Looks good. The 12 markers have 2 little locating pegs which are usually welded on wonky hence the issue. Usually means filing one off and glueing straight. You will love it on the ORFbracelet!Managed a quick macro-ish shot. Just the 12 o’clock marker slightly tilted, and the insert slightly rotated counterclockwise. I’m sure the insert can be easily rectified… the dial, I’m not too sure about. It would depend on how the indices are applied to the dial. But neither bother me enough… just waiting on an ORF bracelet to finish complete the package now!
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ZF Seamaster has landed
- Thread starter botsyboy
- Start date
Thanks! Yikes, I don't think the markers bug me enough to try and fix them... but I'll have to do some research to see whether I can hazard fixing the bezel insert alignment myself. I've got the ORF bracelet on order now, so should have it by the end of the month! Based on the pics you posted it looks incredible compared to the ZF.... Once I've got the ORF, my plan is to see if I can disassemble the ZF and refinish it so it's closer, but I'm not particularly hopeful since the small polished links appear to lack the necessary height/thickness to work with. They seem to have been ground too flat.
Update: was able to easily remove the bezel using a bezel removal tool. Then, using a crystal press and a couple of right sized dies, it was surprisingly easy to press the insert out. I’d read that it’s held in place using a circular adhesive and that appears to be the case for the ZF bezel as well. Mine did not come off uniformly though, so I just sort of realigned the insert half in place and pressed it back down. Surprisingly, this worked better than I thought it would, although it’s probably not as good as completely removing the insert and then pressing it back down.
I’ve probably semi-ruined the adhesive though - I could very slightly adjust the rotation while holding the bezel in my hand and applying pressure to twist it in place (before I had pressed it back down). However it seems to largely be holding well. It’s currently off only by a fraction of a degree, but I prefer not to push my luck, since if I removed the insert again I’d probably have to use some gorilla glue to hold it in place. So for now, it’s happily aligned 99.9% correctly.
Bezel removal tool:
(Almost) fully aligned insert:
*Edit* - nah couldn’t help myself. Removed it again, fully pressed the insert out and reinstalled it properly aligned. A small section of adhesive stuck to the bezel while the rest stayed on the insert so I kept a minimal overlap and that seems to have worked perfectly!
…. Now just waiting for some HP1300 oil to silence the rotor..
I’ve probably semi-ruined the adhesive though - I could very slightly adjust the rotation while holding the bezel in my hand and applying pressure to twist it in place (before I had pressed it back down). However it seems to largely be holding well. It’s currently off only by a fraction of a degree, but I prefer not to push my luck, since if I removed the insert again I’d probably have to use some gorilla glue to hold it in place. So for now, it’s happily aligned 99.9% correctly.
Bezel removal tool:
(Almost) fully aligned insert:
*Edit* - nah couldn’t help myself. Removed it again, fully pressed the insert out and reinstalled it properly aligned. A small section of adhesive stuck to the bezel while the rest stayed on the insert so I kept a minimal overlap and that seems to have worked perfectly!
…. Now just waiting for some HP1300 oil to silence the rotor..
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maplesirup
Active Member
Colour of the markers on the photo looks bright white and not yellow - is that correct irl?
Very nice watch, wear it in good health
Yup the markers are indeed white!Colour of the markers on the photo looks bright white and not yellow - is that correct irl?
Very nice watch, wear it in good health
I want to catch a green Seamaster and I doubt between the ZF and the VSF, which one you think is closer to gen.
I would wear it with a green gen born, I don't care about the quality of the bracelet, which of the 2 is closer to gen in general.
VSF in the other colors have the bug of the yellowish markers the red color of seamaster, in this version it is white so I think they will be similar.
ZF I have read that the markers are much whiter and better than VSF.
I'm so confused friends
I would wear it with a green gen born, I don't care about the quality of the bracelet, which of the 2 is closer to gen in general.
VSF in the other colors have the bug of the yellowish markers the red color of seamaster, in this version it is white so I think they will be similar.
ZF I have read that the markers are much whiter and better than VSF.
I'm so confused friends
maplesirup
Active Member
In the same boat as you, I personally tend towards ZF as the marker colour is a big plus for me (Own a SMP300 from OMF where the yellow of the markers really bugs me) and ZF dserves a chance
Only thing I consider is the movement winding direction, but as post #108 explains there are fixes for that as well.
From a financial perspective the prices seem to be mostly the same (depending on TD and special discounts ofc)
After just a few days in my hands, ran into some bad luck with the movement:
I'm curious whether any other ZF or even ORF owners have run into the auto-winding PR issue?
- Generally for my physical movement pattern, I almost always cause the rotor to helicopter (coz I can hear it) - so that leads me to believe that the direction that they left the rotor being able to wind is not the direction my movements help to wind the movement, lol.
- Factoring in my level of daily activity (sitting in front a desk 8-10 hours a day), I pretty much can't auto-wind the movement to keep it running much beyond its PR. Confirmed this as it consistently ran out of power reserve around the 48 hour mark, from being fully wound twice (at least I counted 50-winds), and roughly 2 days later at around the same time, the watch stopped despite having worn it for the past 4-5 days.
- When trying to wind and set the time this second time, I had trouble pushing the crown back into the right position - it was getting stuck at date change, and now I can no longer consistently get back to the winding position. And when I do get back to the winding position, the watch doesn't run despite being wound.
- So... the watch doesn't run now.
- It's possible that the stem itself was cut too short, which could explain why I can get to a winding position but not back to running. I could try getting a new ETA stem and install that first.
- It's possible that the keyless works need to be reset - might be able to to this without removing the hands + dial ()
- Abandon the existing movement and decorations and swap in a gen ETA, but this would require swapping the datewheel to the new movement... and I have not enjoyed messing with datewheels in my past experience. It usually involves bricking a movement beyond my capabilities, lol.
I'm curious whether any other ZF or even ORF owners have run into the auto-winding PR issue?
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- 23/6/17
- 2,325
- 2,765
- 113
So I finally got around to swapping in a gen eta 2824-2 into my ZF. The rotor was interesting to remove - no special tool required, just used my tweezers to sort of… twist along the raised star pattern. I’m not sure how I would reliably screw it back down but I’m abandoning the decorations anyway so it didn’t matter too much. Then, it took me far too long and removed way more parts than I needed to, to realize I only needed to remove these 3 clips to remove the movement ring in order to access the stem release button:
Soooo after I removed more than I needed to, I managed to get the movement out. Removing the hands was easy, but the dial… took a bit more googling to realize how to pry the dial locks open. Once that was done, the tricky part that i was never good at before: swapping datewheels. Much patience here, and as they say slow and steady wins the race. Took my time and to my surprise, I was able to swap the datewheel over successfully. There’s a tiny spring that needs to be engaged to the DW teeth for things to get the right pressure etc, luckily it worked out! After that, reassembly was not bad but not without some bumps.
So, I took the ZF hour wheel, and so the hour hand fit perfectly back on. The minute and second hands however, kept coming loose and falling off. So I ended up slightly crimping both posts with a pair of pliers, and that seems to have done the trick. I’ve had to do this before on my Rolex builds, and less is definitely more here given that the first time I tried I literally just flattened the seconds hand post lol.
Anyways, everything went back together smoothly and seems to be running nicely! It’s a standard grade eta so there’s no decorations whatsoever, so I may look for a nicer rotor in the future. That said, the Eta is indeed a straight swap but you will lose the ability to use movement tabs to clamp the movement to the movement ring. The ring will still hold everything in place but the original ZF tabs go into a decorative plate which adds height to the movement. The stock eta doesn’t have this so you just have to rely on the ring itself holding the movement in the case. This is fine but where you’ll notice it is when you unscrew the crown to adjust anything. Then you’ll feel the slight wobble of the movement. I might try to hack something to add stability in the future.
So you end up with these two empty spots where movement holder tabs would have normally gone. Based on the shape of the spacer ring, in theory maybe a shaved case screw could work - if I filed down one side of the screw head, then it would give me enough space to screw it in a bit and “wedge” it against the spacer. Another project for another day lol.
Anyways, should get my ORF bracelet next week and this will be complete! One final thing I noticed was that the hands lume is a tad transparent compared to the dial. I think the easy fix to this would be to just paint some white paint on the underside of the hands to give a brighter backing… if one was so inclined, which I am not lol.
Here’s a shot of the eta movement installed - sadly without the decorations the movement is actually quite short with the rotor further away from the caseback.
Edit/Update: Added some HP1300 to the rotor bearings this morning and now it spins super quiet!
Soooo after I removed more than I needed to, I managed to get the movement out. Removing the hands was easy, but the dial… took a bit more googling to realize how to pry the dial locks open. Once that was done, the tricky part that i was never good at before: swapping datewheels. Much patience here, and as they say slow and steady wins the race. Took my time and to my surprise, I was able to swap the datewheel over successfully. There’s a tiny spring that needs to be engaged to the DW teeth for things to get the right pressure etc, luckily it worked out! After that, reassembly was not bad but not without some bumps.
So, I took the ZF hour wheel, and so the hour hand fit perfectly back on. The minute and second hands however, kept coming loose and falling off. So I ended up slightly crimping both posts with a pair of pliers, and that seems to have done the trick. I’ve had to do this before on my Rolex builds, and less is definitely more here given that the first time I tried I literally just flattened the seconds hand post lol.
Anyways, everything went back together smoothly and seems to be running nicely! It’s a standard grade eta so there’s no decorations whatsoever, so I may look for a nicer rotor in the future. That said, the Eta is indeed a straight swap but you will lose the ability to use movement tabs to clamp the movement to the movement ring. The ring will still hold everything in place but the original ZF tabs go into a decorative plate which adds height to the movement. The stock eta doesn’t have this so you just have to rely on the ring itself holding the movement in the case. This is fine but where you’ll notice it is when you unscrew the crown to adjust anything. Then you’ll feel the slight wobble of the movement. I might try to hack something to add stability in the future.
So you end up with these two empty spots where movement holder tabs would have normally gone. Based on the shape of the spacer ring, in theory maybe a shaved case screw could work - if I filed down one side of the screw head, then it would give me enough space to screw it in a bit and “wedge” it against the spacer. Another project for another day lol.
Anyways, should get my ORF bracelet next week and this will be complete! One final thing I noticed was that the hands lume is a tad transparent compared to the dial. I think the easy fix to this would be to just paint some white paint on the underside of the hands to give a brighter backing… if one was so inclined, which I am not lol.
Here’s a shot of the eta movement installed - sadly without the decorations the movement is actually quite short with the rotor further away from the caseback.
Edit/Update: Added some HP1300 to the rotor bearings this morning and now it spins super quiet!
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Final update - I ended up just throwing a couple of movement tab screws to provide a little bit of purchase to prevent the movement from wiggling too much when the crown is unscrewed:
It’s not much but it’ll do for now. I tried the smallest movement tabs and nothing fit. I think the best option is an asymmetric screw that you can turn to wedge against the movement ring. But will require some more research or customizing one myself.
On the other hand, my ORF bracelet arrived and… it’s terrible lol. I had to swap the SEL’s from the ZF bracelet on for it to fit the ZF case. The openings where the links connect with SEL were machined way too high leaving a large gap. The links themselves also machined unevenly - outer links are thinner than the centre links… the small brushed links between the polished links are too shallow. So either I got duped by the dealer or I just got one from the reject bin. I also reused the ZF clasp as its chamfers and text were better than the ORF. Sadly with all the plastic on, you can’t really tell in the QC pics so buyer beware! Anyway, here’s the final result. You can see how tall the centre links are. Anyway I’m super picky with these things so… I’ve ordered the newly released Forstner bullet bracelet lol.
One thing of note: the decorated rotor from the clone movement does fit the gen ETA. But I figured I’d just get a generic decorated eta rotor that’s a bit more subtle as the finishing on ZF’s rotor isn’t that great.
It’s not much but it’ll do for now. I tried the smallest movement tabs and nothing fit. I think the best option is an asymmetric screw that you can turn to wedge against the movement ring. But will require some more research or customizing one myself.
On the other hand, my ORF bracelet arrived and… it’s terrible lol. I had to swap the SEL’s from the ZF bracelet on for it to fit the ZF case. The openings where the links connect with SEL were machined way too high leaving a large gap. The links themselves also machined unevenly - outer links are thinner than the centre links… the small brushed links between the polished links are too shallow. So either I got duped by the dealer or I just got one from the reject bin. I also reused the ZF clasp as its chamfers and text were better than the ORF. Sadly with all the plastic on, you can’t really tell in the QC pics so buyer beware! Anyway, here’s the final result. You can see how tall the centre links are. Anyway I’m super picky with these things so… I’ve ordered the newly released Forstner bullet bracelet lol.
One thing of note: the decorated rotor from the clone movement does fit the gen ETA. But I figured I’d just get a generic decorated eta rotor that’s a bit more subtle as the finishing on ZF’s rotor isn’t that great.
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I wonder if ORF have changed their bracelets? Fits perfect on mine and without any of the issues you had! Tempted to the green though!Final update - I ended up just throwing a couple of movement tab screws to provide a little bit of purchase to prevent the movement from wiggling too much when the crown is unscrewed:
It’s not much but it’ll do for now. I tried the smallest movement tabs and nothing fit. I think the best option is an asymmetric screw that you can turn to wedge against the movement ring. But will require some more research or customizing one myself.
On the other hand, my ORF bracelet arrived and… it’s terrible lol. I had to swap the SEL’s from the ZF bracelet on for it to fit the ZF case. The openings where the links connect with SEL were machined way too high leaving a large gap. The links themselves also machined unevenly - outer links are thinner than the centre links… the small brushed links between the polished links are too shallow. So either I got duped by the dealer or I just got one from the reject bin. I also reused the ZF clasp as its chamfers and text were better than the ORF. Sadly with all the plastic on, you can’t really tell in the QC pics so buyer beware! Anyway, here’s the final result. You can see how tall the centre links are. Anyway I’m super picky with these things so… I’ve ordered the newly released Forstner bullet bracelet lol.
One thing of note: the decorated rotor from the clone movement does fit the gen ETA. But I figured I’d just get a generic decorated eta rotor that’s a bit more subtle as the finishing on ZF’s rotor isn’t that great.
Right? I was carefully comparing to your photos and was just thinking… either ORF has completely changed their bracelet or I got a QC reject, and since the only recourse with the dealer is to send back to China... nothing good ever really comes from that. And I don’t want to risk dropping more $$$ now since it’s unlikely I’d be able to recoup anything from this current bracelet and I’ve sunk far too much $$ into this build already.
The only other option I think is to disassemble the ORF bracelet and try to refinish it, which is something I’ve done with Sub bracelets before but never with an Omega 5-link. The hardest part would be getting a uniform shape to the centre links.. and it would all be by hand since I don’t have a grinder.
An alternative would be to literally swap the polished links from the ORF onto the ZF bracelet. This would provide the closest in terms of shape and uniformity, although ZF bracelet is a bit chunkier at least the thickness is the same between outer and middle links. I may test this out - hard to accomplish without a dedicated vice (my bracelet vice is for oyster bracelets only), since it would really marr the surface. Hmm…
meinhunt
Getting To Know The Place
- 2/11/22
- 46
- 15
- 8
meinhunt
Getting To Know The Place
- 2/11/22
- 46
- 15
- 8
Final update - I ended up just throwing a couple of movement tab screws to provide a little bit of purchase to prevent the movement from wiggling too much when the crown is unscrewed:
It’s not much but it’ll do for now. I tried the smallest movement tabs and nothing fit. I think the best option is an asymmetric screw that you can turn to wedge against the movement ring. But will require some more research or customizing one myself.
On the other hand, my ORF bracelet arrived and… it’s terrible lol. I had to swap the SEL’s from the ZF bracelet on for it to fit the ZF case. The openings where the links connect with SEL were machined way too high leaving a large gap. The links themselves also machined unevenly - outer links are thinner than the centre links… the small brushed links between the polished links are too shallow. So either I got duped by the dealer or I just got one from the reject bin. I also reused the ZF clasp as its chamfers and text were better than the ORF. Sadly with all the plastic on, you can’t really tell in the QC pics so buyer beware! Anyway, here’s the final result. You can see how tall the centre links are. Anyway I’m super picky with these things so… I’ve ordered the newly released Forstner bullet bracelet lol.
One thing of note: the decorated rotor from the clone movement does fit the gen ETA. But I figured I’d just get a generic decorated eta rotor that’s a bit more subtle as the finishing on ZF’s rotor isn’t that great.
This looks just way too classy! Enjoy in good health.That watch is an incredible beauty.
Looks good. May I ask where you ordered from. I order a while back and didn’t receive any QC pictures yet. Event they quoted the watch was in stock when I ordered
I got mine M2M from another forum, but that seller got it from Hont, who I believe is maybe a TD here. Otherwise I would recommend you check out Sead - I’ve gotten most of my reps from him and he always delivers!Looks good. May I ask where you ordered from. I order a while back and didn’t receive any QC pictures yet. Event they quoted the watch was in stock when I ordered
I gave up on the SMP bracelet - my new Forstner bullet bracelet arrived and I must admit, it’s way more enjoyable to wear now:
