Watchlords

... a giant leap for my personal pleasure (and my purse - I hope not ).

The first step was to buy a set of chronograph dials offered on ebay, for little money. One of the reasons for buying them was my frustration to find suitable sub dial hands for my Kelek chronograph, and here some came along:


(This and further pics borrowed from seller.)

The stuff did arrive last week, and turned out to be useable - some NOS dials, some in bad shape. The hands, well, are still a bit of a disappointment, I need to ask my watchmaker to see if they can be made useable.

However the other reason for buying was this one:


I'm loving it, drool, drool, drooly-dool.

Now - what's next. I need a movement, and a case. The dials are designed for the common Valjoux 7733, so that shouldn't be an issue. In fact I do have a watch with one in the drawer, that I never wanted to wear. I have no picture at the moment, will show it later, I even had my watchmaker service it - waste of money. But I am having second thoughts, as it is in nice condition.

I also bought a watch with a Valjoux 92 (a slightly more fancy movement with column wheel, this particular one even being gold plated):

Scratched, gold plated case, a damaged dial - an ideal candidate for such a project. I am not sure the dial feet will fit, and that the distance of the holes for the sub dials do - need to figure it out, once I have it.

The seller also offered a set of unsigned stainless steel chronograph cases, but I missed that. One would have been very nice:


However, nice Chronograph cases show up from time to time on ebay, so I am not worried about that.

Killer dial! Can't wait to see what you end up with.

That is way cool. And I too can't wait to see what comes out of this.

Off on yet another cool project. I wish I had good hands... the ones on the end of my arms, that is.

Nice. I too look forward to seeing your project unfold.

Very cool ... that's a whole other dimension.

TimeMachine wrote:Very cool ... that's a whole other dimension.

^^That!

I don't have the patience, visual acuity or steadiness if hand to complete such a task.

Wow! You're like the George Daniels of Watchlords. Great work.

Very nice job indeed, agreed with Dave is a killer dial.....

Are you going to do it yourself or have your watch maker do it? If you do it, I'd like to see the step by step pictures of your project.

Ach, honestly - I will leave most of the fun to my watchmaker. I would love to work on this myself, but
a) I would never get done - I am traveling during the week, and the weekends are filled with a lot of other chores, whatever my wife can figure out.
b) My eyes... these watch parts are verdammt small, and I have found out - when wearing one of these one-eyed magnifying lenses - that my "other" eye starts to run wild. When I use such a thing for more than a couple of minutes, it takes a very long time to regain full eyesight.
c) I do lack some of the tools, that are required, and would certainly have to invest a couple of hundreds. I mean f.x. for a special "cleaning machine" for movement parts. Also, if You lack the experience, a set of hands can easily be ruined, not to speak about the dial itself, or components of the movement.

But I might do some experiments, and will try to share those with You.

Back to business:
What do You think about this case:

I have bought it, but could send it back. A diver-style case was not, what I had in mind originally. At least a blue bezel insert would have been nicer. Now this one is specific to the Valjoux 92. Not every chronograph case fits every movement. Also the dial-diameter is important. Things to consider:

- movement diameter
- angle/geometry of the pushers (though the angle/positioning with regard to the crown is astonishingly similar even when comparing different brands like Valjoux to Landeron)
- height of the movement - again not so much for the location of the pushers, but for the winding stem, and of course the total height (the back must still fit)

With regard to the exact dimensions - if the case is big enough - a lot can be compensated by a proper holding ring to keep the movement in place and proper distance from glass and case back. But such a holding ring would also have to be custome made.

Verdammt, Gerdy, here is finally a highly technical thread that doesn't make me want to post the falling-asleep kitten! No wonder you have such a drool-worthy vintage collection.

Keep us posted on your progress. As others have said, that is one fine dial. Your ability to create a watch out of old discarded pieces is amazing. I'm sure the final product will be drool worthy, as the others have been.

I for one like the case. I love vintage divers. I give it two thumbs up.

Thanks. I like it as well. The dial is black and blue so the outer bezel will fit. However I would like to have a tachymetre ring on an inside bezel. I am thinking about white painted hands.

I absolutely love the case. The whole thing is kick ass.

Here is another picture then:


I can't wait to get home now...

That case looks well made from the pictures. Country of origin?

I am not sure - the seller claims it is Swiss made, but I still need to see it, as it has not arrived yet.

So...
Both the case and the movement did arrive today. The case is nice, but not of high quality. The diver bezel is of plastic (or so it seems, I have not take it off yet), does turn in both directions, without a "ratchet" - quite common on cheaper divers. What's worse: The threads of the screw back are seemingly a bit damaged - my watchmaker hopes he can do a bit about that, but very obviously someone has not been carefull enough when screwing it back on. Might be the seller himself, well well...

The movement is in ok condition. The gold plated case is junk, the dial is not nice anymore either, but the hands are - off course they would not fit to my project, so it does not matter. However: As soon as it did arrive I did measure the distance between the holes of the center and the subdials - and that doesn't fit to the dial. It is obvious, that a Valjoux 7733 dial can not be used for a Valjoux 92 - I did suspect that, just was not sure.

Which means, I do have two projects now:
- find a suitable dial and set of hands for a Valjoux 92, to fit to the diver case
- still find a case and a Valjoux 7733 for the lovely blue dial.



Just for the heck of it, and to store the movement properly, I have put it into the diver case:

possible cases for the blue dial...

This one is verdammt interesting. It is also pretty expensive, at 90 EUR
http://www.ebay.de/itm/boitier-de-chronographe-Valjoux-7733-7734-/390873698998?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_71&hash=item5b01e352b6

Supposedly stainless steel, it has a Tachymeter - and it is a pretty uncommon case. The same seller has more cases, if You are interested.

Also nice, but even more expensive:
http://www.ebay.de/itm/CASSA-VALJOUX-7733-PULSANTI-A-POMPA-INUSATA-/221142661363?pt=Accessori_e_Ricambi&hash=item337d2138f3

I do have an Enicar in such a case already, so maybe not.

This one comes close to the one I already bought:
http://www.ebay.de/itm/Boitier-de-chronographe-tout-acier-pour-VALJOUX-7733-/351101874507?pt=FR_MaisonJardin_Horloges&hash=item51bf4d714b


I do also like these cushion style ones:
http://www.ebay.de/itm/VALJOUX-7733-Chrono-Uhrgehause-HELBROS-/111402075477?pt=DE_Kleidung_Schmuck_Accessoires_Uhren_Armbanduhren&hash=item19f014c555


Help me!

Cushion style case! Those are the tits. The divers cases just don't look that good compared to the cushion style. You know what they say--the more the cushion, the better the pushin'.

I had not seen upon it from that perspective yet. Thanks for opening my eyes, dear conschwörer. The cushion one in the bottom is also the cheapest. But what about the one in top?

gerdson wrote::o
I had not seen upon it from that perspective yet. Thanks for opening my eyes, dear conschwörer. The cushion one in the bottom is also the cheapest. But what about the one in top?

The one at the bottom, with the white Helbros dial, looks the best to me. Just my opinion of course.

I likes the top one. It's pretty fucking nifty.