- 12/3/18
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Greetings fellow watch bros!
This rep came to me in pieces in a zip lock bag 6 years ago. I looked at it a few times over the years as it got shuffled around in parts drawers always looking forlorn and neglected. So I decided to see what I could do with it. I thought it had a 7750 in it and I had a spare that could be used with some modding. But after examining the movement pieces more closely it turned out to be an ST2555.
The closest I could find was a 2551 in an aftermarket. So I gave up the PR indicator (glued the hand in place) and the rotor has 3 little screws not one big one so I can't use the branded rotor. Trusty has a movement listed for this model at $110, the one I bought was around $30. I can live with the results, the aftermarket rotor is actually very nice.
For the fixed PR hand I just put a piece of bracelet tape on the bottom of the hole, added some epoxy and set the hand. After it cures you can remove the tape.
The original movement had a larger diameter datewheel than the replacement movement whose date plate outer perimeter was too wide for the black DW to fit. I had to reduce that width a significant amount by sanding it down in an inward slope so I could turn my original DW into a DWO. The things we gotta do, arghh. I added several layers of bracelet tape to make the DWO sit higher. I sanded its teeth off and epoxied it in place.
The dial was epoxied onto the huge built-in spacer around the movement. Both the hour and minute hands were bent. I straightened them and I had to repaint the minute hand hole surround flat black. The second hand was unusable and I couldn’t find a 25xx replacement so I bought a cheap set of 7750 IWC hands. The hole size was too big - I crimped it as much as I dared as second hand hole collars are pretty fragile. The crimping helped but wasn’t enough so I added a tiny drop of epoxy into the hole and set it in place. After curing it’s nice and tight.
I have no idea of the provenance of this rep. I know it isn’t top tier as it has some notable flaws that IWC aficionados will quickly spot. The PR scale is reversed from gen - it should count down in a clockwise direction with 1 being red, not 7 LOL. The 2 and 4 hour markers are a lot more truncated on the gen. I actually prefer the 2 and 4 display of this dial, I greatly dislike truncated hour markers. The dial has no lume at all, the recessed pushers do nothing and the crown is 8mm not 10mm. Again I’m fine with that, I always thought Big Pilot crowns were obnoxiously huge so this once suits me better.
So while it’s a far cry from top tier, it’s not a DHGate shitter either. The case is solid and beautiful, nicely brushed and polished with a display caseback. I enjoyed working on it and figuring out how to piece it back together again. It's a front loader so the crystal has to come off to get to the movement. From a bag o’ bones to flying high again, this Big Pilot is back in business!
Thanks for looking!
This rep came to me in pieces in a zip lock bag 6 years ago. I looked at it a few times over the years as it got shuffled around in parts drawers always looking forlorn and neglected. So I decided to see what I could do with it. I thought it had a 7750 in it and I had a spare that could be used with some modding. But after examining the movement pieces more closely it turned out to be an ST2555.
The closest I could find was a 2551 in an aftermarket. So I gave up the PR indicator (glued the hand in place) and the rotor has 3 little screws not one big one so I can't use the branded rotor. Trusty has a movement listed for this model at $110, the one I bought was around $30. I can live with the results, the aftermarket rotor is actually very nice.
For the fixed PR hand I just put a piece of bracelet tape on the bottom of the hole, added some epoxy and set the hand. After it cures you can remove the tape.
The original movement had a larger diameter datewheel than the replacement movement whose date plate outer perimeter was too wide for the black DW to fit. I had to reduce that width a significant amount by sanding it down in an inward slope so I could turn my original DW into a DWO. The things we gotta do, arghh. I added several layers of bracelet tape to make the DWO sit higher. I sanded its teeth off and epoxied it in place.
The dial was epoxied onto the huge built-in spacer around the movement. Both the hour and minute hands were bent. I straightened them and I had to repaint the minute hand hole surround flat black. The second hand was unusable and I couldn’t find a 25xx replacement so I bought a cheap set of 7750 IWC hands. The hole size was too big - I crimped it as much as I dared as second hand hole collars are pretty fragile. The crimping helped but wasn’t enough so I added a tiny drop of epoxy into the hole and set it in place. After curing it’s nice and tight.
I have no idea of the provenance of this rep. I know it isn’t top tier as it has some notable flaws that IWC aficionados will quickly spot. The PR scale is reversed from gen - it should count down in a clockwise direction with 1 being red, not 7 LOL. The 2 and 4 hour markers are a lot more truncated on the gen. I actually prefer the 2 and 4 display of this dial, I greatly dislike truncated hour markers. The dial has no lume at all, the recessed pushers do nothing and the crown is 8mm not 10mm. Again I’m fine with that, I always thought Big Pilot crowns were obnoxiously huge so this once suits me better.
So while it’s a far cry from top tier, it’s not a DHGate shitter either. The case is solid and beautiful, nicely brushed and polished with a display caseback. I enjoyed working on it and figuring out how to piece it back together again. It's a front loader so the crystal has to come off to get to the movement. From a bag o’ bones to flying high again, this Big Pilot is back in business!
Thanks for looking!
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