Initial designs of case.
Measurements for case, lugs taking inspiration from Rolex ref. 5113.
Case profile drawings.
Starting to turn the case from a solid stainless steel billet.
After the billet was faced off for trueness, a center point is made.
Further centering hole.
Turning a recess to hold billet from the inside.
Turning the rough bezel.
Further turning.
Billet reversed, ready to be through-drilled.
Centering the larger diameter hole.
Through-drilling on a milling machine.
Drilling.
Hole completed.
Further turning of stainless steel.
Opening the bezel area before parting.
Bezel area ready to be parted.
Initial parting.
Parting process.
The bezel is coated in cutting fluid, parting slowly.
Rough bezel separated from billet.
Rough bezel ready for reduction in size.
Bezel being faced of and squared.
Flanges on the case-body are manually sawed off.
Sawing one piece.
Once side done.
Sides sawed off. The remaining two parts will be used for the buckle.
Planing the case sides so that they are perfectly square with each other.
Initial milling.
Finalizing the rough cuts of the sides.
Squaring of sides finished.
Sides cut larger than actual case size.
Turning bezel closer to actual size.
More reduction.
Bezel measurements are 1mm off on the inside and outside.
Reducing the thickness of case-body.
Lots of stainless residue.
Further opening of interior hole.
Continued opening of interior.
Making further calculations for cutting of case.
Turning of interior diameter of upper-most part of movement.
Planing the lug area.
Using a .5mm thick cobalt bit to incise the lip for the snap on bezel.
Turning the interior of the case to size.
Piece reversed, turning the case back.
Turning the lug area.
More turning to lug area, this will be reduced at a later point.
Using acetal, I create a gasket for the front and back glass.
Parting the gasket.
Gasket completed.
Turning the glass seating on the bezel.
Checking the fit for the front bezel glass.
Profile of glass seated in bezel.
Turning the rough contour of the bezel.
A special cutter was made to create the bezel shape we designed.
The rough bezel will need to be reduced in thickness, and worked further.
Turning now to the case, starting to give the initial case profile.
Initial profile given.
Turning the case over for the bottom portion of lugs, and movement display back.
Facing off the sides to reduce overall diameter.
Further reduction, work progresses slow at this point.
This photo shows how the original cuts are not squared.
After squaring the lug area is slit-sawed.
Rough cuts for guiding the milling.
Milling down the lug area.
Slowly milling down.
Initial rough measurements with +2mm for each lug.
Further milling.
Rough shape of watch.
Checking the squareness of the case, and the lugs which need reduction (here focusing on the interior lug space).
A provisional photo of work in progress (taken before lug work was carried out).
Further planing of sides to measure.
View of back.
Milling out the lug area again.
Checking measurements and alignment.
Now milling out the lug angle.
Further milling out the outside area of the lugs.
cleaning up the interior area of the lugs.
More rough cleaning of case sides, to reach 40mm diameter.
Checking the sides to a standard sheet.
Sides are cleaner, but need more finishing.
Using a hand file to check certain portions of the case profile.
Back on milling machine to thin out lugs.
Further cutting.
Lugs thinned out, will be shortened at a later stage.
Turning of interior seating for movement.
Checking movement seating with the case mounted on the lathe.
First seating of movement in its case.
The see-through back opening needs to be enlarged more.
Work on snap-on bezel.
Cutting the seating of the bezel, so it sits deeper in the case.
Further deepening the case seating.
Turning the snap on lip with specially formed cobalt cutting tool.
Clearing off another .5mm off the case sides.
Turning snap on lip on the case.
Detail of the snap on lip on the case.
First seating of bezel to case.
Another view.
Initial test of case, dial and bezel.
Deep bezel that will be mirror polished to give a luminescent dial space.
With class fitted.
Glass taken off. Polished sides will reflect the voluminous blued hands and gears.
Work on the lugs, turning out the thickness from the case-back.
Further profiling of lug bottom.
Lug shapes to be worked and refined.
Hand cleaning case profile.
Initial filing.
Hand filing interior of lugs.
Further filing.
More case-back turning to reduce lug thickness.
Shaping the case back.
Shaping outside of lug profile.
Case back, intermediary stage. The caseback will have a 'bezel' like finish to it (profiling, etc).
Hand test drawing to visually inspect lug profile.
Initial polishing of inside of bezel.
Rough grits, much further polishing is in order.
Hand filing of lug profile starts.
This will progress as these are rough cuts.
General outlook of case, to be thinned out and refined significantly.
Checking against original design, lugs are thicker, and need to be thinned out.
Profiling the lug-end on a grinding machine.
Turning a brass bezel holder in order not to mar the bezel with the chuck.
Turning to size.
Parting off.
Bezel insert that will be split so that it can be opened by chuck.
the profile of the bezel is changed from a slightly domed to flat conical bevel.
Profile of bezel helps reduce the visual perception of thickness of the case.
Another view of the profile.
Opening the case back.
More work on the band portion of the lugs.
The hand files were finished with an angled edge to to be able to file the profile.
More fine finishing is required, but the general view of the watch (here with the temp. dial, and a gear to see the effect).
This is a photograph with the 'straight bands' of the lugs polished.
Another view. The profile of the lugs still needs work.
The interior of the bezel is polished here on the lathe and a dremmel drill with a 800 grit sander.
Then with a cloth polisher and polishing paste.
Then with diamond paste.
The interior still has very minor flaws that are visible as 'grain' from the cutting tool.
The process was repeated, this time with differing grits of sandpaper held against piece of steel to create more pressure on the bezel.
Near acceptable results with only the faintest inclusions.
Here the temporary dial so that reflections can be seen.
Thinning out the lugs.
The lug base has been reduced. The back of the watch will be further turned so that it is nearly the same thickness as the top bezel (this will reduce the overall impression of thickness).
Lug length slightly reduced.
A series of views on the bottom styling of the lugs. I've shaped them so to complement the dynamism of the front angled view.
The downward gesture and the 'claw' or 'hook' lugs helps to break the vertical/cylindrical aspect of the case. The case side still needs further work.
The area between the lugs still needs to be cleaned up.
The side profile is very art-deco and 1940s mix.
Here I've drawn a line where the back 'bezel' will be made. This will give the impression of a thinner overall case.
Working on the area between the lugs.
I'm re-touching the bottom portion of the lug base.
I used an especially thin pointed cutter to reach into the angle of the case and lug.
A detail of the lugs as they are being hand filed to shape.
The back of the case, the lugs need to be finished and the back bezel given its final shape.
Profile of the case bezel and lugs.
This image with the first bezel, shows the reflection in the rehaut of the bezel.
A b/w image of the color photos shared with you.
Another view of the profile to see the reflection inside the bezel area.
Starting the crown from a 316L steel rod.
Turning the stem portion of the crown which will go into the case.
Creating the bevel to the crown outer and inner sides.
Creating a guide hole for the stem.
Drilling the hole for the stem.
This hole is a diameter smaller than needed.
Final diameter to be tapped drilled with another bit.
Here I am tapping the hole to give the thread. It is very time consuming as the threads have to be cut at a quarter turn each, to reduce risk of the tapping tool breaking inside the crown.
Next is the stem.
I cut and thread the stem in segments so that I can apply maximum torque on the piece (and get the best threads) and thereby no break the stem in the process.
Here is the first portion of the thread, with the start having a taper.
The whole length of the thread. it will be cut to measure at a later stage.
Checking if the stem an crown threads mate correctly.
The stem ready to be given the slot for the typical Guye winding system.
Starting the slot with a jeweler's saw.
Then filing the slot with a screw head file.
Slot given to the stem.
Here the slotting cutter is being centered by use of a .10mm drill.
Here I clean the portion behind the crown so that when milling the grip there is clearance for the cutter.
The crown placed into the milling machine.
Milling the grip.
View of how the cutter and crown are during the milling operation.
Since the cutter is a HSS blade, and this is Stainless, each cut is made very slowly and with lots of coolant in order not to ruin the cutter.
Eight lobed grip on the crown. I've done this so that there is still a semblance of a ribbon the same thickness as that of the lugs.
Dressing the bevels of the crown after the cutting of the grip.
Further cleaning of the swarf left on the crown from milling.
Turning the time setting push-pin.
It will be parted after the case holes have been drilled.
Here I am cutting a piece of gasket nylon to be able to pressure fit the front and back glass.
Cutting a hole in order to be able to more easily remove the interior material
Checking the outer diameter of the gasket against the bezel.
Turning the interior diameter of the gasket.
Checking against the glass.
Gasket parted off. The difference in diameter between glass and gasket is of .7mm. This amount 'gives' by the nylon and keeps the glass in place.
Checking the seating on the bezel with the glass.
The case back is being turned, here I'm facing the back off.
The glass seat has to be expanded as I originally cemented the crystals to the case, so they were a snug fit.
The back bezel still needs to be faceted.
Here I am cleaning up the interior of the case.
Turning at a high speed with a pointed cutter to give a good smooth finish.
Interior of case cleaned up.
Here I'm machining a piece of acetal (hard plastic) to hold the bezel.
Fitting the bezel and cleaning up the surfaces.
Further cleaning of the bezel surfaces.
Further cleaning of bands on the bezel.
