to change your one dial, go to a local watchmaker with the right tools. maybe he let you watch, how to do it. and then you can decide, if you want more of that. dial and mvmt. will be easy to find, but the movement will need a service before the swap. so, in the end you will need a watchmaker anyway. good luck ! kind regards. achim
