Hello All!
Being a fan of Russian watches anyway and after discovering a thread on Amphibia modding in a German forum (http://uhrforum.de/vostok-amfibia-modding-t172217), I've gone a bit bonkers for mods and bought a few Amphibias and an assortment of bits. The raw materials have started to arrive so that I can now present my first two Amphibia mods.
Starting simple, both of these are bezel swaps.
First up, a 100SE I've had for a while, pepped up with a Boris bezel and a Dagaz insert:
Vostok Amphibia 100SE by wotsch2, on Flickr
Vostok Amphibia 100SE by wotsch2, on Flickr
Vostok Amphibia 100SE by wotsch2, on Flickr
Second, a 090-case model improved vastly with an engraved (or etched?) bezel from pers164 on watchuseek:
Vostok Amphibia 090 by wotsch2, on Flickr
Vostok Amphibia 090 by wotsch2, on Flickr
Vostok Amphibia 090 by wotsch2, on Flickr
I spent several grumpy hours trying to get the bezel on to the second one. Either it didn't go on at all or only with massive force but then being immovable. Eventually, I worked out how to bend the bezel wire and it now fits perfectly with just the right resistance to turning.
I have some straps on the way (Natos aren't really my cup of tea, even though the gray/black one does look good on the 090), some more bezels and inserts and a load of ideas in my head, so more to come...
Oh dear. Where is this going to end?
Cheers,
-wotsch
Last edited by wotsch; 22nd February 2015 at 11:52. Reason: grammar
Both look really good in your photos, are the movements noisy on these watches?
They do look good. Not bonkers at all.
I'm liking that first one. It has quite a unique appearance, well done.
I too particularly like #1. Never so keen on the arrow hands on #2 and so many other Vostoks. Good job on both though.
Superb looking mods and tastefully done, you can't beat an Amphibian.
Marco-T is the guy on this forum for some great mods, he removed the chrome plating down to the brass.
Thanks for showing.
Thinking about it, I think what makes it is that the 100SE is the model with the chromed second hand, so the silver bezel compliments the all-metal hands. There's no colour on it at all, so it looks more or less the same in black and white:
Vostok Amphibia 100SE by wotsch2, on Flickr
-wotsch
Very nice mods. I particularly like the "Boris bezel". I need to get involved! :-)
Loving the 0-90!
Great mods - was only thinking of replacing the bezel on my 120SE and found your thread! Need to have a closer look into this.
This one was supposed to be the first one but it took longer than I could hold out for a case opener to arrive, so that the other two above jumped the queue.
The base watch is this one, ordered from zenitar on the Bay:
Vostok Amphibia 090 by wotsch2, on Flickr
After a swap to a matte case and another session comparing bezels, I surprised myself with the choice you see below. I hadn't expected a colourful bezel to match the dial, but it seems to work (at least to my mod-crazed mind). Rounded off with the right strap, is all seems to fit together. I hope you agree.
Vostok Amphibia 090 by wotsch2, on Flickr
Vostok Amphibia 090 by wotsch2, on Flickr
Vostok Amphibia 090 by wotsch2, on Flickr
Vostok Amphibia 090 by wotsch2, on Flickr
Vostok Amphibia 090 by wotsch2, on Flickr
It even glows a bit.
-wotsch
Great photos of some nice work. This makes me want to pick up an Amphibia and try my hand. Anyone know of a source for no-date "scuba dude" dials?
I love that mod with a touch of orange..........very nice.
In case you're interested, here are some comparisons of the three Amphibias with different bezel combinations. I did these photos to help me compare and find my favourite. The left-hand photo in each is with the original bezel.
Vostok Amphibia 100SE Comparison by wotsch2, on Flickr
Vostok Amphibia 090 by wotsch2, on Flickr
Vostok Amphibia 090 by wotsch2, on Flickr
-wotsch
Great comparison shots.
Cheers.
Bookmarked for future reference! Thanks much for the resource.
The 100 case is the good one and the 110 case is the one that doesn't sit well on the wrist, isn't it? Or so I've read anyway. Still deciding on which one to go for, someday.
I've avoided the 110 after reading this: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showt...php?p=84628680
Although the 090 case is pretty good IMO, I think my favourite is the 100. My next project will probably by a 710, as I've not had one of those yet.
-wotsch
I had a 110, loved the look of it but as said it wasn't great to wear, and to make matters worse it had 22mm lugs which made the watch look huge.
Shame really.
Although the 110 case is a bit odd in shape, it's one of my favourites to wear.
But the 100 case, is definetly the better one for the wrist
Some lovely examples here. The original picture of the first watch is stunning.
Some gorgeous watches on display here. Shows the versatility of the Russian watches. I must admit to fancying one with the orange bezel - a colour I had never considered before. That one is a beauty.
Well, my only regular Amphibia ATM and small bezel mod...
I still seem to have the modding bug and spent a good bit of today doing a couple more. No more than new bezels (both Murphy bezels) and straps on these two.
The first one is a 100 cased Amphibia just in from Meranom.
It started off like this, with an awful bezel and the horrible metal strap:
Vostok Amphibia 100 by wotsch2, on Flickr
There was a lot of to and fro with the decision for the bezel instert, with quite a few to choose from:
Vostok Amphibia 100 by wotsch2, on Flickr
I ended up choosing the Soxa insert. I'm not quite sure about this, but I think it comes off well with the grey ring complimenting the grey dial elements:
Vostok Amphibia 100 by wotsch2, on Flickr
Vostok Amphibia 100 by wotsch2, on Flickr
Vostok Amphibia 100 by wotsch2, on Flickr
Vostok Amphibia 100 by wotsch2, on Flickr
The next one is a 100SE I bought from a member of a German forum. The bezel insert choice didn't take so long, although this one looks good with a lot of them:
Vostok Amphibia 100SE by wotsch2, on Flickr
I really like the way this one turned out:
Vostok Amphibia 100SE by wotsch2, on Flickr
Vostok Amphibia 100SE by wotsch2, on Flickr
Vostok Amphibia 100SE by wotsch2, on Flickr
Vostok Amphibia 100SE by wotsch2, on Flickr
Hope like them.
-wotsch
I think they're both excellent choices, well done.
I like them both Wotsch especially the second one. What a huge difference changing the Bezel makes.
A bit of a change for three of my mods. A round of bezel swaps, triggered by my being not quite happy with the proportions of the Soxa inlay in the Murphy bezel on the 100 case.
Here's the 100 before:
Vostok Amphibia 100 by wotsch2, on Flickr
and after:
Vostok Amphibia 100 by wotsch2, on Flickr
Vostok Amphibia 100 by wotsch2, on Flickr
This lead me to try the Soxa bezel on the 090 case with the same dial which, in my opinion, ends up with much better proportions than on the 100 case:
Before:
Vostok Amphibia 090 by wotsch2, on Flickr
and after:
Vostok Amphibia 090 by wotsch2, on Flickr
Vostok Amphibia 090 by wotsch2, on Flickr
And that lead to the pers184 bezel being free to go on my 100SE. Here before:
Vostok Amphibia 100SE by wotsch2, on Flickr
and after:
Vostok Amphibia 100SE by wotsch2, on Flickr
Vostok Amphibia 100SE by wotsch2, on Flickr
A bit of fiddling around and it's like having three new watches.
-wotsch
Looking very good indeed
Ive never had the slightest problem changing bezels on a various 420's Ive owned - however the 090 that I fitted with a plain bezel this morning was a real bugger. It took the best part of an hour making slight adjustments to the retaining wire before it would go on. Well worth it though - these look ace with a plain bezel in my opinion.
Some of these look really good.
Always liked this one
Re-reading this thread #1 would be the one I'd buy if it appeared on SC. I'm not so keen on the Vostok arrow hands.
I had some time today for another mod, the first one I've done with a blue dialled Amphibia. Here's the base 090-cased watch:
Vostok Amphibia 090 by wotsch2, on Flickr
I ordered a chestnut bezel insert from Dagaz for this one, which landed on my doormat a couple of days ago. Although I wasn't sure whether it would suit the dial, on a boris bezel and paired with a brown strap, I think it's turned out rather well:
Vostok Amphibia 090 by wotsch2, on Flickr
Vostok Amphibia 090 by wotsch2, on Flickr
Vostok Amphibia 090 by wotsch2, on Flickr
Vostok Amphibia 090 by wotsch2, on Flickr
Hope you like this one,
-wotsch
Jesus. Super impressive.
I wouldn't know where to start with modding but i'm going to go and have a read now, this old thing could be the one to start playing around with. I bought it cheap to find out more about this Russian watch thing.
Some of these look amazing! I notice that they are mostly bezel replacements, which isn't surprising because the stock bezels are really the only thing that lets down the Vostoks (both the Amphibias and the Komandirskies). Is someone on the German forums selling bezels? I want a bunch of these, but I don't speak German unfortunately. I can definitely see me buying a few new Vostoks and modding them over the course of this year.
I'm already experimenting with some mixing and matching to create my own frankenvostoks where I've got some (usually off eBay) that haven't turned out to be as good as I'd hoped, so they're effectively now a collection of spare parts, which I plan to restore/improve over time to teach myself watchmaking skills. The original inlaid bezels, which are relatively rare, can look quite good but they are also very poor quality: thin plated brass rather than steel. I usually won't want to put one on an otherwise good Amphibia, as it can end up looking worse than one of the basic painted steel ones.
I found this one via Google just now: http://murphymanufacturing.com/vostok_bezels.html - Made of steel and accepts Seiko SKX007 inserts, which seems to be almost a de-facto standard for the modding community, so there should be plenty of options. Looks like some of these mods are using this, but there are some others too.
Would be nice to have a bezel mod that includes a ratchet. Personally, I'd prefer a bidirectional ratchet: just something to keep an even tension and hold it in place after setting, since I wouldn't be planning on using any of my Aphibias for Scuba diving anyway. The tension tends to be a bit of a lottery: I have some that are perfect, some that are too stiff and some that are too loose.
Thanks! Yes, bezel swaps are easy to do and make a huge difference. I have something more ambitious cooking, but it's taking a while to get everything together.
The bezels I have used are from Murphy (e.g. the first one in post #28 above), from an eBay seller called boris_gvb (e.g. in post #41 above), from a WUS member calls pers184 (the second one in the very first post above) and from am-watches in Germany (http://www.am-watches.com - e.g. the orange one in post #13 above).
The Murphy bezels are the best quality, IMO, but the pers184 bezels are hand-made wonderful.
The inlays on the Murphy and boris bezels are Seiko inlays from Dagaz (http://www.10watches.com).
Absolutely, but that would require some serious work on the case due to the way the usual bezels are fitted. I've never seen a mod with that done to it.
Cheers,
-wotsch
Here's my latest project, an Amphibia mod based loosely on a Doxa 300T.
Vostok Amphibia 710 by wotsch2, on Flickr
This one took a fair bit of putting together. The dial and movement come from a 090 case:
Vostok Amphibia 090 by wotsch2, on Flickr
I put this into a 710 case, which is much closer to the Doxa case and which I had sandblasted for me:
Vostok Amphibia 710 by wotsch2, on Flickr
Also, the original Amphibia hour hand, with the arrow, had to be swapped with an hour hand from a Komandirski, to be more like the Doxa hands:
Vostok Amphibia 710 by wotsch2, on Flickr
The bezel is a Murphy bezel with a Soxa inlay from Dagaz:
Vostok Amphibia 710 by wotsch2, on Flickr
I'm very pleased with the sandblasted finish and the bloke who did it for me even sandblasted the crown:
Vostok Amphibia 710 by wotsch2, on Flickr
Vostok Amphibia 710 by wotsch2, on Flickr
Vostok Amphibia 710 by wotsch2, on Flickr
I'm chuffed with the way it's turned out:
Vostok Amphibia 710 by wotsch2, on Flickr
Hope you like it.
-wotsch