1968 Seamaster 300 Homage Build and 565 Service

[nevenbekriev]

54 minutes ago, Neverenoughwatches said:

If I can ask a quick question Nev, I have a safety guard rubbing on the the roller. A Timex ...pin lever, no banking pins. There is very little or no draw in the  escapement, the lever appears free to move and let the gaurd touch, also due to lever pivot wear. Just wanted to ask before I reduce the gaurd length. 

I wrote something for it in the related thread Rich

[Neverenoughwatches]

3 hours ago, nevenbekriev said:

I wrote something for it in the related thread Rich

Thanks Nev, i have read through it, you have confirmed mostly what i was thinking thank you

[neevo]

I’m on holiday at the moment so I can’t do the guard pin clearance checks until I get home. But have regulated the watch enough to wear it. However it’s not a great time keeper given how accurate it can be, but it’s been nice to wear it for a bit. It’s fast about a minute a day but also very inconsistent.

Wearing it however has made me realise something. I don’t like the tan lume on the dial and hands. The case is reproduction as I can’t afford a genuine one and it was only slightly more to get the dial and hands with it, so I did that.

But the image that drove me to this build was this one and I love the colour of the lume on this:

 

So I’ve sold a kidney and purchased a genuine Omega replacement dial which has the exact look I’m going for. That soft white/green colour:

 

Which leaves me with a quandary on what to do with the hands. Should I relume the ones I have a lose the ability to have a matching set (maybe someone would like them) or should I liquidate the dial and hands and find some genuine Omega replacements? Would the lume match the dial perfectly? If I bought lume which one is the correct colour (C3?) or would I have to custom make the lume to match the dial? Am I better off sending the hands off to be done with a professional?

My head says buy some C1 and C3 Super-Luminova powder and binder and have a go at colour matching the hands I already have (the dial doesn’t look 100% C3, it looks whiter to me). Simply remove the old lume with acetone.

Edited March 4 by neevo

[RichardHarris123]

I'd buy the lume and have a go. 

[neevo]

33 minutes ago, RichardHarris123 said:

I'd buy the lume and have a go. 

Yeah that’s where my head is at. I have a fake Seamaster 300 based on a Miyota 8215 where the hands are C1 and the dial is like the OEM one. So I could practice on that first:

I’d like to use decent lume but seems like eBay is the only place I can find it. Is there a reputable source I can buy some from?

Ideally the proper stuff (Super-LumiNova I assume) and no idea what grade I need to match the dial.

[neevo]

Back to the topic of my poor functioning balance up/balance down positions. If it turns out the pivots on the balance and/or the pallet fork are beyond tolerance. Is it likely the pivots themselves are the cause of the wear or is there a possibility the jewels could also be the cause?

If the watch has seen a lot of use in its life I would assume the steel pivots would wear much quicker than the jewels (if they would even wear at all)?

[nevenbekriev]

OK, do the free oscillations test without the pallet fork in several vertical positions and compare the oscillations count. Of course, what is expected is to find there is no differences. Pivots wear will hardly cause differences in vertical positions. Stones practically will never wear, but if there is some defect, may cause such difference. You can rotate the whole stone settings in inkabloks and thus the difference will change position too.

[neevo]

I’m also going to strip the movement. Partly because I have a new dial coming but there is also because there is that nagging feeling I have about that incabloc spring that I lost. The ideaL solution would be that it made its way in to the movement somehow, but I suspect that’s unlikely.

However I do want to have another go at greasing the barrel. I suspect I used too little grease.

Will advise how I go when I get back home in a week.

[neevo]

My new dial is here. I don’t open it for 2 weeks because I was so nervous about buying it, how much it cost me and whether it was going to suit my needs.

Needless to say it’s stunning:

 

It’s really hard to photograph as I cannot find a white balance setting on my iPhone. But I’m after some help on how to match the lume for the hands. Am I correct in thinking this is C3 Super LumiNova?

It has a creamy, yellow, green look to it that I want to match as closely as I can. Or alternatively maybe I should just find someone locally to do it.