Newest mod

And no, it's not a strap change! I had this Swiss Legend with an CL888 auto; nice enough watch but I was itching to mod something and Ron's Sl mod with the Unitas got me thinking.

I ordered a dial from a dealer in HK that sells parts and watches with a Panny feel; went with a sandwich with orange numbers. So here she be!

In its unaltered state, nice watch but I wanted to play!




Here it is gutted:



Originally it was all highly polished, wasn't really liking that so I took a ScotchBrite to the bracelet and case:



Here's the new dial; was a tiny bit smaller than the original so I had to glue it to the movement holder to keep it from falling forward to the front crystal:



And here it is finished up. Kept the original hands; just painted the second hand tip white:



The obligatory wrist shot:


All in all a pretty straight forward easy job, I think it came out pretty good.

You guys are amazing!

Doing stuff in PS is one thing, ya'll take it to the next level!

I have to admit, kinda STRANGE seeing a seconds hand on that dial but I could get used to it...

...Lume shot?

Great work Chris!

. . . . you gotta be kidding me!!! That looks awesome.

Shit, I have that same watch in black IP up for trade at WUS . . . .

Wow, congratulations. I keep saying - someday. Wear your unique creation in good health.

Man what a cool mod! That dial looks perfect with the case, the hands work great for the dial too.
I've never considered attaching the movement holder to the dial, a good tip to know!
I love this mod, excellent work Chris!

It's cool how you do this so easily Chris !
Just pop out a few things, add this and that, some
Scotchbrite, and a bit of paint..and there you have
it !!! From this end it's kind of like magic, but
I know it's HARD, and you happen to make it look
easy ! One things for certain, this watch looks
AMAZING now ! That dial is INSANELY cool, as
well as professional looking !..Nice touch with the
second hand by the way ! NICE job all the way
around ! Congrats on this and ENJOY !!!

. . . You really got me with this one Chris. Would it be too much to ask you to share some of your research with me???

I would really like to know what size dial you ordered, and the hand set size as well. My Sportmatic has a CL888 in it though. Will the ETA hands fit the same??? Like I posted earlier, I have one in black IP . . . and I may go after a different dial than you used . . . Randy.

great looking mod, i love that dial. congrats and enjoy,thanks for the pics. steve

looks great, i like working with sandwich dials because i put a ton of lume on the bottom dial and it doesnt have to look pretty because the top dial covers it up but it will be brite as can be!!

Thanks guys!

Trev, how did you lume the bottom dial, just separate the two and re-glue them?

Randy: Original hand set from the watch, just painted the second hand tip white. I would never have thought about modding it unless I saw Ron's. I had seen the dial he used at the following site:

http://www.siswatch727.com/index.do

and knew they had sandwich dials in the same size, 37.6mm. For clarification, mine has the CL 888 as well, not the SW200. Not sure about hand sets availability for it.

cski wrote:

Thanks guys!

Trev, how did you lume the bottom dial, just separate the two and re-glue them?

Randy: Original hand set from the watch, just painted the second hand tip white. I would never have thought about modding it unless I saw Ron's. I had seen the dial he used at the following site:

http://www.siswatch727.com/index.do

and knew they had sandwich dials in the same size, 37.6mm. For clarification, mine has the CL 888 as well, not the SW200. Not sure about hand sets availability for it.

. . . Big thanks Chris. Hate to be a copy-cat, but you just made that watch the way it should have in the first place IMO!!!!

Dayum that is one bad ass effin mod...wow...looks amazing...

Fabulous mod Chris! The dial is awesome and the little white tipped seconds hand was a great touch!

Very nice Chris! I am still too chicken to try...maybe some day!

andrema wrote:

Very nice Chris! I am still too chicken to try...maybe some day!

There has got to be something you can start out with, how about that stowa? start with a watch you just couldnt give a shit about and work from there! I would start with seiko, easy to get parts and not had to work on! Just buy quality parts from noah, jake, jay or yobokie or whatever he goes by! Jay's stuff is in the states which makes it nice, his hands kick ass, noah i've bought more than a few dial and hands from!

cali kid wrote:

andrema wrote:

Very nice Chris! I am still too chicken to try...maybe some day!

There has got to be something you can start out with, how about that stowa? start with a watch you just couldnt give a shit about and work from there! I would start with seiko, easy to get parts and not had to work on! Just buy quality parts from noah, jake, jay or yobokie or whatever he goes by! Jay's stuff is in the states which makes it nice, his hands kick ass, noah i've bought more than a few dial and hands from!

I agree, a Seiko 6309 is a great start, tons of parts, relatively easy to swap out a bezel insert, dial and hands with the right tools. You can get a 6309-7040 off the 'bay for under $100; everyone I've gotten has been refurbed so the case is usually near perfect and the movement serviced. You have lots of back-up here to to walk you through if you get in a jam. Go for it bro!!

Awesome work Chris!!!!
Dang you did a great job!

Killer job!