The New 6497-2 Engraved Movement

[daytona4me]

Ok, I've taken some closeups of the H movements I am getting in my Asian swan neck versions of 111, 113, 114

The bridges are engraved, the wording is engraved and filed with paint.
Despite my quick photos, the bridge engraving is pretty decent but certainly not as good as the genuine but are light years better than the stickers.
The machining of these bridges are not very clean which is something consistent with most Chinese watch movement manufacturers.

Please take notice of the dimple in the regulator pin (is that the correct term?)

 

[OldeCrow]

Re: 6497-2 Engraved Movement

It also has the full pallet fork bridge instead of the half bridge or pallet cock that many of the fat arrow movements have.
(the two blue screws under the ballance wheel.) Very nice build overall!

 

[daytona4me]

Re: 6497-2 Engraved Movement

It also has the full pallet fork bridge instead of the half bridge or pallet cock that many of the fat arrow movements have.
(the two blue screws under the ballance wheel.) Very nice build overall!

Indeed, I forgot to mention that. I am pretty impressed with the movement thus far. Cant wait to see Takashi break this down more.

 

[alwayslate]

Yeah. Awaiting Tak's post mortem findings. Looks impressive so far, nicely decorated movement.

 

[hooligan]

Getting better and better, indeed.

If they make the engraving smaller and fill it with darker blue paint, it would be one step closer. I have a feeling it will be a LONG time before the overall finish of the decoration approaches the fineness/quality of the SOPROD movements. :wink:

 

[Rocketeer]

Just serviced one of these last week. Not sure yet if there are alternative makers doing them, this one was in a PWC (T4D) watch.
Quick first impressions.
As is normal with these, the whole movement is 'Dip' oiled which leaves a thin residue over everything and tends to cause dust, fibres and dirt to stick wherever they land. Less debris floating inside this one than is often found though, so a promising start.
Less promising was the reason it was in for an early service; erratic accuracy, poor power reserve and an 'unpleasant' feeling when winding. Sure enough, on releasing the main spring click wheel I didn't even need to control the unwinding of the spring. It was very slow and kept stopping even though it had been fully wound.
On opening the barrel, the case was true and fairly well finished internally but the spring was completely dry and there was debris in the barrel.
After a complete breakdown and a trip through the VariMatic, the movement was oiled and greased properly and the problem was solved.
Fit and finish in most areas appeared fairly good. Jewel fit and alignment was good but some Bridge alignment holes would benefit from honing to aid smooth fitting. The click spring was poor and could easily come astray in use and on this example the wrong side of the click wheel had been polished. The dial feet gripping cams were just about useless as usual and totally useless when the dial was changed to a better one. This is my only real complaint so far with this model as everything else seems correctable just with proper assembly and a little tweaking.
Hopefully for the next one, I'll have time to photograph the key components for comparison for you all.

 

[moggio]

looks great...cant wait to have maybe 113 too..but i should not buy any PaM anymore LOL ...
its a madness...seriously ..stop visiting panerai section

 

[alvinado]

Looks great d4m! I love the new engraved movements

 

[babola]

They're OK, although not much to write home about. The finish is still rough but slightly better than found on older slow-beat A6497-1, and same as previous version of high-beat ETA-clone A6497-2.

From the distance, it'll look quite close...so good fit for most of us :wink: