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Vintage 34mm Tudor Prince Date, handwound

Paglia Orba

Active Member
Supporter
Certified
11/10/12
299
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Hello all,

Even though I have a very small wrist, I used to think a 36mm Datejust looked too small, being used to wearing Subs. Lately I've switched to more vintage subs and started to prefer Tudors as they are less common. So I wanted to build a watch that can't be found with dealers, namely, a 34mm Prince, and I started to gather all the parts needed...

Case + dial and hands were purchased from Raffles. Really only had to buy a movement and a strap.

Case: 34mm Tudor case with matching caseback (Raffles)

Crystal: I swapped the crystal with a sternkreuz. It is slightly higher and the magnifying glass is way better, it gives more presence on the wrist.

Dial: silver with gold indices (Raffles). As with all the raffles dials I've purchased, some indexes fell off despite careful manipulation, so I had to glue them back, making a mess in the process. Fortunately it's only visible if examined with a magnyfying glass. I'll keep an eye out for a genuine dial because I like the whole combination very much.
The dial is new but the reflection of the golden colour indices give it a nice almost champagne vintage tint on some angles, really warming it up.

Hands: They are a perfect match I.M.O. (Raffles)

Movement: I put a brand new 2824-2 inside, but when I screwed the backcase, turned out it prevented the rotor from spinning... So I removed it only to find that the movement was very hard to handwind... So I removed the autowind mecahnism altogether and now it winds smoothly and hacks.

Strap: I purchased an ostrich leg strap from a Vietnamese seller on Ebay. Absolutely gorgeous for 20$ postpaid!

Here are the pics, feel free to comment...

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DVNE

Put Some Respect On My Name
7/11/12
3,467
104
63
Awesome build! Do you have a link to the crystal? It makes a huge difference IMO
 

Paglia Orba

Active Member
Supporter
Certified
11/10/12
299
154
43
Got the crystal from Ebay. It does make a difference compared to the original on the Raffles case indeed.
 

Paglia Orba

Active Member
Supporter
Certified
11/10/12
299
154
43
The only thing that keeps me from buying another Raffles dial is that I'm afraid of ruining the keyless system...
 

est4129

Active Member
Supporter
15/9/18
223
80
28
Thats a nice watch, any idea why it had to be converted to manual winding? I have seen other Raffles builds on the forum where the movements dropped right in.
 
Last edited:

Paglia Orba

Active Member
Supporter
Certified
11/10/12
299
154
43
I think the Tudor backcase is too flat and so the rotor didn't turn inside. I don't mind winding it everyday, it's still very precise.
 

mag8

Active Member
Supporter
11/2/15
295
138
43
EU
Very good watch!
I own a gen Rolex and a Tudor, bit 34mm and they look awesome on my baby wrist

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