Calling on 16570 experts

[sukwonee]

Hi all,

I have this old old rep of 16570 in white dial from 2006. I acquired this piece from Eddie Lee. This is the version that allows 12-hour hand to be separately adjusted (like gen) and Eddie claimed that it has Swiss ETA movement in it (which I do... not necessarily think is true).

I kept the watch all these years due to sentimental value but as I started looking more closely, I think this watch actually is fairly faithful to the Gen.

I know the DW is very bad but I already have a replacement DW for it that I am planning to swap.

In your opinion, what else should/could I do to this watch to make it closer to gen and would this be a good enough of a base watch for further modding?

I am attaching Pic of my watch and gen for your review.

Thank you in advance.


1. My Rep from Eddie Lee

2. Gen Pic I found online

 

[sukwonee]

One more Pic of gen I found.

 

[sukwonee]

Some more pics of my Replica

 

[R2L]

Interesting. Can you open the case back?


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[sukwonee]

Interesting. Can you open the case back?


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I am.... bad at these things lol but I am sending this to Hanski to reset the hour and GMT hands. I will ask him if he could take a few photos of the movement. I already asked him if he could confirm what movement this thing has.

 

[R2L]

Your watch maker can definitely tell what you have.
I can’t tell from your pics on my phone but what is your hand stack? Which hand is on the bottom?


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[sukwonee]

Your watch maker can definitely tell what you have.
I can’t tell from your pics on my phone but what is your hand stack? Which hand is on the bottom?


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Its second hand on the very top

Then the minute hand

And GMT hand

12-hour hand at the very bottom.

 

[R2L]

Looks like you may have one of the early CHS GMTs that were produced for a short period of time. They were very unstable and broke easily. I believe they were based on an ETA (2824?) that was reconfigured to provide the CHS sequence.


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[R2L]

I don’t recall if the case was gen spec or if you can add any gen parts to it. If I am correct, your biggest problem will be to get the movement up and running reliably. If not, maybe one of the new 3185/3186 that are out now may work?


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[sukwonee]

Looks like you may have one of the early CHS GMTs that were produced for a short period of time. They were very unstable and broke easily. I believe they were based on an ETA (2824?) that was reconfigured to provide the CHS sequence.


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Thank you so much for this information.

I can provide a bit more information about the watch

1. You cannot independently adjust the GMT hand. It's tied to the minute hand at the farthest pull out position

2. 12-hour hand is separately adjustable at first pull out but it only goes clockwise. I know on gens, you can go clockwise and counter clock wise and you cannot separately adjust the date.

3. The date is independently adjustable by pulling the crown out and rotating counterclockwise. If I turn it clockwise, it advances the hour hand (as stated above in 2).

I somehow was able to keep this thing alive for 14 years without servicing haha. Do you see any issues with me investing more into this watch? Any major flaws you see that bother you from cosmetic pov?

I really appreciate you taking your time and dropping knowledge.

 

[R2L]

This movement was already gone by the time I joined this hobby so I don’t know if I can help you much more. But do a google search on CHS ETA Explorer II and see what you dig up on some of the other rep forums. It will most likely be archived material.

The fact that it has been working for this long is amazing! I’d almost want to leave it as is as it’s a significant part of rep history.

After the disaster that was this movement proved to be, the factories went to the more reliable and easy to produce ICHS using ETA (or clones) 2836 as the base, or the 2893 which already was a GMT movement.


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[sukwonee]

Check this out.... Email with the legend Eddie Lee from 2006 lol

 

[sukwonee]

This movement was already gone by the time I joined this hobby so I don’t know if I can help you much more. But do a google search on CHS ETA Explorer II and see what you dig up on some of the other rep forums. It will most likely be archived material.

The fact that it has been working for this long is amazing! I’d almost want to leave it as is as it’s a significant part of rep history.

After the disaster that was this movement proved to be, the factories went to the more reliable and easy to produce ICHS using ETA (or clones) 2836 as the base, or the 2893 which already was a GMT movement.


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Hahaha that is awesome. I may follow your advice and see how long I can keep this beating lol.

I will go back and see what I can dig up on CHS Explorer II.

Thanks again!

 

[R2L]

Glad you found some info in your email archives. That will prove helpful.

If you’re a member on RG, reach out to a Sneed12 who has been there awhile and has tinkered with these movements in the past. He may provide you with additional info.


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[sukwonee]

Glad you found some info in your email archives. That will prove helpful.

If you’re a member on RG, reach out to a Sneed12 who has been there awhile and has tinkered with these movements in the past. He may provide you with additional info.


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Will do and I am a long time member at RG as well. Thank you again.

 

[R2L]

You’re welcome. Look forward to hearing more about what you find out.


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[sukwonee]

You’re welcome. Look forward to hearing more about what you find out.


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I just PM'd him over at RG to see if he could check out this thread. I searched for some his old posts and.... wow... I am in for some night time reading. Very cool educational stuff.

 

[Hor-Fan]

I’m no expert, but I think the crown guards could use a little reshaping to get it closer to the gen.

 

[sukwonee]

I’m no expert, but I think the crown guards could use a little reshaping to get it closer to the gen.

Yep good eye! I agree. Rep CG looks a tad bit too fat and gen CG looks more pointy but rounded.

 

[KJ2020]

This is a very decent looking rep, especially given that it was made 15 years ago.

The dial, hands, bezel, and bracelet are in excellent shape and appear to be as good as current day offerings. Obviously a better DW is called for. Your crown is wrong, it should have a line not three dots though I don't sweat that detail.

The case is very similar to the BP and the Noob. The gen 16710 and 16570 cases are identical. Your case looks a little slimmer than the BP 16710/16570, which is good. You can see in the pics below the rep CGs are too skinny so you really can't do anything to them without making that aspect worse.

Your bottom right lug on the inside looks like it suffered some kind of trauma, other than that the case is in great shspe.

Based on the crown height, this would have to be a 2824, both the 2836 and the 2813/3804s sit way lower.

Its not likely any of the newer current movements would fit in this case. The 2824 CHS timebombs have thick dial spacers to make room for the GMT bits and they are nearly identical to the 2836 regarding crown position. So are the true clone movements, which have been retrofitted into 2836 cases.

So I would try to keep this movement going. If it were mine I would be very tempted to service it but knowing it's likely the original CHS disaster movement it may be best to let it run as long as it will. I would be bothered by the GMT and hour hands being out of sync and would want to correct that. It's probable the disaster movement contributed to the hands sync issue - the current disaster 3804 CHS movement has the same issue.

My current BP 2836 ICHS

I have several of these polar EXP IIs in various configurations.