Panerai modifications

[Archer]

Johnny asked me to install some gold hands on his 210. Now this might be Panerai heresy but as far as I'm concerned, if it's your watch, you can do with it as you please. So, I was happy to do this for John.

Here's the before shot:



So the watch deserved a very clean work space. Not that it's not always clean, just not this tidy.



The first struggle was getting the case back off. It was VERY tight, so I had to improvise something to hold the case while I turned the back off since this case is too big for my case holder. Jacqui helped and we put down a towel, screwed 2 pieces of wood to my workbench (wrapped in carpet underlay to give some grip). Jacqui held the wood and I was able to turn the back off finally!





So with the back off let's look at what's next. The red arrow indicates the stem release. Turn this and pull the stem out. The green arrows show the screws that are for holding the movement in the watch.



Stem is out.



Here is a cloer look at the movement screw - it has a small tab that fits into a groove in the case and this clamps the movement to the case.



Here's the screw and clamp removed:



Once this is done, the movement simply drops out - I remove it onto some lintless watchmaker's paper.



And now I prepare to remove the old hands. First I put down a protector for the dial, then use my hands levers to pry the old hands off.



Next I press the hour hand in place and line it up with the 12.



Then the minute hand is placed and with care to make sure it lines up with the hour hand at the 12.



Then the movement is put back into the case, and the movement clamps are put back. Next I clean the stem and put on some fresh stem grease.



I inpect the case back gasket and it's in great shape, but a little dry so I use the silicone grease for that.



After a little cleaning around the movement to remove some smudges left there when the watch was made, I install the case back and the strap and I'm done!



Wrist shot before it goes back to Johnny.




Hope you like it John, and if not it's easily reversed!

Cheers, Al

[atomic]

Geeze Al, you make it look so easy.

I know the caseback was a bugger to get off, so thanks for not giving in so easily. Before I shipped it off I tried and tried and tried and I couldn't budge it (but I was also holding it in one hand while trying to undo with the other).

Nevertheless... AWESOME job. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it! Nice to know my movement is now cleaner than when it left the factory, too.

Can't wait to put on my blue/yellow Simona gator.

Thanks again.

[amanda]

I like it.. why didnt panerai do that from the start I ask!!!

Great work Al... really great work I reckon Johnny will LOVE it!

[atomic]

Geeze Al, you make it look so easy.

I know the caseback was a bugger to get off, so thanks for not giving in so easily. Before I shipped it off I tried and tried and tried and I couldn't budge it (but I was also holding it in one hand while trying to undo with the other).

Nevertheless... AWESOME job. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it! Nice to know my movement is now cleaner than when it left the factory, too.

Can't wait to put on my blue/yellow Simona gator.

Thanks again.

[mamas]

Great work AL! that is really nice of you to do this ... prefer the original hands myself.. but whatever rocks the owners boat! i guess it will make th watch stand out as a custom piece

[wasatch]

Awesome, Al! Thanks for letting catch a glimpse of your watchmaking world. I really enjoy these posts.

[Archer]

Thanks guys - it wasn't a particularly hard task, but there were some frustrating moments!



But those make it even more satisfying when the job is done.

Here's a lume shot - the hands show up as being much greener than the markers, but in fact live the markers are quite a bit brighter than the new hands, and the colour difference isn't so apparent.




Glad you guys enjoy these posts. Wait until I finish Ben's Hamilton.....that will be a loooooong post!

[atomic]

The lume doesn't bother me in the least. It's nice to have, but the reality is it isn't something I depend on.

And the beauty is, if I ever sell the 210 or fancy a swap back to black, it's a relatively simple (for Al) job to do and can be done in a matter of days, accounting for shipping to and fro.

[Sam]

Nice work Al! I quite like the gold hands.

[atomic]

Thanks Sam... the gold hands are actually historically more accurate, since all the Pannies made in the 30s through the 50s had gold hands.

[amanda]

Oooh look at that lume, cool stuff indeed!

[amanda]

Another thing - the new hands look substantially thicker than the old ones, is that an optical illusion based on the gold colour standing out more or are they in fact thicker?

[Archer]

I didn't measure the hands but I think this is an optical illusion because the original hands are black and sort of blend into the black dial. When I put the hour hand on I thought the same thing and did a double take, but if the gold hands are any bigger it's not by much.

[langnam]

Well, Al, that work is pretty amazing! Can the original hands be re-used ? I always thought once they were pried off, they were meant to be discarded.

[atomic]

amanda said:

Another thing - the new hands look substantially thicker than the old ones, is that an optical illusion based on the gold colour standing out more or are they in fact thicker?

I agree with Al that it's an optical illusion. I didn't measure but when I placed the new hands on top of the crystal to see how it would look, they seemed to be pretty much identical in size.
As Al said, because the old hands were black, you only really saw the lume from the hands.

Marc, I may be wrong but from what I understand the hands can be reused. I know Al will correct me if I'm wrong, but I would think if you don't get the hands on correctly and you'd have to take them off and try again, that would get expensive, fast, knowing how much hands cost.