Cartel 1675 converted to low-beat

[sneed12?]

The new 1675 model has been getting a fair bit of press. I ordered one from Trevor a while ago, and apparently it arrived last week while my regular postman was on holiday. The temporary guy "forgot" to bother to deliver it to me. When my regular guy came back from his vacation he made a special trip out to deliver it which was quite nice of him. Also, as it turns out, Joe Biden was having a fundraiser in my building today, so the Secret Service shut down the street and we were told that we could work from home if we wanted to. So, of course, I took an hour to play with my new watch...

Standard stuff, ETA clone, "superlume" which is much better than rep lume used to be but still not as good as H-factory or WM9 lume. Of course, being me, I had to tear it apart...

Inside is a standard, clean-looking ETA clone 2836...

One of the best parts on this, actually, is the white datewheel overlay with open 6/9. Does not have the left-justified problem that the PT vintage silver overlay has.

I'm going to swap the clone 2836 for a Swiss 2846. In order to do this, I have to remove the parts from the 2836 that drive the GMT hand and swap them to the other movement. I am also going to leave out the gear that allows the GMT wheel to be independently adjusted; the gen 1675 does not have an independently adjustable GMT hand.

I don't have any formal watch training so I don't know the names for all of this stuff, but you remove the top cover plate and the hour hand wheel first (GMT wheel on left sits on top of the cover plate so it just lifts off)

Then you remove the date mechanism stuff

Now I will just install the pile of parts on the left onto the movement on the right. You need to swap the date jumper spring cover plate (which has a bit of a slot cut into it to clear the new teeth on the other side of the calendar wheel gear) as well as the calendar wheel gear. If you want to have the independently adjustable hour hand you also need to move the small gear that's installed where the date flipper paddle would usually go, I am going to leave it since I don't want that feature on the 2846.

Install the dial and hands:

recase the movement:

and now I have a Swiss ETA slow-beat 1675 with the "correct" hand stack (the gens of this era have the GMT hand on the bottom) rep.

I also dug around in my parts box and found an old pepsi insert that I have been using to protect bezels from crystal press dies, so it's a bit scratched up and flattened. I've bent it back into shape, and I'll try fading it a bit to give the watch a bit of a worn look.

I have a clark's crystal that I will install next, the distortion of the rep crystal is quite bad, but I ran out of time today. Sorry for the crappy iPhone pics, btw, we're having new floors installed and a bunch of my stuff including my camera and tripod is packed up.

Only problem now is that the watch box has grown again...

I was trying to keep it to 10, but I have 10 already plus a CHS GMT IIc on the way... that makes 11. I'll either have to get rid of one, or find one more watch!

 

[woof*]

Great writeup and pics sneed. It's really cool to have such an upgrade.
You might not have formal training, but you've got great skills!

 

[sneed12?]

Put in the Clark's crystal after the kids went to sleep. New crystal eliminated the distortion problem.

Also, bleached and fitted the insert. I'm really happy with the way it came out, and I'm sort of pleased that it's beat up because I've been using it, rather than shaking it in a bag of rocks!

Wristie (also notice my brand-new floors)

I think the only mod remaining is to remove some meat from the bottom of the CGs, the profile is all wrong. But honestly that's low priority for me. Who looks at the back of the watch anyway?

 

[correctime]

Great job. That really looks awesome.

 

[Wacker23]

Great job. Does this case take gen parts like a crown and dial?

 

[Ed911]

Really nice.

 

[Rick914]

Now this has been added to the list of stuff Im doing for Rob,lol Good info here Sneed!

 

[OmegaPOFL]

nice work sneed!

floor looks good too haha


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[Mendota]

Great work, Sneed! Fantastic. This is exactly what I want to do if I pick up one of these. Did you already have the 2846 movement on hand or did you use a donor watch to extract it out?

Without using a donor watch, is there a good source to pick up a 2846? I wonder if Angus can source one without having to buy a whole watch...

Is this an overall better solution than using a 21j?

Regarding the Clark crystal, which one did you get? Is it an easy replacement?

 

[rols16610]

That looks amazing, very nice, and great collection of Rolex you have there

 

[GBOAC]

Exactly what I will be doing today! Can't wait to get my low beat installed!!

Yours looks great !

 

[Mendota]

Where are you guys sourcing your 2846 movements from?

 

[GBOAC]

Got mine from ofrei

 

[Mendota]

How much?

 

[GBOAC]

I went with the DG so$38 shipped

 

[txrob779]

I bought mine from a member. It was in a Sandoz head....a great way to get ETA's these days is to buy whole watches with ETA's in em..eBay is full of dozens of Swiss models out there with ETA movements in them..have a look sometime.

 

[Mendota]

Smith Supply out of Texas has brand new 2846 movements for $79. Seems like a fair price considering you would spend that same amount for a cheap, beater watch with the same movement inside. I think I answered my own question...

 

[sneed12?]

Damn, I just paid $99 each for two. Oh well. It's only money!

 

[sneed12?]

Did you already have the 2846 movement on hand or did you use a donor watch to extract it out?

I keep spare movements on hand for projects like this. I'm perfectly happy spending months gathering up parts, but when I actually get the itch to build I am not a patient man.

Without using a donor watch, is there a good source to pick up a 2846?

Ofrei or eBay.

Is this an overall better solution than using a 21j?

I personally think so, I'm much more comfortable with ETA movements. But that may just be because I know them better. Many people use the DG movements and they seem to be happy with them. The added convenience of not having to modify the dial and being able to use parts from my drawers full of random ETA crap (stems/rotors/keyless works parts etc) makes up for the additional cost for me.

Regarding the Clark crystal, which one did you get? Is it an easy replacement?

I think it's the T-116, whatever the gen of this would have. Fit fine.

 

[sneed12?]

Changed out the bezel ring for one of the new Clark's 1675 bezel rings. Surprised at the difference it made, it's really quite nice and makes a big difference from the 1680 bezel that the watch comes with from the factory. Here's the new edge profile (pic is from Gary)

The retaining ring that comes with the Clark's is too small (inside diameter). I decided to use the existing bezel retaining ring, which is too big for the new bezel ring and needed to be shaved around the outside edge, so I stuck it to the end of a drill and went after it with a file. No particular reason to choose one over the other, I just feel it's easier to shave the outside than the inside.

Mounted

Now I just need to fade the new bezel insert.