One of the biggest tells on UPO is the single AR crystal. The gen PO has a double AR crystal (it used to have blue/purple-ish hue but it has been changed to colourless a couple of years ago). So I had been searching for an aftermarket PO crystal for sometime when I contacted Uwe at Fine DD. He told me that he has an aftermarket crystal for PO and he can coat it with AR on both sides. It was much cheaper than getting a gen PO crystal (nearly 200 dollars with shipping to Canada).
After long 3 weeks, the package finally arrived today.
Open the package and...TADA!
Fine DD AR is known to have slightly yellow-ish hue and I tried to capture it here
The yellow tint is almost invisible and had trouble capturing it. Also, once installed on the watch, it's even more hard to find it against the black dial - pics will be shown later.
Here's the watch before transformation
You can see a lot of reflection on the crystal. You can pretty much see the view from my window on the crystal.
So, the first thing I did was open the caseback and remove the stem (I hate this part...makes me so nervous every time I have to press the release lever).
Then remove all the movement holder screws and remove the dial and the movement
Then remove the crystal using proper sized dyes and a crystal press (the press cost me less than 10 dollars on eBay).
Once the crystal was out, the first thing I noticed was that the new crystal was slightly thinner than it needed to be (not sure why..I guess I screwed up the measurements). But it didn't end up being a big problem in the end.
Then, put in the new crystal using the same tools
I did a quick waterproof test and I did not see any leaks when it was placed in a cup of water...I guess it's safe for washing hands and etc.
Put everything back together again
And whoa..
I'm a terrible photographer so I couldn't really capture the beauty of the double AR crystal but wow believe me the difference is just amazing. The dial really pops out and makes the watch look substantially better quality (not to mention gen-like).
All in all, it was the best decision I ever made since I started collecting reps. I would also like to thank Uwe for answering all my questions and bugging him with updates. I would recommend Fine DD to everyone.
Daniel
After long 3 weeks, the package finally arrived today.
Open the package and...TADA!
Fine DD AR is known to have slightly yellow-ish hue and I tried to capture it here
The yellow tint is almost invisible and had trouble capturing it. Also, once installed on the watch, it's even more hard to find it against the black dial - pics will be shown later.
Here's the watch before transformation
You can see a lot of reflection on the crystal. You can pretty much see the view from my window on the crystal.
So, the first thing I did was open the caseback and remove the stem (I hate this part...makes me so nervous every time I have to press the release lever).
Then remove all the movement holder screws and remove the dial and the movement
Then remove the crystal using proper sized dyes and a crystal press (the press cost me less than 10 dollars on eBay).
Once the crystal was out, the first thing I noticed was that the new crystal was slightly thinner than it needed to be (not sure why..I guess I screwed up the measurements). But it didn't end up being a big problem in the end.
Then, put in the new crystal using the same tools
I did a quick waterproof test and I did not see any leaks when it was placed in a cup of water...I guess it's safe for washing hands and etc.
Put everything back together again
And whoa..
I'm a terrible photographer so I couldn't really capture the beauty of the double AR crystal but wow believe me the difference is just amazing. The dial really pops out and makes the watch look substantially better quality (not to mention gen-like).
All in all, it was the best decision I ever made since I started collecting reps. I would also like to thank Uwe for answering all my questions and bugging him with updates. I would recommend Fine DD to everyone.
Daniel
