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

[chubbychaser911]

Also my dates need to be better aligned. I will be doing that soon.

 

[KJ2020]

Thanks! will do that as temporary solution

No temporary about these bro. Make sure you stick it right the first time!

https://www.ebay.com/itm/10-HQ-3M-A...-INSERT-FOR-ROLEX-SUBMARINER-GMT/311735707180

 

[Kalmine64]

Thanks, went with tiny spots of contact glue for now

 

[chubbychaser911]

Okay so fuck. I just realized that if I’m using a river bracelet that means I have to be looking at a late 1960s model. They discontinued rivets one 1967 correct? Which would mean I need a small GMT hand. Additionally all of the 1675 GMT hands that I see have what I think is the wrong shape. The triangle should be an equilateral triangle correct? The one I am using right now I believe looks to be more closely shaped to a 16710 hand which I believe is skinnier. Am I crazy?

 

[chubbychaser911]

I have also rounded my crown guards a lot to match a mid-to-late 1970's crown guard. The early square crown guards had a very slight rounding over on the top. Almost block-ish. So I have a couple of options here. Put on a solid link jubilee bracelet with I think 580 end links. Which I have on hand.

Or go with a small triangle GMT hand and keep the rivet bracelet but then have a case where the crown guards got polished a bit too much.

If I'm going with big GMT hand I'd really like to find a GMT triangle that is fatter and not skinny which I believe looks like a 16710 hand.

 

[p0pperini]

Hope you get all your options sorted out chubbychaser! I largely avoid all that angst by having a rubbish eye for detail and just putting these things together based on what I like the look of, rather than whether it's historically accurate or not.

Meanwhile, on my project... Small steps... Forwards and then back again.

I used water-soluble oil paint to repaint the missing lume plots on the dial. The consistency of the mixing medium seemed spot-on to get the right flow. I used a fine oiler to apply the paint - it went on nicely and looked pretty good (didn't take any pics tho... d'oh). I had to leave it for a couple of days to dry, and it dried very glossy. So I then used watercolours to try to give it a similar appearance to the other lume plots. But that didn't fix the glossiness of the oil painted plots, and in the process of using the watercolour on top, the oil medium separated and seeped onto the dial, making a horrible mess. I then made things worse by attempting to fix the problem with brush-on matt lacquer, which a) didn't fix the glossy lume, and b) reacted badly with the lacquer layer on the dial, making it horribly patchy.

So this morning - in a sort of "do or die" attempt - I gave the dial a coat of matt lacquer spray, to try and cover over the leaked oil and damaged lacquer... and blow me down, it worked! Well, it worked on the dial surface really nicely - but the lume plots stayed stubbornly glossy.

What I need to do next is go over the two lume plots again with a slightly darker, completely matt medium. Gouache (opaque watercolour paint) would be perfect. But a covid-shaped spanner got thrown in the works, as I couldn't find any gouache, and couldn't just pop out to the art shop to buy some.

So I ordered some gouache online, gave up on watches for the day, played some more of The Division 2 and went for a walk.

Happy Easter Lockdown everyone!

 

[deadpan]

What I need to do next is go over the two lume plots again with a slightly darker, completely matt medium.

This looks great to me-I’ve had similar blunders with my dials. Also waiting for matte laquer. Just on the paint-I’ve found Tamiya acrylic pots good at creating a very matte colour, and - being acrylic they’re water soluble (before they dry!) so you can make the consistency very watery and build up in layers. I found the desert earth a perfect match for my baked lume plots. I think you said you were into scale model making, so I’m sure you’re aware of the tamiya paints. I found some ( came really quickly) on the popular auction site.

 

[p0pperini]

This looks great to me-I’ve had similar blunders with my dials. Also waiting for matte laquer. Just on the paint-I’ve found Tamiya acrylic pots good at creating a very matte colour, and - being acrylic they’re water soluble (before they dry!) so you can make the consistency very watery and build up in layers. I found the desert earth a perfect match for my baked lume plots. I think you said you were into scale model making, so I’m sure you’re aware of the tamiya paints. I found some ( came really quickly) on the popular auction site.

Cheers deadpan, yes I’ve got a lot of Tamiya and Vallejo modelers acrylics, thanks for the tip on the desert earth colour. Mrs. p0pperini and I are both artists so we also have a giant cupboard full of artists’ materials. If you check back through the thread you’ll see that I used acrylics first time round, but had a bad time with the consistency of the paint. This might just be down to the brand I used or how I mixed it - it turned very grainy on the dial. But it frightened me off acrylics! Hence the interest in trying out some other mediums.

BTW, I found that a mix of white and Naples yellow, with a tiny amount of raw umber, matched the lume perfectly. But that was before I blowtorched the sucker.

 

[Kalmine64]

Envoyé de mon iPhone en utilisant Tapatalk

 

[milk051506]

 

[p0pperini]

Oh hai milk051506 and a happy lockdown Easter to you! Lovely GMT you're wearing - where did you get that case?

I think my own quest to do your case justice is going to end up costing me the same as gen...

Update for Easter Sunday... I got impatient and instead of waiting for the gouache paint to arrive. I scraped off the water-soluble oil paint and watercolour mess, and I had another go at using acrylic paint for the lume plots - with worse results than before. The dial now looks so shocking I can't even bring myself to photograph it...

So, fed up with banging my head against the wall and rapidly losing the plot (get what I did there?) I admitted defeat... and I've ordered a refinished dial from mochacha.org.

Gawd knows how long it'll take to arrive... Until it does, I'm going to pop this project back in its containers and work on some others.

 

[Solution6]

So, fed up with banging my head against the wall and rapidly losing the plot (get what I did there?) I admitted defeat... and I've ordered a refinished dial from mochacha.org.

Ritchie's dials are quite good indeed. Picked up a few from him over time. Here's a comparison shot next to a gen. (this is mine before I relumed it)

 

[deadpan]

I think my own quest to do your case justice is going to end up costing me the same as gen...

Update for Easter Sunday... I got impatient and instead of waiting for the gouache paint to arrive. I scraped off the water-soluble oil paint and watercolour mess, and I had another go at using acrylic paint for the lume plots - with worse results than before. The dial now looks so shocking I can't even bring myself to photograph it...
.

Oh no! Totally feel for you...sorry I recommended the acrylic :-(

the new dials look great though, and it will be a stunner when completed...if it’s any consolation I tried to pick the lume out of my pip today for refilling with aged pigment, and cracked it in two. Ho hum.

 

[p0pperini]

Oh no! Totally feel for you...sorry I recommended the acrylic :-(

Haha don't feel bad - I'd already tried it once, and should have known better.

the new dials look great though, and it will be a stunner when completed...if it’s any consolation I tried to pick the lume out of my pip today for refilling with aged pigment, and cracked it in two. Ho hum.

Ah, now there's something I haven't managed to break yet, even though I've done a few of 'em. No doubt it's another small disaster to look forward to. Note to self: stock up on Athaya pearls...

 

[Wonderlandfix80]

 

[MaxDu]

d I've ordered a refinished dial from mochacha.org.

Are shipping fee for europe is really 175$ like said on website ????

 

[p0pperini]

Are shipping fee for europe is really 175$ like said on website ????

Nope, shipping to the UK was $16. Shipping to Italy is the expensive one, because the seller has had so many problems with packages shipped to Italy.

 

[chubbychaser911]

So those are the same dials that are sold on eBay by some guy ostrich. Makes sense. I wonder which MK dial they are meant to represent. The size of the print for GMT-MASTER is larger than the Vietnam dial. I don't know if this is because they are different MK variants or if this is an inaccuracy. The coronet crown is slightly taller and the hole in the crown is smaller but the L in ROLEX is closer to the center of the crown than Vietnam dial which I think is more accurate. Both are good dials.

My biggest concern is finding a decent GMT hand. The 1675 raffles hand is quite bad if using the larger one. There's a bump on the triangle where it meets the stem. The triangle is too narrow.

The Yuki 1675 GMT hand is too narrow but better quality than the raffles hand.

The Wholesaleoutlet looks great. But they sell one for genuine 1575 movement which has a hand hole of 1.7 mm I believe. Not going to fit a 2.0 mm hand hole of hz 6460 nor dg3804B. But it's the best looking one I've found.

Bad raffles hand.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/GMT-Watch-...793213?hash=item25f414ca7d:g:RT8AAOSw8SZc7~Qo

better raffles hand. But still not great.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Red-GMT-Wa...558531?hash=item25bc563e03:g:1tkAAOSwB9xXOohi

This one is the Yuki hand set. I bought this. I feel like the gmt hand is too skinny. Looks like a 16710 hand.

GMT-1675-white-lume-hand-set-for-ETA-movt-p80853711

Best looking set I think which is WSO

https://www.ebay.com/itm/WATCH-HAND...838678?hash=item483f9c1416:g:k9gAAOSwr9NdKPK9

Here it is for a 2836 but the problem is that they list gmt hand hole size as 1.8 and not 2.0

https://www.ebay.com/itm/WATCH-HAND...dEAAOSwRkJdDJMI:sc:USPSFirstClass!78727!US!-1

Here's a genuine one.

Notice that it is a fatter triangle than the Yuki set.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/ROLEX-GMT-...012981?hash=item48caea8735:g:SV0AAOSw0NNc9q6K

Here is a WSO listing for 3 GMT hands but in the 180 hole size. Also note that the paint on their example picture doesn't look as nice as when you get the whole set.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/3-GMT-WATC...80AAOSwDLhdWbYO:sc:USPSFirstClass!78727!US!-1

I'm tempted to get the WSO 180 size and broach it to 2.0 mm.

What do you guys think?

Or are you using a different source for your 1675 hand.

 

[KJ2020]

WSO measurements are frequently wrong. For one thing, both the 3 GMT hand set and the 4 hand complete set state they will fit 2836 and 2893. This isn't possible as the 2836 is 2.0 and the 2893 is 1.8

So both ads are wrong. Looking at the pics, the 4 hand complete set GMT hand looks like it is 2.0. The hand hole surround is thinner and the hole is bigger than in the 3 GMT hand set.

I agree the paint looks better on the 4 hand complete set, it extends full length. However the triangle is less equilateral.

I wouldn't count on anything you order from WSO to be exactly the way it's pictured though. Their suppliers change and they don't update the pics. What they show is representative of what you will get but I've been surprised and disappointed a number of times and have sent as much stuff back as I've kept. You'll pay for return shipping, but they've always taken stuff back IME.

 

[KJ2020]

Gen NOS 1675 GMT hand on ebay

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Rolex-GMT-...322454?hash=item33e439c196:g:d9QAAOSwjJtaoHO1

Gen 16710 GMT hand for triangle comparison - triangle and hand width look the same to me