MARINA MILITARE 6152/1 Destro
I have always been a little scared by 6152/1 builds. They look easy at first sight, but if you check closely they're not.
There's a number of tiny details that you need to get right before you can call your build done, and sometimes there is very little room for mistakes.
Don't get me wrong, a Jackson case is already a great base. You can just polish away the brushed finish, install a new plexi or even use the stock one, change the caseback, dial and hands and you're done. You will already have a good looking build with a reasonable investment of time and money.
But you know how these things go... I wanted more, and even more I will be wanting next time
Since I used an old school fiddy case for this build I encountered a few unexpected issues which made fitting parts challenging and maybe that's why at a certain point the build seemed to take up a life of its own and I ended up with a completely different watch than what I meant initially.
Funny thing is once I finished I went through the pics in my books and realized I was not that far from a gen
Here's what went into the build:
- Old school fiddy case set which was aged, scuffed, reshaped and hand polished to a smooth soft shine
- Lugs drilled to accept stainless steel compression fit lug bars
- Crown tube hole re-drilled and Nightwatch brass tube + spring loaded gen-spec crown installed. Crown is a work of art
- Aged NW t25 plexi installed
- Athaya crown guard aged/scuffed by me, lever tip reshaped for better look.
- Unknown maker MM 37mm dial with awesome texture and great resin filled indices
- Athaya tall tube wide double pencil hands aged by me, custom faux CP mod by me as well.
- Modified movement holder as standard jackson holder did not fit properly this case-set.
- Brand new a6497-1 with the seconds hand trimmed in the proper way.
- Special engraved "X flottiglia M.A.S. - a Fabio Castellani" with Mario Arillo signature. That's an awesome caseback I got in a m2m deal. Call me naive or something, but the gesture of Arillo having the CB engraved this way before giving it to its new owner is something that always fascinated me and atm I could care less about the misspelling in the word "flottiglia" or the fact this CB is incorrect for this watch.
- Finally one of my personal favourite strap: Bakeka vintage leather in 26/26 with flat GPF buckle. A few months ago I almost sold it but luckily I din't as I would have sorely missed it. This is a strap I won't ever part with.
More pics:
As usual any comment, good or bad, is welcome. Hope you enjoy the pics
Last edited:
