Is anyone into "building" watches?

More from me.

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These are both NH35 movements to keep the cost down just a bit. The yellow is I suppose an Explorer homage although I don't think they did a yellow one. The grey one is a Railmaster homage. Both are in non homage cases. The yellow is the usual for me 28.5mm dial and the grey is a 31mm dial. Everything went smoothly apart from the grey one spinning in the case but this was fixed with a standard plastic spacer and the two together were done in under half an hour.

I think I'll stop now at least for a while as these two bring my build total to 11 and Mrs WW will be noticing the house is full of watches.

Family snap.

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In case anyone is still watching...

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It's a Seiko NH35 movement in a 36mm case and I had a couple of problems. First I must have forgotten to check the hand lengths as when I fitted the case the hour and second hands jammed so I had to trim a very small amount off the length of each. It isn't really noticeable even under magnification. Next I didn't use the supplied stem and instead just used one of my own and found that I could only adjust the hands anti clockwise and not clockwise. I trimmed and fitted the one that came with the case and that did it. There must be a slight difference between stems.

I thought a blue and white strap would go well with it.

I really like this one. I'd seen one with a white ceramic dial and blue hands similar to classic dinner plates so I thought I'd try and do the same but not with a ceramic dial, just an ordinary one.
 
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I really do like that one...

I remember a few years ago, I built one similar to that for a friend, as his "wedding watch" - Seagull ST1701 movement, small seconds at the 6 o'clock position, and a plain white enamel dial with Roman Numerals in black, and lovely blued steel hands... Idea was to make it as much like a pocket watch he already had in appearance as possible, whilst still keeping it as a wristwatch, so something he'd wear when not in full suited and booted mode.
 
TheBigYin said:
I really do like that one...

I remember a few years ago, I built one similar to that for a friend, as his "wedding watch" - Seagull ST1701 movement, small seconds at the 6 o'clock position, and a plain white enamel dial with Roman Numerals in black, and lovely blued steel hands... Idea was to make it as much like a pocket watch he already had in appearance as possible, whilst still keeping it as a wristwatch, so something he'd wear when not in full suited and booted mode.
Click to expand...

I'm tempted to d one like that. The wedding watch sounds nice and I can picture it, I have a small collection of pocket watches including one I inherited which is over 100 years old and just lovely.

The hands for that one above were incredibly thin, the thinnest and most delicate looking I've had so far. I didn't think trimming the hands was going to work neatly but it was just like trimming a foil milk bottle top.
 
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I think these will have to be my last as I've done 14 now.

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The explorer II lookalike is one I originally did as a NH35 three hand watch as I don't need a GMT but the case was meant for a GMT and I tend to obsess so I ordered a NH34 and hands and made it into the watch you see here. There are a couple more I'd like to do, a day date because my first ever watch was a Timex day date and one with a separate second hand probably at 6 o'clock but I think I have to stop somewhere.

I've boxed up all of my watch tools and bits and pieces and they'll be there just in case of emergency :D

I have enjoyed this hobby and TBH I'd like to carry on into repair and service as I can't find anyone willing to look at my late dads Incabloc but in reality I don't think my eyes and hands are up to it.

I hope others have enjoyed this thread too. Thanks all and good luck to those carrying on :D

PS.
The divers watch bezel isn't aligned with 12 and the crown is unscrewed... all is well though, the crown screws in and the bezel aligns as well as can be expected with these cheap parts. BTW, that divers watch does probably have the best quality parts I've received.
 
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Really do fancy building a GMT with the NH34 at some point to be honest - just need to decide what direction I want to take it... Quite fancy trying one of those Pelagos FXD style cases, but if I do that, I can see myself ending up with yet another blue, snowflakey dial, little bit too close for comfort to the real thing builds...
 
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The cost of the NH34 v the NH35 shocked me a bit but then again prices are only going in one direction and that's up.
 
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