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"Say hello to my little friend". I'm not sure what to call this one.
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Is it a custom? A frankenwatch? A mod? Or just plain ol' Caveman Watchmaking? 
You be the judge...
A little background first. Some of you may recall the Generic Swedish Watch from my guilty pleasures post a couple weeks ago;
Click HERE for alternate photo or HERE for lume photo
I've worn the watch several times since then and, as much as I enjoyed it, it must be said that the case is quite crudely finished. The back side is particularly rough, even judged against such competition as a sub-$10 Wal-Mart jobbie like this Watch-It. No biggie, mind you. I'm not a snob about such things. But what was a bother is that I got caught in a rain shower last Sunday and, when I got into the house & toweled off I noticed that the watch was fogged up.
And I mean fogged up big-time, one of the worst cases of crystal fog I've ever seen. Not acceptable! RAGE! Even a Caveman has his standards, and I don't need a watch that's gonna fog up every time I sneeze on it. 
Anywho, I was up early this morning, courtesy of an incontinent Chihuahua who decided he needed to water the daffodils at 03:00. No goin' back to sleep after that, and as I was having my coffee in the Man Cave (where, of course, my Watch Bench is located) my eyes fell on the Generic Swedish Watch (GSW from henceforth). It had been layin' on the bench since Sunday, where I'd tossed it in disgust. I considered what I should do. Can't simply pitch it in the dustbin, 'tis a sin to do that to any watch, even a broken one. Then I thought, a Saturday PMWF Giveaway a la andysm? Guess my IQ + my waist size? (178, if you're interested. I leave it to you to decide if I'm smarter than I look, or simply a lard-ass. LOL!) Nah. Too much trouble, and who'd want this POS anyway?
Then my eyes fell on the generic Submariner-styled case I got from greg honeycutt. Hmmmmmm. Could it be...
Long Story Short / Executive Summary, yeah, it could.
Click HERE for larger photo or HERE for supersized photo
Now, understand that I'd already struck out with this case once. It's the same one I'd originally planned to transplant the ALPHA! movement into in the St. Valentine's Day Watch Massacre. I was pretty sure I wouldn't have the same problem here (depth insufficient to accept the movement), but I also expected the diameters wouldn't match up. I had both watches opened up in a flash, produced me calipers and.. to my surprise the dial diameters were the same! 29.5 mm on the nose! Alright, but surely the stems & crowns will be incompatible. But the caliper tells me that, again, the diameters of the stems are both .9 mm. But the pitch must also match, since to make the swap work the Sub-style crown will have to be transplanted onto the stem of the GSW's quartz movement. I did a visual thread-pich count using a 1mm screwdriver and a loupe and, to my astonishment, both stems checked in at 4 threads/mm. This might actually work!
I had one last reservation, that being that the stem of the GSW's quartz movement be too short. I could see no way to reliably answer the question without doing an actual mockup, though, so I bit the bullet and got out the tools. Now, I won't pretend that I had all this mapped out beforehand - I was winging it pure and simple! - but here's an after-the-fact 'work order'. Or call it a 'bill' to meself, for these are the actual steps I took;
Note that step 6 came out of nowhere - I was so worried about checking the diameters, the stem depth offset went right over me head. Fabricating the required spacer was perhaps the most time consuming step of all. What I did was to take a piece of black cardstock (me wife's scrapbookin' hobby comes in handy once in a while ), cut it to the proper diameter, carefully smear a bead of contact adhesive around the perimeter, stick it in place, then trim out the excess with ye olde X-acto. Worked a treat!
Step 14 really blindsided me, too. Ironic that I was initially worried that the stem wouldn't be long enough, and I actually ended up having to shorten it. 'twas absolutely necessary, though, as when the crown was screwed down completely, it put the stem into one helluva bind, enough to shift the position of the hands at about 3/4-seated and to stop the movement if seated all the way. Luckily, this didn't seem to cause any permanent damage.
And I should say a word about steps 17 through 19, I suppose. The case came to me sans bezel insert, you see. 'tis partly conjecture, but it's fairly certain that the bezel is designed to use a conventional insert. I.e. thin stamped aluminum, ~ .25 to .35 in thickness. However, all I had on hand was the one remaining 'King Kong' bezel insert that greg sent along. A quick lashup convinced me that it'd look OK, though, so I broke out the 5-minute epoxy (the Caveman's Friend! LOL!) and Bob's Your Uncle. This is the only step that leads me to include this in my 'Caveman series', really. Sure, a savvy WIS would definitely pick up the fact that this insert mated to this bezel is an.. ahhh, mod. These side views should be worth 999 words, if not a thousand;
Click HERE for supersized photo
Otherwise, I reckon you'd be hard-pressed to tell that the watch didn't leave the factory in it's current configuration. OK, OK, maybe the fact that the dial says 'Quartz' and the caseback says 'Automatic' might be a clue... LOL!
Click HERE for supersized photo
In any case, I'm pretty darned stoked about the way it turned out. I still love the deep midnight-blue dial, and I think it fits the case style pretty well. The crown mechanism works a treat (after step 14, at least), and while I'm not sure how much faith to put in the 10 ATM rating of the case, I'm also pretty darned sure I will no longer have to worry about crystal fogging. Heck, as the day went by, I even started to like the Caveman Bezel insert, since it gives the whole package juuuust enough character not to come off as Yet Another Slavish Submariner Clone. The caseback helps a bit there, too..
Click HERE for larger photo or HERE for supersized photo
..since it is not the actual ROLEX!-pattern, like ALPHA! uses. Perhaps one could think of it more as a Marcello C homage, vs. a Rolex homage?
All in all, 'tis indeed a
.
I leave you with the requisite HWS!;
Click HERE for larger photo or HERE for supersized photo
So, custom, frankenwatch, modded Submariner? Or just plain ol' Caveman Watchmaking? I favor a combo of the latter two. I think I'll call it the "Cavemariner", a concatenation of 'Caveman Submariner'. Hey, Cave-* seems hot right now, and since I'm pretty darned sure I won't own an actual Troglodyte in the near future, it seems a good compromise.
T'anks for lookin', y'all!
-Ricky
P.s. - sorry for the grainy Q&D photos. These were taken under very low-light conditions, by necessity. More & better pics to come, I promise.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/18/2009 03:20AM by Ricky Lee.
You be the judge...A little background first. Some of you may recall the Generic Swedish Watch from my guilty pleasures post a couple weeks ago;
I've worn the watch several times since then and, as much as I enjoyed it, it must be said that the case is quite crudely finished. The back side is particularly rough, even judged against such competition as a sub-$10 Wal-Mart jobbie like this Watch-It. No biggie, mind you. I'm not a snob about such things. But what was a bother is that I got caught in a rain shower last Sunday and, when I got into the house & toweled off I noticed that the watch was fogged up.
And I mean fogged up big-time, one of the worst cases of crystal fog I've ever seen. Not acceptable! RAGE! Even a Caveman has his standards, and I don't need a watch that's gonna fog up every time I sneeze on it. Anywho, I was up early this morning, courtesy of an incontinent Chihuahua who decided he needed to water the daffodils at 03:00. No goin' back to sleep after that, and as I was having my coffee in the Man Cave (where, of course, my Watch Bench is located) my eyes fell on the Generic Swedish Watch (GSW from henceforth). It had been layin' on the bench since Sunday, where I'd tossed it in disgust. I considered what I should do. Can't simply pitch it in the dustbin, 'tis a sin to do that to any watch, even a broken one. Then I thought, a Saturday PMWF Giveaway a la andysm? Guess my IQ + my waist size? (178, if you're interested. I leave it to you to decide if I'm smarter than I look, or simply a lard-ass. LOL!) Nah. Too much trouble, and who'd want this POS anyway?
Then my eyes fell on the generic Submariner-styled case I got from greg honeycutt. Hmmmmmm. Could it be...
Long Story Short / Executive Summary, yeah, it could.
Now, understand that I'd already struck out with this case once. It's the same one I'd originally planned to transplant the ALPHA! movement into in the St. Valentine's Day Watch Massacre. I was pretty sure I wouldn't have the same problem here (depth insufficient to accept the movement), but I also expected the diameters wouldn't match up. I had both watches opened up in a flash, produced me calipers and.. to my surprise the dial diameters were the same! 29.5 mm on the nose! Alright, but surely the stems & crowns will be incompatible. But the caliper tells me that, again, the diameters of the stems are both .9 mm. But the pitch must also match, since to make the swap work the Sub-style crown will have to be transplanted onto the stem of the GSW's quartz movement. I did a visual thread-pich count using a 1mm screwdriver and a loupe and, to my astonishment, both stems checked in at 4 threads/mm. This might actually work!
I had one last reservation, that being that the stem of the GSW's quartz movement be too short. I could see no way to reliably answer the question without doing an actual mockup, though, so I bit the bullet and got out the tools. Now, I won't pretend that I had all this mapped out beforehand - I was winging it pure and simple! - but here's an after-the-fact 'work order'. Or call it a 'bill' to meself, for these are the actual steps I took;
- 1- Remove battery from GSW movement.
- 2- Remove GSW movement from case.
- 3- Trial fit GSW movement into Sub case.
- 4- Swap crowns from Sub stem onto GSW stem.
- 5- Trial fit hybrid crown/stem assembly.
- 6- Fabricate .4mm dial spacer.
- 7- Repeat steps 3 & 5.
- 8- Final cleaning of dial, movement, case interior.
- 9- Install movement into case.
- 10- Install stem into movement.
- 11- Install movement spacer
- 12- Perform function check, followed by much cursing.
- 13- Take it all back apart.
- 14- Remove crown, shorten stem by .75mm, reinstall crown.
- 15- Repeat steps 9 thru 12.
- 16- Cry Yippee! and have another cup of coffee.
- 17- Remove Gorilla Snot from Bezel.
- 18- Clean exterior of watch.
- 19- Attach bezel insert to bezel.
- 20- Clean watch one more time.
- 21- Don the watch & head for work (and, yes, I was on time ).
Note that step 6 came out of nowhere - I was so worried about checking the diameters, the stem depth offset went right over me head.
Fabricating the required spacer was perhaps the most time consuming step of all. What I did was to take a piece of black cardstock (me wife's scrapbookin' hobby comes in handy once in a while ), cut it to the proper diameter, carefully smear a bead of contact adhesive around the perimeter, stick it in place, then trim out the excess with ye olde X-acto. Worked a treat!Step 14 really blindsided me, too. Ironic that I was initially worried that the stem wouldn't be long enough, and I actually ended up having to shorten it.
'twas absolutely necessary, though, as when the crown was screwed down completely, it put the stem into one helluva bind, enough to shift the position of the hands at about 3/4-seated and to stop the movement if seated all the way. Luckily, this didn't seem to cause any permanent damage.And I should say a word about steps 17 through 19, I suppose. The case came to me sans bezel insert, you see. 'tis partly conjecture, but it's fairly certain that the bezel is designed to use a conventional insert. I.e. thin stamped aluminum, ~ .25 to .35 in thickness. However, all I had on hand was the one remaining 'King Kong' bezel insert that greg sent along. A quick lashup convinced me that it'd look OK, though, so I broke out the 5-minute epoxy (the Caveman's Friend! LOL!) and Bob's Your Uncle. This is the only step that leads me to include this in my 'Caveman series', really. Sure, a savvy WIS would definitely pick up the fact that this insert mated to this bezel is an.. ahhh, mod. These side views should be worth 999 words, if not a thousand;
Otherwise, I reckon you'd be hard-pressed to tell that the watch didn't leave the factory in it's current configuration. OK, OK, maybe the fact that the dial says 'Quartz' and the caseback says 'Automatic' might be a clue... LOL!
In any case, I'm pretty darned stoked about the way it turned out. I still love the deep midnight-blue dial, and I think it fits the case style pretty well. The crown mechanism works a treat (after step 14, at least), and while I'm not sure how much faith to put in the 10 ATM rating of the case, I'm also pretty darned sure I will no longer have to worry about crystal fogging.
Heck, as the day went by, I even started to like the Caveman Bezel insert, since it gives the whole package juuuust enough character not to come off as Yet Another Slavish Submariner Clone. The caseback helps a bit there, too....since it is not the actual ROLEX!-pattern, like ALPHA! uses. Perhaps one could think of it more as a Marcello C homage, vs. a Rolex homage?
All in all, 'tis indeed a
.I leave you with the requisite HWS!;
So, custom, frankenwatch, modded Submariner? Or just plain ol' Caveman Watchmaking? I favor a combo of the latter two. I think I'll call it the "Cavemariner", a concatenation of 'Caveman Submariner'. Hey, Cave-* seems hot right now, and since I'm pretty darned sure I won't own an actual Troglodyte in the near future, it seems a good compromise.
T'anks for lookin', y'all!
-Ricky
P.s. - sorry for the grainy Q&D photos. These were taken under very low-light conditions, by necessity. More & better pics to come, I promise.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/18/2009 03:20AM by Ricky Lee.
| Subject | Author | Views | Posted |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ricky Lee | 235 | February 18, 2009 02:50AM |
| Dave Murphy | 106 | February 18, 2009 01:14PM |
| JohnnyT | 90 | February 18, 2009 06:38AM |
| Mark C. | 71 | February 18, 2009 03:02AM |
| Ricky Lee | 57 | February 18, 2009 03:42AM |
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