This is my first foray into vintage watches and I wanted to do things a little different. Since seeing the Explorer 1016 on a Jubilee I knew I wanted this look, but also I knew I wanted to swap it up with an oyster too.
Browsing through RWI in mid August I saw that jmb's excellent case was available again, and so was Yuki's Matt White lume dial for ETA. This was the time to start the build.
With a fair bit of research, I started the search for all the various options and how to go full rep and not have any major anachronisms.
The Yuki dial is closest to a service dial, so I knew I could get away with a late 70s case serial number, and claim it was a later service dial. With some more research, and the bracelet options available, this confirmed a 5.9m s/n (1979) was my best compromise. This way I could wear it on a mid/late-70s folded oyster (7386) or an late 70s jubilee (62510h) and be generally period accurate.
I'm not a big fan of the "faux ageing" so I asked Justin to leave it as-new and go for a NOS/serviced Explorer 1016. This may hurt some vintage purists, but I'd rather put 40 years of natural wear on this watch myself. The dial did have a very faint mark/line on it, but since it only shows up when you really hunt for it and the dial is meant to be a mid-90s era service dial, a faint mark looks more authentic than a pristine dial.
The watch is powered by a top-grade ETA 2824, sourced from B-Line Watch AG (via Ebay). I swapped out the standard date yoke for a 2-position yoke so there's no phantom date, and put a H3 hand set so the hands are almost the same height as on a 1570 caliber. Obviously this is the wrong beat rate, but since none of the older ETA calibers would fit without more mods and none would keep COSC spec (like the gen watch) this was a fair compromise. ETA 2824 winds and sets hands in the same direction as the gen 1570 caliber which is far more important for accuracy. The gen ETA is beautiful though, it keeps great time and winds like butter. I doubt a freshly serviced gen 1570 would feel any better.
The bracelets were sourced from Mary Watch (TD over the road), and they feel great. The end links (455b/380b) on both take 1.8mm springbars. The end holes on the jubilee are only drilled to take 1.8mm bars, but the oyster takes 2.0mm bars. I probably won't drill out the jubilee as there isn't much metal there to work with. I plan to swap out the 380b endlinks on the oyster with 580 endlinks from WSO in the near future so I can put the 2.0mm springbars on. The 455b end links fit great though, so probably won't swap them for 550s.
Springbars were from CousinsUK.
I didn't get many photos of the parts prior to the build because I like to keep everything sealed and free from potential damage until my watchmaker puts it together, but here's a few case photos from Justin and bracelet photos from Mary.
My watchmaker/builder for this was Ray at Blacktown Watch Express BLK.W.EXPRESS since I'm based in Sydney. He's a great guy to work with, did a great job here and has served me well over the past few months with all my other issues/mods.
Build cost:
$315 - Case (inc shipping)
$115 - Dial
$304 - Top grade ETA2824 Movement + No-date Yoke + H3 Hand set
$5 - Springbars
~$740
Obviously this is a lot more than a standard Cartel rep, and whether it's an upgrade is up to you but most of the cost could be slimmed down if I hadn't gone all out in movement.
Finally, here is the watch in the sunlight (with a wrist roll).
Browsing through RWI in mid August I saw that jmb's excellent case was available again, and so was Yuki's Matt White lume dial for ETA. This was the time to start the build.
With a fair bit of research, I started the search for all the various options and how to go full rep and not have any major anachronisms.
The Yuki dial is closest to a service dial, so I knew I could get away with a late 70s case serial number, and claim it was a later service dial. With some more research, and the bracelet options available, this confirmed a 5.9m s/n (1979) was my best compromise. This way I could wear it on a mid/late-70s folded oyster (7386) or an late 70s jubilee (62510h) and be generally period accurate.
I'm not a big fan of the "faux ageing" so I asked Justin to leave it as-new and go for a NOS/serviced Explorer 1016. This may hurt some vintage purists, but I'd rather put 40 years of natural wear on this watch myself. The dial did have a very faint mark/line on it, but since it only shows up when you really hunt for it and the dial is meant to be a mid-90s era service dial, a faint mark looks more authentic than a pristine dial.
The watch is powered by a top-grade ETA 2824, sourced from B-Line Watch AG (via Ebay). I swapped out the standard date yoke for a 2-position yoke so there's no phantom date, and put a H3 hand set so the hands are almost the same height as on a 1570 caliber. Obviously this is the wrong beat rate, but since none of the older ETA calibers would fit without more mods and none would keep COSC spec (like the gen watch) this was a fair compromise. ETA 2824 winds and sets hands in the same direction as the gen 1570 caliber which is far more important for accuracy. The gen ETA is beautiful though, it keeps great time and winds like butter. I doubt a freshly serviced gen 1570 would feel any better.
The bracelets were sourced from Mary Watch (TD over the road), and they feel great. The end links (455b/380b) on both take 1.8mm springbars. The end holes on the jubilee are only drilled to take 1.8mm bars, but the oyster takes 2.0mm bars. I probably won't drill out the jubilee as there isn't much metal there to work with. I plan to swap out the 380b endlinks on the oyster with 580 endlinks from WSO in the near future so I can put the 2.0mm springbars on. The 455b end links fit great though, so probably won't swap them for 550s.
Springbars were from CousinsUK.
I didn't get many photos of the parts prior to the build because I like to keep everything sealed and free from potential damage until my watchmaker puts it together, but here's a few case photos from Justin and bracelet photos from Mary.
My watchmaker/builder for this was Ray at Blacktown Watch Express BLK.W.EXPRESS since I'm based in Sydney. He's a great guy to work with, did a great job here and has served me well over the past few months with all my other issues/mods.
Build cost:
$315 - Case (inc shipping)
$115 - Dial
$304 - Top grade ETA2824 Movement + No-date Yoke + H3 Hand set
$5 - Springbars
~$740
Obviously this is a lot more than a standard Cartel rep, and whether it's an upgrade is up to you but most of the cost could be slimmed down if I hadn't gone all out in movement.
Finally, here is the watch in the sunlight (with a wrist roll).
