DIY 177H with DSN parts

[Jurgenk]

Hi all, just wanted to remind people that it's actually very doable to install DSN parts by yourself into a stock rep, all the info is out there.

Here's a standard 177H as it was delivered to me, before I knew more about any of these subtleties. It looked perfect to me at the time despite all of its flaws. What a weak crown, the beveling made it seem even thinner than its 1.9 mm. The L Swiss touches the 6 as it always does, and the pinion is deep! Still on the rep strap:

About 2 h of careful work later, we have swapped the cannon pinion and hour wheel, andinstalled a new set of lumed DSN hands and the latest lumed dial (with better L Swiss and better letter A in the dial fonts) and a Ti DSN crown (exactly 2.0 mm, not going to knock anyone's socks off with the size but has a good feel and is actually very similar to gen IMO)...

Sits well on the wrist

So to those who are not patient enough to send away to a modder in our community, and not too scared about getting into the 6497 (a very friendly modding movement it turns out) these are relatively easy and cheap upgrades to make.

 

[hubrisin]

Now you got me wanting to do that mod!
How hard is it to change the cannon pinion? Changing out the hands, dial, and crown doesn't scare me, just the cannon pin.
How tight is the crown to lever? Would it be tight enough to create a seal for swimming?
How much did all the parts run from David?
Thanks

 

[Jurgenk]

The seal should be good. For one thing, there are two seals, one in the crown tube and an o ring at the base of the crown. I have it on so tight that I cannot turn the crown with the lever closed (that's not quite like the gen but I also want to be okay with water.)

The parts were $150-- Ti crown, tube, superlumed hands and dial, cannon pinion and hour wheel (ETA parts!).

I've been quoted much more for luming existing hands and dial and performing new crown and cannon mods (>$200), and at the end of that I'd still have my 6 touching L swiss.... This was a really easy mod. Now changing DW and resetting hands on an A7750, that took balls... (my first mod at that).

 

[dvburns]

Very, very nice work.

Was this one of the current Ti watches with the stainless steel crown that sits away from the case and has a slight bump where the stem exits the case, so the crown does not sit flush with the case?

If so, did you have to modify that to make the DSN crown fit flush to the case?

Does the color of the lume on the hands and the dial match exactly in normal light?

What was your source for the tall canon pin and hour wheel?

I would like to do this same project myself. This is a great looking 177H.

 

[Jurgenk]

@DVburns

thanks for the feedback

the original crown was Ti, and by some stroke of luck had the same diameter as the replacement crown so i didn't have to use DSN's replacement crown tube. The original crown sat further from the case, but was not spring loaded. DSN's crown is spring loaded and so it gets closer to the case once you put pressure on it with the CG lever. It's a very secure and nice feeling.

the cannon pinion and hour wheel both come from DSN (ETA parts in fact).

the color of the hands and dial match under light (yellowish off white) and the lume intensities and color match perfectly (blue green actually). I don't know if color is accurate at all, but the effect is quite impressive, the brightest watch i've owned, even brighter than my sausage dial gen PAM (which glows green).

 

[chillininla]

Nice work. Love the new DSN dial. I'd be too scared to attempt these myself. But those mods make it look like a completely different watch.
Nice upgrades.

Just got a DSN 111H myself recently and think his dials are one of the best out there. And the blue-green lume color is correct as per Gen.

 

[007]

It turned out real nice. Who did you say was the original watch purchased from?

 

[Jurgenk]

The watch was from Andrew / Trusty, but i believe its the same thing that is shipped by pretty much everyone. AR glass, "swiss 6497"

 

[007]

I asked only because you said that the Davidsen crown fit tight in the original tube. For me it never did.

 

[Big L]

very nice

 

[optimis9]

May i ask a question? What or which part is the hour wheel? :?

 

[pete2528ca]

hour wheel and cannon pin sit under the dial. it is fairly easy mod, especially if you are changing a dial anyway.

the hour wheel basically falls off if there is no dial in place. to remove the cannon pin however, you must remove the plate over the keyless works and remove the gear closest to the cannon pin. just be careful not to unlatch the v spring in the keyless works because it is a beeotch to put back. then once the gear is out, i put the plate back on to hold the keyless works snug as a bug, and use a hand remover to lift out the cannon pin. you should feel a slight pop. then push on the new one, again hearing a click, and reverse the keyless works part. slide on the hour wheel, put on the dial and then "Bob is your fathers brother."

 

[Big L]

The watch was from Andrew / Trusty, but i believe its the same thing that is shipped by pretty much everyone. AR glass, "swiss 6497"

Does Andrew/trusty carry the closest case to the gen or does DSN? Who sells the closest 1:1 case?

thanks

 

[hubrisin]

DSN is the closest, the old Jimmy Fu cases were the almost gen but you won't find one of those.