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Project "RWI Raffle Win"... a 1675 Build

chubbychaser911

Active Member
31/10/19
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You know I did buy two different crowns. I bought a gen crown and a crown from Yuki. The crown from Yuki I believe was supposed to be 5.3mm but it doesn't fit as well as the genuine crown. I never tried any case tube other than genuine.
 

chubbychaser911

Active Member
31/10/19
405
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The Yuki crown was a tad too big to fit all the way down between teh crown guards. Gen screwed down completely. The knurling was rubbing against the crown guards and prevented it from seating completely. Solution6 I'm surprised that you had to file away at the Yuki ring. On mine it seemed to fit perfectly once it snapped into place and the movement cut outs for mounting tabs were just above the ring's profile.
 

p0pperini

patr0n h0arder
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gaskets are readily available on eBay. As far as movement ring, p0pperini knows where to get one but he's holding out on us lol. I ended buying one from yukiwatch.com and it was $50.
Dammit, sorry - I was meant to ask the maker whether it was okay to name check them, and completely forgot to! I’ll do it...
 

Solution6

Watchmaker
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14/8/19
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The Yuki crown was a tad too big to fit all the way down between teh crown guards. Gen screwed down completely. The knurling was rubbing against the crown guards and prevented it from seating completely. Solution6 I'm surprised that you had to file away at the Yuki ring. On mine it seemed to fit perfectly once it snapped into place and the movement cut outs for mounting tabs were just above the ring's profile.

Interesting indeed. I did notice an improvement as I switched to a gen ETA (moved the GMT module over) - less adjustment needed on the ring. Perhaps my case is a different batch.

Updated my previous post, in case people come across it and start shaving their rings without testing first :)

I know Trip mentioned some shaving necessary on some rings. Oh well, that's part of the replica adventure I guess.
 
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Redheart

Active Member
17/5/19
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p0pperini Hope you are well in those pycho times of overlording!
you mentioned I believe you were waiting on a Viet dial? How is it going? What kind of dial did you settle one on your build?
 
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p0pperini

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p0pperini Hope you are well in those pycho times of overlording!
you mentioned I believe you were waiting on a Viet dial? How is it going? What kind of dial did you settle one on your build?
Ah yeah. Got the Viet dial... ruined the Viet dial.

Long story short - the dial was cheap because it had lume chipped off two plots. So I relumed it with an acrylic mix. I got the colour match pretty good but the consistency of the paint mix was all wrong and I ended up with two iced gems (that's a confectionery reference) instead of lume plots.

6iB18.jpg


So I decided to try and sand the lume plots down, and in the process, scratched the dial surface (outside of the lume plot area). Such a deeply stupid thing to do, instead of just scraping the paint off and starting again.

6iQMK.jpg


I'm at the stage now where I'll happily just buy a half decent dial that's ready to go. So this morning I went to Yuki's site with exaclty that in mind - only to find that it's closed for maintenance. lol

I hope you guys are enjoying this ongoing horror show - it continues to be a real learning experience! Most of the time I'm learning that I should've started learning this stuff about 30 years ago.
 
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Redheart

Active Member
17/5/19
463
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Ah yeah. Got the Viet dial... ruined the Viet dial.

Long story short - the dial was cheap because it had lume chipped off two plots. So I relumed it with an acrylic mix. I got the colour match pretty good but the consistency of the paint mix was all wrong and I ended up with two iced gems (that's a confectionery reference) instead of lume plots.

6iB18.jpg


So I decided to try and sand the lume plots down, and in the process, scratched the dial surface (outside of the lume plot area). Such a deeply stupid thing to do, instead of just scraping the paint off and starting again.

6iQMK.jpg


I'm at the stage now where I'll happily just buy a half decent dial that's ready to go. So this morning I went to Yuki's site with exaclty that in mind - only to find that it's closed for maintenance. lol

I hope you guys are enjoying this ongoing horror show - it continues to be a real learning experience! Most of the time I'm learning that I should've started learning this stuff about 30 years ago.

I would not be the one who laughs on others misery, but you really have such a jovial tone about those happens to everyone in this hobby mistakes !

Those gilt dial from Ruby are the bomb, only if you really prefer the mate dial he has it too and it's less expensive, which I totally vouch for, they are better than the Yuki ones and cheaper than the gilts.

But frankly you can still use that dial, it's not that bad! Relume it and you are good to go imho.
 
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p0pperini

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Those gilt dial from Ruby are the bomb, only if you really prefer the mate dial he has it too and it's less expensive, which I totally vouch for, they are better than the Yuki ones and cheaper than the gilts.
DAMMIT DAMMIT DAMMIT! This is another reason I shouldn't be allowed near this hobby - my dreadful memory. The Ruby dials are the ones I wanted to check out again, not Yuki. See, two female-sounding names, both with 4 letters in... So thanks for the reminder Redheart - what would I do without you? :D

And also thanks for your support in general. I know I might get away with the Viet dial once it's re-lumed, but it's one of those "I know it's flawed now" things, which would bug me. I'll be using it as (yet another) test bed for some vintage surface work, which might result in something I'll be happy to use...
 
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Watchpocketguide42

Horology Curious
1/1/20
19
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3
UK
p0pperini oh no! I am currently trying to lume explorer style dial and I can understand your pain and frustration. Not that I have spent much money in comparison, but this hobby sometimes is like a black hole that suck one's time and effort :biggrin:
 
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p0pperini

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p0pperini oh no! I am currently trying to lume explorer style dial and I can understand your pain and frustration. Not that I have spent much money in comparison, but this hobby sometimes is like a black hole that suck one's time and effort :biggrin:
Too true buddy!

The annoying thing with the lume was that I'd practised on paper printouts of a dial beforehand and it all looked great. Then I mixed a fresh set of paint to use on the dial, as it needed just a tiny hint of brown to reduce the yellowish tone of my practice mix... and I must have got the consistency wrong so it "puckered up" as it dried.
 

Mr Seamaster

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27/4/12
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Hey N.,

Try to gently heat the dial from the underside with a lighter or something like that. The scratches (if they’re just in the lacquer and not on the dial plate itself) will „melt“ and will close up again.

At least that’s the method I experimented with a few weeks ago with a VN gilt dial.

Give it a try and slightly heat it.

Cheers
Phil
 
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p0pperini

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Hey N.,

Try to gently heat the dial from the underside with a lighter or something like that. The scratches (if they’re just in the lacquer and not on the dial plate itself) will „melt“ and will close up again.

At least that’s the method I experimented with a few weeks ago with a VN gilt dial.

Give it a try and slightly heat it.

Cheers
Phil
Oh... Nice idea Phil, thanks! I'll give that a try. Hell, what could possibly go wro... ah wait, maybe I shouldn't say that until I've tried it. :)
 

chubbychaser911

Active Member
31/10/19
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Also the yuki dials have their date window in eta 2836 position and not Rolex 1570 position. Your date wheel overlay will be obscured. But they're good to have if you want to use them as a template for dial feet. Press the yuki dial into a putty or rodico and then place your replacement dial feet in the holes. Epoxy them to the dial and then wait 24 hours and remove.
 
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p0pperini

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Also the yuki dials have their date window in eta 2836 position and not Rolex 1570 position. Your date wheel overlay will be obscured. But they're good to have if you want to use them as a template for dial feet. Press the yuki dial into a putty or rodico and then place your replacement dial feet in the holes. Epoxy them to the dial and then wait 24 hours and remove.
Thanks cc - I was going to check any dial I was looking at first, to see if the date window would be an issue. But as I mentioned in my reply to Redheart - I actually should have been looking at Ruby's store anyway. :)

With regard to your feet epoxying advice... I like it! I've been going for the way more dangerous "do it all directly on the movement" approach - which is plainly mad and inviting further disaster, given the severe lack of skill, judgement and dexterity I constantly demonstrate here.
 

MaxDu

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Hey guys ! Thanks everyone for this wonderfull thread ! So many useful informations here !

Just a quick question regarding the height of the hands: It appears that the GMT hand will be the closest to the dial. Then the hours one, then the minutes, and last the second hand, right ?
If done so, it looks like the GMT hand, wich is the longest one, will pass over the indexes. If thoose one are painted and lumed, they are a bit "thick". Then, the GMT hand is too low on the dial and can drag on it by passing over them. Do you see what I mean ?
How to avoid that ? a higher pignon for the GMT hand ? If so, maybe it would require a higher pignon for all the other hands too ?
Or maybe find a solution to put the dial a bit lower on the movement like shaving the dial spacer a bit ? But being careful to not touch or block the day wheel ?

Or the good old "bend hand" way ?

What are your views on it ?
 

p0pperini

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MaxDu I have no idea... But will probably find out when I finally get to the stage of hammering everything together. At least at that point I won't be able to claim that no one warned me.

chubbychaser911 and others who were interested - I finally got round to asking my mystery movement holder maker if it would be okay to name-check them, and got an affirmative. And... (fanfare)... it was tripdog! Quelle surprise eh? Although he also mentioned that shipping from France is badly affected right now, so bear that in mind if you want to discuss your own desires with him.