I like what you have done there. The old hands completely ruined the look of the watch before, but now it is quite handsome in an Art Deco sort of way.
Domes crystal if not too expensive would be worth a punt
In my journey of (very) amateur watch fettling I keep an eye open on eBay for timepieces that might grab my interest, and a few days ago one turned up with a few minutes to go that was still at its opening bid of 10 quid, including free postage.
Although it struck me that the hands were completely out of proportion to the face I haven't had a "Big Date" watch before so I thought this might be worth a punt, if only so I could have a look at the movement itself. No-one else seemed to want it (not necessarily a good sign) so I won with the opening bid. The watch is nothing special, of course, but given my clumsy skills that's as much a damage limitation exercise as anything else!
When it arrived my first view of the watch itself confirmed my initial thought that the hands were way too small. Opening up the back showed that the watch contained a nicely working Miyota 1M52 movement, which meant that the hands would be easy enough to replace as they are a standard 120/70/17.
Grabbing my digital micrometer I worked out that I could up the hand size considerably, so I ordered a new set of Dauphine hands in stainless steel and sat back to await their arrival.
A knock on the door from the postman this morning resulted in a parcel containing a variety of replacement hands. Having settled on lengths of 10mm, 13mm and 14mm for the hour, minute and seconds hand respectively I quickly swapped them over.
I think the new hands - at the princely sum of under £4 - have made an immediate, and quite marked, improvement to the watch itself. It has resulted, at least IMHO, in a much more elegant and proportional dial and hands combination. In retrospect if I could have found a 15mm seconds hand that would have seen it hit the inner limit of the minute markers, but I had to work with what I could find. The sterile dial reflects both natural and artificial light quite nicely, and the longer Dauphine hands have that pleasing "light/dark" contrast when looked at from different angles.
Now I just need to decide on whether replacing the current crystal with a domed sapphire would make sense, although ideally I'd prefer a somewhat nicer case if I am going to do that, as the crystal will cost more than the rest of the watch put together. I also wonder if a slightly larger crown - perhaps 4.5 or 5mm - might suit the watch better too.
I like what you have done there. The old hands completely ruined the look of the watch before, but now it is quite handsome in an Art Deco sort of way.
Domes crystal if not too expensive would be worth a punt
That is very nice. You have made it much better. I like the big date. Very good for my ageing eyesight!
Much improved and a bigger crown would make it nicer still
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Love the Art Deco look of the dial. £10 well spent!
Started out with nothing. Still have most of it left.
Nice job.
Whoever designed the original watch needs putting up against a wall... Really excellent job with the hands though agree about needing a bigger crown too (weedy crowns are another abomination!).
Massive improvement.....really like that big date.
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