Originally posted April 11, 2015
Ok, it's been a great ride and now I'm ready to present you the first of my Pre-V builds: the Steph Dexter 5218/202a.
When I decided to venture into this project I had no idea how to open a caseback, let alone installing a cannon pinion :lol:
I need to thank the great members of this and other fora for sharing their knowledge and skills, without their tutorials and tips I would have never made it. Please, keep up the good job guys!
The 202a is by far the easiest of the two watches I built. Actually it simply consists in changing the dial from a stock Davidsen case and refinishing a couple of things.
A few quick notes about some of the parts used:
CASE
I used a complete stock DSN PVD case set. This was my very first build and I wanted to keep it as simple as possible.
Even though from what I gathered the correct approach for this kind of build would include sourcing noob 111j, reshaping the case correctly, and finally have somebody coat it with the correct color, the DSN case set is a good and affordable option imho.
The only issues are the side shape of the case being a bit too "square", and the DLC color being a bit too light (especially under certain lights), but I do hope it will get a bit darker with use.
DIAL
Steph Dexter did a great job on this dial imho. The matte finish looks a bit rough when it's out of the case, but once it's under the crystal it becomes a lot better.
The indices have very nice dark yellow/creamy color. This is pretty much a taste matter since gen dials show almost infinite different shades of yellow and orange.
The transparent filling of the indices is not perfect as it shows some bubbles under the loupe, also a close up reveals some imperfections in its application.
The inscriptions have the correct serif font, just a bit too thick.
Note that this dial is not lumed.
For those who might be interested in using this dial, be aware that it comes as a simple plate and must be glued on a base plated that needs to be sourced on its own.
Following Grim's advice I bought a cheap sterile sandwhich dial (any 34-35 mm dial would do), I then separated the base from the upper part of the dial, stripped the lume applied on the base with a knife and cleaned. In order to glue the SD dial to the plate I used a few small adhesive dots, these are the same inexpensive dots used by the factories to stick the decorative plates on stock movements.
CANNON PINION
Davidsen installed an H2 hour wheel and CP on this watch, while changing the dial I swapped them for a taller H3 set that I sourced from CousinsUK. The pin has been flattened and polished by me.
HANDS
DSN stock hands are well finished, nice black matte color and pale yellow color of the lume. They glow rather weakly.
CROWNGUARD
The DSN crownguard is very nicely shaped, but I noticed some variations in fitment. Some seem to fit perfectly the case, others need some modding for a perfect fit. Luckily I had 2 of these because when trying to mod the first one I managed to scratch the DLC (no surprise here...).
The CG pin has been removed, shortened and radial brushed as per Grimlocktime's tips (thanks!). In order to achieve the same finish as the gen I should now darken it, but I like the watch more like this so I think I'm gonna keep it this way.
CASEBACK
I do really like this DSN caseback, it's slightly thicker than the one on his 201a and this makes it look nicer and more correct in my eyes. I don't think I will upgrade this to a Jakob CB.
STRAP
For this build Orloff surpassed his already very high standard and made the perfect strap for my tastes, he even used a thinner thread in order to achieve the correct Pre-V look. I'm in LOVE with this strap
WHAT'S LEFT TO BE DONE
Not so much, unless I find the right case.
I might decide to try and gold plate the hour wheel, a small detail I learned from Grimlocktime's builds.
Also I'm not sure the crystal installed is the most recent french sapphire from DSN, so I should check it and eventually source a better one.
All in all it's been an easy and satisfactory build, to be honest I wasn't even sure I could complete it when I started so I'm pretty happy about how it's ended
A few more pics:
Let me know what you think, any opinion, comment or advice is VERY welcome, I'm always trying to improve!
That's all for now, soon I'll be ready to post the pics of my 201a.
:cheers:
FIRST BUILD: MY HUMBLE SD 5218/202A
Ok, it's been a great ride and now I'm ready to present you the first of my Pre-V builds: the Steph Dexter 5218/202a.
When I decided to venture into this project I had no idea how to open a caseback, let alone installing a cannon pinion :lol:
I need to thank the great members of this and other fora for sharing their knowledge and skills, without their tutorials and tips I would have never made it. Please, keep up the good job guys!
The 202a is by far the easiest of the two watches I built. Actually it simply consists in changing the dial from a stock Davidsen case and refinishing a couple of things.
A few quick notes about some of the parts used:
CASE
I used a complete stock DSN PVD case set. This was my very first build and I wanted to keep it as simple as possible.
Even though from what I gathered the correct approach for this kind of build would include sourcing noob 111j, reshaping the case correctly, and finally have somebody coat it with the correct color, the DSN case set is a good and affordable option imho.
The only issues are the side shape of the case being a bit too "square", and the DLC color being a bit too light (especially under certain lights), but I do hope it will get a bit darker with use.
DIAL
Steph Dexter did a great job on this dial imho. The matte finish looks a bit rough when it's out of the case, but once it's under the crystal it becomes a lot better.
The indices have very nice dark yellow/creamy color. This is pretty much a taste matter since gen dials show almost infinite different shades of yellow and orange.
The transparent filling of the indices is not perfect as it shows some bubbles under the loupe, also a close up reveals some imperfections in its application.
The inscriptions have the correct serif font, just a bit too thick.
Note that this dial is not lumed.
For those who might be interested in using this dial, be aware that it comes as a simple plate and must be glued on a base plated that needs to be sourced on its own.
Following Grim's advice I bought a cheap sterile sandwhich dial (any 34-35 mm dial would do), I then separated the base from the upper part of the dial, stripped the lume applied on the base with a knife and cleaned. In order to glue the SD dial to the plate I used a few small adhesive dots, these are the same inexpensive dots used by the factories to stick the decorative plates on stock movements.
CANNON PINION
Davidsen installed an H2 hour wheel and CP on this watch, while changing the dial I swapped them for a taller H3 set that I sourced from CousinsUK. The pin has been flattened and polished by me.
HANDS
DSN stock hands are well finished, nice black matte color and pale yellow color of the lume. They glow rather weakly.
CROWNGUARD
The DSN crownguard is very nicely shaped, but I noticed some variations in fitment. Some seem to fit perfectly the case, others need some modding for a perfect fit. Luckily I had 2 of these because when trying to mod the first one I managed to scratch the DLC (no surprise here...
).The CG pin has been removed, shortened and radial brushed as per Grimlocktime's tips (thanks!). In order to achieve the same finish as the gen I should now darken it, but I like the watch more like this so I think I'm gonna keep it this way.
CASEBACK
I do really like this DSN caseback, it's slightly thicker than the one on his 201a and this makes it look nicer and more correct in my eyes. I don't think I will upgrade this to a Jakob CB.
STRAP
For this build Orloff surpassed his already very high standard and made the perfect strap for my tastes, he even used a thinner thread in order to achieve the correct Pre-V look. I'm in LOVE with this strap
WHAT'S LEFT TO BE DONE
Not so much, unless I find the right case.
I might decide to try and gold plate the hour wheel, a small detail I learned from Grimlocktime's builds.
Also I'm not sure the crystal installed is the most recent french sapphire from DSN, so I should check it and eventually source a better one.
All in all it's been an easy and satisfactory build, to be honest I wasn't even sure I could complete it when I started so I'm pretty happy about how it's ended
A few more pics:
Let me know what you think, any opinion, comment or advice is VERY welcome, I'm always trying to improve!
That's all for now, soon I'll be ready to post the pics of my 201a.
:cheers:
Last edited:
