BP GMT 16710 Power Reserve problem

[Hinclimincli]

By the way, in the meantime you might want to look into good tools for the job. It’s been said many times but it really makes a difference when you have a good movement holder, a good loupe, good hands remover and a good set of hands presser.

You will be reluming your own custom made hands, refinishing cases, changing canon pinions and resetting keyless works in less than a year. It only takes patience, practice, and quite a few springs set loose (and lost) in your carpet, ha.

 

[mrsullivan]

Hinclimincli thank you for those wise words.
I ended up keeping everything yes and as you said about sourcing cheap parts on the bay, that's what I'll do and try to make a new build from all this.
I keep in mind buying a whole new BP Pepsi but I'll see what I can do with new parts first.

I have the case + bracelet, the DWO, the crown+stem, now I need a movement, a dial and hands.

All right then, breathe and let's get back to it!



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[Specter1000]

Ok guys, bad news : I ruined it.

Actually everything went OK (DWO nicely fixed with epoxy, dial swap ok) until I had to replace the hands...

At 1rst try the hour hand was not aligned to 12 marker so I removed it and scratched the dial a bit, grrrrrr.

2nd try, the hour/GMT/minute hands are placed but the height of the stack wasn't good. Took them out. GRRRRRR

3rd try, I still could'nt get the GMT hand at a proper height, it was too high above the hour hand. So I tried to push harder and somehow the movement suddenly moved inside the plastic holder and got stuck in it at an angle. Impossible to take it out by hand, so I tried to use a screwdriver's tip to unlock it : screwdriver ripped and caught the dial, whose 6 o'clock foot bent, and twisted the hour hand...

So this is when my hand took the whole thing to smash it on the wall!
So no more movement, hands nor dial. This cramped Pepsi is gone.

It's a pity cause I loved this BP and it ended up never working. I think I'll buy another one though.

At least there is a lesson from that : when something goes wrong with horology, leave it. Take a few minutes to breath, do something else and get back to it later. And never, ever, loose your temper when working on a watch!

Thank you all for the advices on this thread, I learned a lot but my lack of experience got this beyond my actual skills (and my nerves) , next time will be better.

The whole thing cost me a watch + a new movement + shippings, I don't know if I can get something back from it.
I want to sell the case + bracelet + crown stem and ruined dial for the markers, any idea how much they're worth?

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Sometimes at the bench, things go wrong, one right after another...when that happens, I just stop, put everything away, and leave. Come back another time and tackle it again. Almost every time the 2nd go is perfect. Can't explain it, but it happens.

 

[Hinclimincli]

Hinclimincli thank you for those wise words.
I ended up keeping everything yes and as you said about sourcing cheap parts on the bay, that's what I'll do and try to make a new build from all this.
I keep in mind buying a whole new BP Pepsi but I'll see what I can do with new parts first.

I have the case + bracelet, the DWO, the crown+stem, now I need a movement, a dial and hands.

All right then, breathe and let's get back to it!



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Give it a week and try to bend the hour hand back straight. Try to set them again in the movement. Use the scratched dial as a test ground, check the markers against the hands’ height meanwhile (with a loupe!), etc. You can have lots of fun with it now and you have zero pressure (as it’s screwed already). This is the good news, you just made yourself a stress free dummy trial hands/dial/movement set. Use it without fear, you’ve got nothing to lose!

 

[Oascom]

Take it easy mate,maybe watch some YouTube videos, there is almost every movement filmed so you can use as a guide.

Also as other said don't throw it away. Those spare parts are like gold!

 

[Oascom]

You can straighten the hour hand using tweezers. There are actually special ones for that task but you can also use regular ones, maybe wrap them in some plastic tape so you have less chance to scratch them.

Good luck

 

[Specter1000]

I've brought back from the dead movements from the Philippines that were buried in the sand for decades. It's almost always fixable to one degree or another.

 

[KJ2020]

Sorry to hear about your debacle bro. I probably should have steered you away from trying to do this as your first repair attempt.

Keeping these parts makes a lot of sense. You can practice pulling and pressing hands, reattaching a dial foot, straightening a marker, all essential building blocks of becoming a competent hobbyist watchmaker.

There's a lot to learn, and we all need to develop our own preferred approach to handling each task. I set hands with the movement in a movement holder for example. Others like using a movement cushion pad. I always take the rotor off before doing anything else on a movement, it just gets in the way. Little habit patterns need to develop through experience.

Hopefully you didn't ruin your case (did it hit the wall, ouch) The movement, dial and hands are probably not worth much to anyone else. But if the caseset (case, crystal and bracelet) are good, it's easily worth $125, maybe a little more. Given the relatively low cost of these models to begin with you have to set a value commensurate with a percentage of total cost that lets someone rebuild it for less than buying a new one.

Speaking of rebuilding, you can and I think should once you are comfortable and a little more skilled, buy a new DG3804 ICHS movement and hands and a new dial and have another go at this. Alternately you can source those parts and have someone do it for you for not too much cost. There's a huge amount of satisfaction in wearing a watch you rescued from a terminal condition.

Good luck and don't give up!

 

[mrsullivan]

You can straighten the hour hand using tweezers

Well, the hour hand hole as been bent and broke, I'll need a new hand set.

KJ2020 Don't worry KJ, you've been more than precious help here, and thank to all the others for your support as well. I had only done one hand removal before this attempt, on my "easy going" Regmariner, so it was not for being easy anyway.
I know you've all been through that before me so I really take it as a lesson. And although I thought about selling first, keeping the parts is good sense : I have nothing to loose, it gives me spare parts and "dummies" to practice on.
Only the movement/dial hit the wall, so the whole case is brand new (as I never wore it actually). And as I totally agree with the idea to get more skills and try to build a new watch from scrap, I'm gonna source the different parts and work on it again.

I'll need proper basic tools of course (I have a movement older but I don't feel confortable with it so a movement cushion is on its way, as well as levers), as it definitely makes a huge difference when repairing. And KJ thank you for the "remove rotor" tip to work, this g*ddam part really got in the way !

When it comes to parts sourcing, I look on the Bay of course, Helenarou, Raffledials. I guess other suppliers such as CousinsUk and Startime Supply sell genereic parts and accessories. I'll take any other hints.

Thank you guys, have a good week-end.

 

[Hinclimincli]

You can also buy some epoxy glue and dial feet, and practice reattaching those to the old dial. Sometimes dials come with different feet position than the movement where you want to put them and this is also a skill that will come handy in a near future.

Now think, which watch will you build after you rescue that 16710? (Which you surely will as you just need a new movement, hands and dial). A nice sturdy and adventurous 1665 COMEX Sea Dweller? Or perhaps the must-have-in-any-collection James Bond’s Goldfinger Submariner 6538? Perhaps use your experience on low beat GMT modules to build yourself a nice 1675? Sky is the limit!

 

[mrsullivan]

You can also buy some epoxy glue

Now think, which watch will you build after you rescue that 16710?

Epoxy seems all right yes. I used 10mn dry epoxy for the DWO and it went fine.

Making other builds? Hell don't give me such ideas, my wife will lock me up if I spend more time working on my watches than on her ah ah!

Still, making a build out of this failed repair is a good idea, I'll see where it goes.


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[RiffRalf]

.... my wife will lock me up if I spend more time working on my watches than on her ah ah
...

LOL I've got one of those... she wanted me to spend my CHNR money on a handful of shirts .... which I admit are pretty thread bare, in fact she laughed at me look at you with your beautiful fake Rolex and your worn shirts! Priorities eh ....

 

[mrsullivan]

Here are some news : a received a new handset and a new movement (a cheap Mingzhu DG3804 GMT) is on its way.

Now I need a new dial as I broke a foot on the original one and it got scratched.
Where can I get a proper 16710 dial, knowing I'm going from CHS to ICHS?

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[KJ2020]

Those are quite hard to find. Best bet is a TD.

Yuki has a really nice new release but it has an ETA date window placement, which is the same as native DG.

http://www.yukiwatch.net/GMT-Master-...ial-p148234110

Most reps (but not all) use the Rolex window position which implies a DWO and a moved cyclops.

I changed this watch from an ETA/DG window position to Rolex window position, which meant adding a DWO and changing the crystal to one with a moved cyclops.

Before

After

 

[KJ2020]

Foot position is not a factor between CHS and ICHS. It becomes an issue when you switch from ETA to DG or 3135 to 2836, etc.

 

[mrsullivan]

Thank you for the tip KJ2020

I'll ask a couple of TD's for a BP 16710 dial first and see what comes out of it.
I keep the Yuki solution in mind in case I need it.

Cheers.

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[mrsullivan]

Digging my thread up, as I have great news : I finally got my balls up and tried to make this unfortunate 16710 work by myslef, and I'm proud to say it seems to work out good!

After thinking of buying a new dial, which would have cost me another extra, I ended up repairing the amputeed one and rebuilding the whole watch.
It also put a thinner caseback on it, picked from a DH gate GMT cheapie.

The watch now is a ICHS GMT but regarding all it went through I'm quite happy with it!

Thank you KJ2020 oascom Hinclimincli bc1221 and all the others who helped.

The whole story in pictures :

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[Oascom]

Digging my thread up, as I have great news : I finally got my balls up and tried to make this unfortunate 16710 work by myslef, and I'm proud to say it seems to work out good!

After thinking of buying a new dial, which would have cost me another extra, I ended up repairing the amputeed one and rebuilding the whole watch.
It also put a thinner caseback on it, picked from a DH gate GMT cheapie.

The watch now is a ICHS GMT but regarding all it went through I'm quite happy with it!

Thank you KJ2020 oascom Hinclimincli bc1221 and all the others who helped.

The whole story in pictures :

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Great job !

 

[KJ2020]

Really outstanding salvage job bro! Congrats, this watch will mean so much more to you now (after you fix the dent in the wall, lol).

 

[BreatheNBeat92]

Damn this thread has some crazy info, story and emotions. Congrats man on the working watch back from the dead. I have a Hanghzou 6460 , noob case set, noob dial and ebay hands for a Batman. Want to really work on it but feeling scared i may mess up the dial or bend the hands.

Ive bent a couple of hands and gave up on it lol. Maybe im putting too little or too much pressure.