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Thread: Steinhart Ocean 1 Mod

  1. #1
    Journeyman
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    Steinhart Ocean 1 Mod

    I've hardly been wearing the O1 lately, the cyclops and the mercedes hands just weren't doing it for me. The Steiny is a 2014 O1 ceramic (42mm), and I changed the ceramic insert a while back for the standard black insert...but what this watch really needs (imo) was new hands and a domed crystal. After searching the net it seems nobody has tackled this on the O1, although I did find a couple of posts on couple of Steinhart GMT that had new hands and crystals.

    So after not finding the information required the watch was stripped, measured and new parts ordered (hands, crystals, gaskets etc)...and here's the result after assembling the parts this morning.

    [IMG][/IMG]

    [IMG][/IMG]

    [IMG][/IMG]

    [IMG][/IMG]

    And with my 7548 which I restored a month or so back

    [IMG][/IMG]

    Much better looking than the original or at least I think so.

    If there's a demand I'll post a full guide with sizes, parts, specs etc...

  2. #2
    Master
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    Can you confirm caseback slot to slot dims.

    Thanks

  3. #3
    Grand Master TaketheCannoli's Avatar
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    I really admire your ability to do that!

    I think all the changes except the red second hand improve the watch.

    Well done

  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bry1975 View Post
    Can you confirm caseback slot to slot dims.

    Thanks
    As measured you will need 2mm pins on 34.1 dia for a min inner 32.1 mm as per caseback...I just used a generic adjustable opener (the caseback was extremely tight to undo) but when started a bit of gaffer tape in a ball soon had it off. HTH

  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by TaketheCannoli View Post
    I really admire your ability to do that!

    I think all the changes except the red second hand improve the watch.

    Well done
    I have another second hand, that came with the handset, but I fancied a touch of colour, saying that the red hand can always be changed to the matching one...but second hands are a pig to align in the pinion even with the aid of a strong loupe.

  6. #6
    Master Papa Hotel's Avatar
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    If only Steinhart would do an Ocean Military without the "Vintage". Send that pic to Gunter and get him told to make it happen.

  7. #7
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    The 'in the kitchen on a chopping board whilst cleaning up after dinner' pic...and look NO nasty light bounce-back off the top face of the crystal, which used to drive me nuts when indoors with the original Steinhart crystal...my O1 used to be almost unreadable and 'ghost out' to a greyish 'fog' when inside before the swap (maybe it was the cyclops collecting and bouncing light into crystal, or maybe it was the AR, whatever, the greying out has gone at last! Just a pity about the greasy fingerprints all over the bezel (I was cleaning up).

    [IMG][/IMG]

  8. #8
    Apprentice
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    If there's a demand I'll post a full guide with sizes, parts, specs etc...
    Looks sooo much better IMO. I too have a dislike for date mags. I've got the same model and had a temporary glass replacement but have not had any luck finding a sapphire.
    Id be very interested in the details.

  9. #9
    Master Templogin's Avatar
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    Absolutely marvellous. I really do like that. Well done.

  10. #10
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    OK, its finished, I've swapped the red seconds hands for a SS (although slightly smaller in length) and swapped the Steiny oyster bracelet for a tapering president yet retained the original SEL's...I've christened it 'Castro'. So first a few pics, then some dims you will need to know.

    [IMG][/IMG]

    [IMG][/IMG]

    [IMG][/IMG]

    [IMG][/IMG]

    Ok, to the build, first off the original flat crystal is 30.8mm dia X 3.05mm thickness. No-one makes an aftermarket crystal of this size in a dome or double dome, so I'm afraid your stuffed if you want life easy. But Crystaltimes can supply a 31mm dia X 3mm DD sapphire CT039 with an o/a height of 5.5mm.

    Now read this carefully, unless you have an Ocean 1 Ceramic (or plan on buying the ceramic insert) that crystal will not fit the standard Ocean 1 bezel insert as its only 30.9mm ID. So you will need a 30.5mm X 3mm domed mineral glass crystal (Cousins UK), now dont worry about about the fact its glass, you can buy 10 for less than the price of one sapphire (about two lifetimes worth). Gaskets, I'll leave this up to you, all you need to know is the crystal/ gasket aperture in the rehaut is 31.55mm dia.

    Next, hand size. The standard Steinhart mercedes O1 hands are 8.5h, 12.5m and 13.5s, but you can get away with a 12.5mm seconds hand. For this builod i've used milub seamaster hands for an ETA 2824 (obviously).

    Next, dial. I've kept the original dial in mine but if you do want swap it out the dial size is 30mm dia, but the case will accept a dial (its recessed) for a dial of up to 31.5mm dia. The important thing here is the aperture (land) of the rehaut (or the visible dial size) is 28.7mm. So if you do swap dials the outer minute track needs to be less than 28mm.

    Happy modding!!

  11. #11
    Craftsman Dunce's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bayleaf View Post
    OK, its finished, I've swapped the red seconds hands for a SS (although slightly smaller in length) and swapped the Steiny oyster bracelet for a tapering president yet retained the original SEL's...I've christened it 'Castro'. So first a few pics, then some dims you will need to know.

    I like that. I think everything works well there.

  12. #12
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    Like the president, nice touch.
    Thanks for sharing the info.

  13. #13
    Craftsman
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    Just catching up with this thread.

    Nice job - that looks really good!

  14. #14
    Master
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    I really like the finished product - the crystal looks brilliant and handset is great (there's a time and place for a red second hand, but the ss works so much better in thus case) and all Steinharts should have a tapered bracelet. Great job!

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