Hi Guys,
A while ago Alistair posted some pics of a custom watch that he had had made up =>Alistairs Custom watch
Later in that thread we discussed nicknames & ( on another forum ) rrryan suggested "Darth Maul".
I think that is a great & very fitting nickname
As the next pic shows, it doesn't have to be evil...
What isn't clear from the original thread, is that I have planned to build one of these watches for at least 2 or 3 years.
Here is a picture showing my case & bracelet.
Here's the Story .....
about 3 years ago, Chuck & myself were having an AIM ( Instant Messenger ) chat about watches & one of us tossed in the idea of fitting a different ( but still original Omega ) inner bezel in a flightmaster. The conversation then went onto what could we "build" using standard parts.... then what would we do, that Omega didn't do....
We quickly realized that we'd both like a PVD chronograph ( OMEGA ... ARE YOU READING THIS ?? ), we are both HUGE Speedmaster MK II & MK II Racing fans.
So between us we decided to build our own PVD MK II's. These have the advantage of being both plentiful & relatively cheap to find.
We both wanted some color on the dial, So I decided "mine" would be made with a "racing" MK II dial. Since I am also a huge flightmaster fan I knew that I wanted the flightmaster "triangular" chrono hands in BRIGHT Orange ( which just happen to match the dial perfectly)
Chucks final specification for his watch is similar to mine, but not the same. So we both have/will be building (one of ) or dream watches.
For my watch, a NOS dial & crystal were quickly sourced ( from Watchco I think ). I had a battered up MK II case & bought a bunch of hands for flightmaster/ MK II.
I sent the MK II case & brand new 1162 bracelet ( also from Watchco ) to Chuck & Chuck packed them up with his "bits" & they were then sent onto Jack @ IWW
Jacks website is here => International Watch Works. I can SERIOUSLY recommend him for watch work ( more coming )
Jack gave us a quote for the work , but informed us that it would take a while, he collects bits until he has enough for a "PVD session". I also asked Jack if he could "clean the case up" a bit & beadblast bothe the case & bracelet. As you'll soon see the case was horrible, polished/shiney dinged & battered. Jack did a GREAT job. This is the before pic....
Yes, I actually bought the above watch... The movement was used for something else, the dial sold to someone to rescue his water damaged MK II & I just didn'thave the heart (thankfully) to throw the case out.
Unfortunately, during the PVD process, there was a problem with my crown. The rubber melted & contaminated my case & the PVD was not upto Jacks standards. He had the case stripped & re-PVD'd. He did this at his own cost & kept me ( & Chuck ) informed all the time. Obviously my Crown was now ruined & so Jack fitted a Seamaster 120 tube & crown. The crown is somewhat bigger than a standard Speedmaster item. Jacks final price was very close to his estimated price despite the problems that he had had. I can only recommend Jack.
After a while, Chuck got the parts back & reported that they looked great. The items weren't jet black, more a sort of dark Charcoal colour.
I think Chuck had the items around 6 months until the next "Snail Mail" exchange between us. When the case arrived, I checked it out & was more than "chuffed" to find that it is an almost PERFECT match for the dial. I then took around 18 months to find a MK II "donor watch" for the movement.
I found one, & as some of you may have read, when I got the donor home I decided it would be a shame to break it up....... However following some serious agro at work recently I decided I needed a "pick me up" so took all the parts to my local watchmaker & told him what I wanted.
He took a couple of hours to check everything out, strip the old watch & rebuild the new one.
The results are staggering. I have worn the watch continuously for 3 weeks now & get quite a few comments on it. You can't miss it. Black, large & lots of bright Red/Orange on the dial.
Unfortunately my pics don't do it justice....
Only the last picture comes even close to showing how bright the Orange is. It is almost Dayglo bright. It is more like the orange in the 2 "darth Maul" pics at the start of this post.
If you look at the tachy ring on the underside of the crystal, you can see that it is pure Black. The case is not. & none of the pics show what a good match the case & dial colours are. - I really am a bad photographer :-(
You can see in many of the pics, what a GREAT job Jack did of rescuing the case.
The case back is the only Item that has not been PVD'd.
So that's it. I took me about 3 years to get it done, but it is well worth the effort. I'm just sorry that I didn't do it earlier.
Once again many thanks to rrryan for the great nickname.
