Help with building my own watch from parts

[AndroidIsAwesome]

For those of you who have built your own watches or modded them, I need some help...

I am thinking about making my own "dive style" watch using parts from aliexpress and eBay. Basically, I was planning to buy a Rolex submariner style 40mm maxi-lug case with bezel, case back/crown and crystal. But I wanted to use a quartz movement in it, however, nearly every listing says they are made for an eta 2824 style movement. And then the dials and handsets are of course all different sizes and fittings. If any of you have done something similar please share how you did it!

Here is the case I was looking at:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3304613 ... 2e0eP8BjJb

Or would it be easier to buy this and change the dial/hands myself and give up on doing quartz:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3287240 ... b201603_53

[sistem_32]

For those of you who have built your own watches or modded them, I need some help...

I am thinking about making my own "dive style" watch using parts from aliexpress and eBay. Basically, I was planning to buy a Rolex submariner style 40mm maxi-lug case with bezel, case back/crown and crystal. But I wanted to use a quartz movement in it, however, nearly every listing says they are made for an eta 2824 style movement. And then the dials and handsets are of course all different sizes and fittings. If any of you have done something similar please share how you did it!

I'm not exactly sure what your dilemma is, but I'll try to help out as best I can. The movement you choose won't really affect the difficulty of the mod, as it just needs to be dumped into the case. The 2824, however, is a convenient standard as there are lots of parts available for it, as you've discovered. It's also a relatively simple movement, and, in my experience, robust. The only downside is that it's much more expensive than a quartz movement. I would caution against getting a clone movement, tempting as it may be, as they're probably very low quality and unlikely to last very long.

Or would it be easier to buy this and change the dial/hands myself and give up on doing quartz:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3287240 ... b201603_53

This wouldn't be easier for the simple reason that you would first have to remove the watch's movement, dial, and hands before replacing them with your own. That being said, it wouldn't be all that much more difficult, and it might even be beneficial practice.

I'm not sure what your experience is with modding or watchmaking in general, so I'll throw out a few general pointers. The hardest part might be figuring out how to remove your movement's stem, which is necessary to insert or remove the movement from the case. Most movements have some sort of button adjacent to the keyless works (where the stem attaches to the movement) which you must press and hold down to remove the stem. Your movement might be different, however.

On ETA movements the dial feet are usually secured to the movement by clamps around the outside of the movement. Here's a picture of one:



They're more commonly secured with screws which clamp them inwards.

In order to attach your hands you'll need a hand setting tool, which is more or less a nylon cylinder with a hole in the middle used to push the hands onto their respective pipes. You can get ones made by Bergeon here. If you decide to start with a fully assembled watch you'll also need a hand removing tool, which you can get here. I recommend picking up a practice set of hands if you're not familiar with the setting process, as it's very easy to bend them.

Best of luck!

[AndroidIsAwesome]

For those of you who have built your own watches or modded them, I need some help...

I am thinking about making my own "dive style" watch using parts from aliexpress and eBay. Basically, I was planning to buy a Rolex submariner style 40mm maxi-lug case with bezel, case back/crown and crystal. But I wanted to use a quartz movement in it, however, nearly every listing says they are made for an eta 2824 style movement. And then the dials and handsets are of course all different sizes and fittings. If any of you have done something similar please share how you did it!

I'm not exactly sure what your dilemma is, but I'll try to help out as best I can. The movement you choose won't really affect the difficulty of the mod, as it just needs to be dumped into the case. The 2824, however, is a convenient standard as there are lots of parts available for it, as you've discovered. It's also a relatively simple movement, and, in my experience, robust. The only downside is that it's much more expensive than a quartz movement. I would caution against getting a clone movement, tempting as it may be, as they're probably very low quality and unlikely to last very long.

Or would it be easier to buy this and change the dial/hands myself and give up on doing quartz:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3287240 ... b201603_53

This wouldn't be easier for the simple reason that you would first have to remove the watch's movement, dial, and hands before replacing them with your own. That being said, it wouldn't be all that much more difficult, and it might even be beneficial practice.

I'm not sure what your experience is with modding or watchmaking in general, so I'll throw out a few general pointers. The hardest part might be figuring out how to remove your movement's stem, which is necessary to insert or remove the movement from the case. Most movements have some sort of button adjacent to the keyless works (where the stem attaches to the movement) which you must press and hold down to remove the stem. Your movement might be different, however.

On ETA movements the dial feet are usually secured to the movement by clamps around the outside of the movement. Here's a picture of one:



They're more commonly secured with screws which clamp them inwards.

In order to attach your hands you'll need a hand setting tool, which is more or less a nylon cylinder with a hole in the middle used to push the hands onto their respective pipes. You can get ones made by Bergeon here. If you decide to start with a fully assembled watch you'll also need a hand removing tool, which you can get here. I recommend picking up a practice set of hands if you're not familiar with the setting process, as it's very easy to bend them.

Best of luck!

Super helpful information, thank you. Maybe I will just buy a sterile dial Submariner homage and play around with it. From what I researched there are no quartz alternatives to fit cases and dials made for the eta2824/miyota 82 movements.