- Three builds to end a great year and start another -
Part 3: The Oyster Cali 6152-1 No CG
Part 3: The Oyster Cali 6152-1 No CG
Last part of this three-piece pictorial project is a completely fantasy build.
I loved this Oyster cali dial with seconds at 6 since the very first time that I saw it on someone's build. I honestly don't think there has ever been any watch featuring this dial in real life, and I'm pretty sure I never saw it on a Panerai 6152-1, but this is my "crazy" project so here goes.
For those who are interested here's some background story: in the 40's Panerai developed a few different cases trying to improve the characteristics of the 3646 case. The first modification was to eliminate the soldered lugs that were considered too weak and prone to letting water leak in, there the welded lugs prototype was born.
Later the mid-case shape evolved into the 6154, 6152 and 6152-1 becoming fatter with each step. As many of you know the 6152-1 was the first case featuring the iconic PAM crown guard, but there also were a few 6152-1 without it.
Here you can see what I'm talking about (sorry for the poor quality pic):
Above you can see (from the bottom) a 3646, a 6154 and a 6152-1, of course all homage. You can notice how everything is fatter in the 6152: CB, midcase, lugs, bezel... even the plexi is thicker
Well, getting to achieve such case shape was not easy. As some of you surely know there is no 6152-1 no CG case set available from any maker. River doesn't make them, neither does Nightwatch. Athaya made a batch but they are long gone. The closest was the Silix 6154 case, but it's long gone as well.
What to do then?
This case started as a standard Jackson fiddy case. First thing was to disassemble the case completely and remove the brushed finish off the midcase.
Then, a little reshaping, but just a little as I did not want to round the edges too much nor make the midcase shape too thin.
Finally the most difficult step: the notches on the case where the CG sits.
(NOT my pic)
The notches have been filled up using solder, then the thing got shaped again and again until I was satisfied (and my hands hurt :lol
. The biggest issue I found was that unluckily the staybrite soldering wire I use is a little lighter colored than stainless steel due to the silver it contains. The color difference is not visible at all with small soldered parts (e.g. the soldered area near the lugs of the 3646), but it became quite more visible when such an extended area was filled and covered with solder.
After a few trials and errors I decided to simply cover the whole side of the case with the soldering metal and, leaving the case finish not mirror polished but rather dull and aged, now it looks better. Not perfect but better enough
As a final step, the case was drilled to accept an Athaya tube and crown and the lugs were drilled as well to install Nightwatch lugbars.
Once all of this was done, the rest was quite easy. I sourced a T25 plexy, a movement ring and a caseback with engraved plexiglass from Nightwatch and dropped inside the irate03 dial/Athaya hands/6498 movement combo I had ready for more than a few weeks while I was working on the case.
The strap mounted here is from KanitK, I have just one word for it: OUTSTANDING!
Here is the result:
Ok, this was the last one of this three-piece build, I hope this wasnt't too much boring.
Any question or comment is welcome, I love to keep learning!
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