Eunomians
Renowned Member
- 15/3/06
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A little over a year ago I took a shot at a '1655' project.
Here is the story, it starts about 8 posts down:
Here is a pic, about 16 posts down:
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Rolex Wristies thread
rwg.cc
I wore it for a month or so and took it apart to put the 1570 movement in a 34mm Rlx 1002 case with Yuki 'explorer' dial.
Still have all the '1655' parts handy (except the 1570), so maybe I'll put an ETA 2846 with Asian 24 hour conversion in the case with the same dial.
Also have a Phong '1655' case that I might put another 'shortcut' 1570/75 GMT movement in, a hack movement this time around. The first one with the 1570 was not a hack movement.
It was a LOT of trouble same as the OP's project above but looking back, it was probably worth it because it will make the next one much easier.
Otoh, the same watch using an ETA with Asian 24H conversion or DG 3804 has the same punch for a lot less $$.
Being much simpler and a little bit smaller, a no date, no 24H hand 1016 will always be The Explorer to me. Imho.
You make a very fine argument with using the DG3804 instead of a 1575. I've been wearing my OEM 1675 since the early 90s pretty much daily. I am very accustomed to the BPH of the 1570/5 movement. It ticks nothing like the smoothness of 28000BPH. The DG3804 is 19800BPH but it is very very very close to 18000BPH - I cannot discern a difference between 19800 and 18000 visually. My point is using 28000BPH is a dead giveaway, from afar too. Vintage never ticks smoothly. They actually "tick".
I ended up using DG3804 for my 1655. I've replaced the movement twice lol, they are poorly made, but once you get a good one, they actually are very accurate time-wise. The good news is that there is no need to service one if it goes off the rails. Just buy a new movement for less than $40 and swap. A lot cheaper than a repair/serivce!