Sea-Dweller 16600 - franken project | case work

[domsdaddy123]

I think Phong does a 1665, but I have never seen a triple six let alone a 16600 on his site. Same for the other Vietnam case sellers. I believe they all do only vintage models, with the 16610 as an exception (and if you ask me, those never look as close as a TC anyway, or even a V2 JF).

If a lathe were available, is it a simple process to modify to fit a gen crystal? Is there enough metal to do it?

Phong and Jensen site is just a tiny tip of what they can get. Just email and ask nicely and they will sort you out. If you want something exotic they can even custom make it for you. There is virtually nothing they can't source or make themselves. That being said, you will have to pay $$. Sometimes its just too expensive but they can get you anything..

 

[Spatiumtemporis]

Project update :

mascob1 just finished these custom made gaskets for me today :

Both are nylon made on a cnc machine. Very excited to try these out.

I really hope i can press the gen crystal in the BP case and get at least some 10m water resistance .

Thanks mascob1 ! Amazing work !
Can't wait to see the finished watch.

Will keep u guys posted.

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[mascob1]

andrei01 : It's my pleasure!
Now you have to test it, I send you the gaskets today!
In France we say:" Don't shout "Victory"too fast"!

 

[dmxzorq]

Amazing job!

 

[johnlia]

Gorgeous bro!

 

[Spatiumtemporis]

Thanks guys! Hope i can get this build done by the end of this month

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[Palace]

Can't wait for more updates ????

Sent from the RWI App

 

[rwggg9]

amazing work on the case bud. looking forward to more updates

 

[pippo]

andrei01, please keep us posted

 

[Spatiumtemporis]

Thanks guys.

The gasket is the last piece of the puzzle for now and i ll post more pics as soon as it arrives. I just hope it will do the job, fix the crystal in place and provide some minimal water resistance.

If it won't however, mascob1 was kind enaugh to offer to make some more till we find just the right profile.

After that i can go on and assemble the watch although, tbh, there are a few things still bugging me, like:

1. The caseback has an incorrect font size. The older bpsd used to have a better engraved caseback but i've failed to find one till now. The only solution would be to go for a gen one, but that will rise the cost of this build pretty much for a very dimished return since it will be on the back and rarely seen.

2. The second thing bothering me is the jf bracelet i'm planning to use.

Thankfully the sels fit pretty tight and sit perfectly recessed between the lugs but their back shape is wrong for a SD bracelet. The SD sels should be flat on the back while my jf sub bracelet has rounded sels of course.

The only viable solution to this would be to swap the JF sels for the BP ones.

This would however require me to mod the sels and grind away the ugly hump and redrill the springbar holes in order to achive a nice recess. Not mission impossible but still a tricky and labour intensive task.

A gen bracelet would be too expensive.

I bet a lot of you are probably asking yourselves right now, why swap the jf sels for the bp ones and get into that much trouble, just to end up with a sanded sided bracelet that i ll also have to polish to match the build, and why not stick to the stock bp barcelet.

The answer is simple, bp bracelet is pure shit. Feel and finish is miles away from jf and the trapezoidal links are not even, having one lateral side wider than the other.

So in the best case scenario i ll end up with a pretty decent looking JF bracelet with polished sides and nicely recessed BP modified sels. If this fails however, i'm going to stick to the stock jf bracelet and just polish the sides.

Another thing the jf bracelet doesn't have is the folded link attached to the clasp.

The clasp is good enough for me. I'd say is almost as good as TC's. The writings on it won't bother me either because tbh i'm not that familiar with what the correct writings should be anyway.

Stay tuned

 

[mascob1]

I hope you will receive the gaskets soon...It should no longer delay now...

 

[pippo]

andrei01
mate, any progress to share?

 

[Spatiumtemporis]

andrei01
mate, any progress to share?

The gasket did't fit straight in. I had to pull it a bit for it to fit the crystal but now it's too big to fit the case. I'll try and grind it a bit to see if i manage to mount it on.

I had no time for this project last week but i'll get back on it tommorow.

Will keep you guys posted!

 

[ado213]

@andreio1 Lets put this to bed , if you want to send me your case, crystal and gen gasket I'll get this sorted for you

 

[Spatiumtemporis]

Update :

After a lot of sanding the gasket did eventually fit :

Water resistance however is zero

I'll pm ado213 to see if he can get this sorted out for me .

 

[Spatiumtemporis]

Hey guys ,

Long time since i've posted updates on this build.

So ado213 was kind enaugh to work the case for me but unfortunately having both gen gaskets ruined ( from me trying to make a custom one ) i've decided to give mascob1 's gasket another shot . If this fails too i'll kindly ask Ado to mod the case for me . Hope he'd be still willing to do it .

I've been working crazy hours on this build. Litteraly every damn part requires some kind of modification to fit properly .


Here are a few update pics :

I've wanted to use the JF 16610 bracelet all along instead of the BP one because of it's higher overall quality.
BP links are unevenly tapered, have not soft edges and the clasp is just nasty Jf on the other side feels and looks much better but the seld are Sub sels so incorrect my build.

Bp sels are flat on the back like the gen ones but had a ugly edge where they should have been rounded, just around the springbar holes and on the end of the middle elongated part which connects to the rest of the bracelet.

So I've spent one day modding the sels to have round and way better looking edges.

BP nasty looking clasp :

Another problem i've faced was the code on the BPSD clasp which was wrong ( 93150 ) . The jf claps was 93150 as well so i had to order a 3rd bracelet hoping i'll get a 93160 code clasp this time.

The new bracelet came and it had the correct code but the quality was just as bad as the first BP clasp so i've decided to swap the folding parts on the jf claps with the new bp ones.

In the process i've managed to bend the lovely Jf clasp so i forced to straighten it and sand the sides down to give it that perfect flat finish again :

I've went for a gen clasp in the meantime so the JF will have to wait for a future project

Here are the JF links after polishing /brushing . Looks at those lovely shiny edges :

BP sels mounted on the JF links :

I went for a SA3135 again . SH3135 just fail on me constantly idk why, maybe i'm just unlucky
SA keeps great time and the datechanging mechanism looks more robust imo anyway. Gen DW attached :

This is my 2nd gen SD dial .1st was damaged. Hope i won't damage this as well. It was very hard to find and very expensive :

Crystal fitted to the case :

Gen bezel assembly on the left :

The gen bezel wasn't a straight fit in my case. The case needed some slimming .....

Stay tuned , i might finish this over the weekend. Soo excited )

 

[mascob1]

Hi!
So finally you could use the gasket?.
But I could have made another one for you...This is the problem when I don't have the case to test...But I couln't ask you to send me the case...So I'm glad you did it with the gasket:applause:

 

[Spatiumtemporis]

 

[mascob1]

Whaou, Amazing job and really beautiful watch!
congratulations !

 

[Spatiumtemporis]

Thanks mascob1 !