- Am I on a roll, or what?  Ricky Lee February 22, 2009 01:29AM

Registered: April 2005 Posts: 1,848 (2009-02)

Re: .."if Seiko and Vostok had a baby..." (views: 5)
Ricky Lee -- February 22, 2009 05:38PM
Great way to put it! 

But.. JOOC, which elements of the design remind you of Vostok?

-Ricky

I was hopin' someone else would see the resemblance to the 6309-7040 Seiko case!  (views: 5)
Ricky Lee -- February 22, 2009 02:19PM
I sure was, but as I'm not very knowledgeable on classic Seikos... 

    Quote
    TakesALickin
    I'll bet you graduate to Renaissance watchmaking in no time! 

Thank you! Jeff. Though I've got my eye on a project that, should I go through with it, will probably bring up the subject of "recidivism". 

-Ricky

Dave - hope you don't mind me responding to a personal e-mail here on the forum.  (views: 4)
Ricky Lee -- February 23, 2009 03:23PM
But you raise some good points that are germaine to the thread, and I suspect that the only reason you went to e-mail is that you didn't want to call me out publicly on the chapter ring issue. Not to worry, Caveman have thick skin. {Ugh!}

} the ol' WIS-eye says that your chapter ring
} and dial hashes need alignment. Unless it is
} a consequence of deepness of ring, or refractive
} index of glass that makes it look unaligned.

It's partly an optical illusion, a parallax effect. But also, the hash marks on the chapter ring and dial just plain don't match up 100%. I worked on that a bit, but even without the movement spacer ring in place, there's no getting it perfect. But 'tis close enough for a Caveman , and it's really nowhere near as bad as the photos make it look.

> Re: chapter rings:
> This is why people who mod Seiko divers will
> either sterilize the plastic chapter ring, or
> pay $30 for an aluminum, when they go from the
> Seiko dial without a minute chapter to a dial
> with one

I can see that.. Good to know that even isn't perfect.

} But what I really wanted to point out: If
} I recall correctly, that series of ETA
} movement, along with the ISA 1198 series,
} have dial feet and date apertures exactly
} in the same locations as the mechanical
} 28xx line. But hand sizes are smaller,
} as you have already discovered.

Yup. I actually considered springin' for a 2801 and converting it to a handwinder. However, that route would have run nearly 10 times the price of goin' back with the original (quartz) movement - the most inexpensive 2801 that Otto Frei currently lists is $108. That's a semi-fancy (gold) movement, and I could probably find a plain-jane 2801 cheaper, perhaps from Jules Borel. They list one for $69.95. But I've got a couple of major problems with them in that the price is always higher once you hit the 'Checkout' button, and I dislike having to register before buying.

And, in any case, I wasn't 100% sure I could squeeze the 2801 in, depth-wise. The 'movement bay' of this case is very shallow. It might work, but it'd be very tight indeed...

} Just lettin' you know, should you get
} the urge to tinker more.

Nah, I'm happy as a slopped hog with it at present. In the future.. well, you never know.

> Re: 2801
> If you plan to do this, download the data sheets
> for ETA 2801 and ETA quartz. Surprisingly, the
> "dial rest to stem center" distances do not match,
> which could cause a stem to bind in the tube. Even
> more surprisingly, the ISA quartz to ETA mechanical
> distances are a better match.

Thanks for the info Dave!

Best regards,

-Ricky