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On My Bench - Something.......

  1. JimInOz Melbourne Australia Jul 5, 2021

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    It's always good when you have a stack of packages that you need to open.

    Wonder what's in them?

    1-Packages.JPG

    OK, I won't be a teaser, here's the booty.
    From top to bottom, left to right, or the other way, whatever you prefer.
    1 - Polished chapter ring
    2 - case
    3 - Plain polished bezel
    4 - Set of hands
    5 - Crystal
    6 - Plain caseback
    7 - Dial (Hmmmmmmmm, no dial shot :cautious:)
    8 - A movement

    2-TheParts.JPG

    Regarding the movement.
    I have a nice new Seiko auto (+ manual wind, + hacking + date) caliber NH35.

    As the observant among you may have noticed, the dial has no day/date windows, so the mechanism for date is superfluous, so it comes out.

    3-Movement.JPG

    A quick look on the Timegrapher looks promising for an unregulated out of the box movement. Maybe I'll be able to get it a bit better.

    4-TimeGrapher.JPG

    Now that the movement has been modified, it's time to get biblical with the dial.
    It's designed for cases with stems at 3 o'clock and 4 o'clock, so it's provided with four dial feet.
    Two of them have to go!

    4a-TheParts copy.JPG

    I could use a grinder (noisy, messy), or a pen knife (danger! sharp objects), or a pair of cutters (leaves a tag). After seeing how these little feet seem to fall off dials when you don't want them to, I decided to use the "horizontal applied torsion technique".
    That is, grip the dial foot in a pin vice and twist it off.

    5-DialFeetOff.JPG

    Due to my incredible twisting skills, the operation was a success.

    6-DialFeetDone.JPG

    Now to the big bits.

    A nice crystal is fitted to the case.

    7-CaseCrystal.JPG

    Quickly (but carefully) followed by the polished stainless steel plain bezel.

    8-BezelDone.JPG

    The shipping stem is rather unattractive, so it will be replaced by a brand new stem.

    DAMN!

    That's NEVER going to be waterproof.

    Back to the drawing board.

    9-StemSizing.JPG

    That's it for today.

    Comments and guesses welcome ;).
     
    rob#1, DaveK, omegaswisst and 4 others like this.
  2. jaguar11 Jul 5, 2021

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    I await the next instalment!!!!
     
  3. Canuck Jul 5, 2021

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    A Miyota caliber xxxx?
     
  4. JimInOz Melbourne Australia Jul 5, 2021

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    NH35.png
     
  5. SkunkPrince Jul 5, 2021

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    Curious why you didn't use an NH38A instead? Already had the NH35?
     
  6. JimInOz Melbourne Australia Jul 5, 2021

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    Just a change of plan, can always swap it out for an NH38A if I have another project.