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My Watch Making Journey: Part 2 - The Movement and Dial

 The plan was relatively simple. I had outlined the process I was suppose to do in my head as follow.

  1. Attach the dial to the movement. 
  2. Attach the hands to the movement. 
  3. Put the assembled unit (movement, dial, hands) into the case. 
  4. Trim the winding stem to size and attach the crown and screw on the case back.
All was set. I readied my 5x loupe, set my tools, wore my gloves, and started with the movement and dial.

It was relatively easy to attach the dial to the movement. The dial had pins that would fit through gaps on the movement edge and would firmly attach using screws that would pinch the dial pins against the movement. The movement was supplied with a small spacer so that the dial will not foul up the date complication. On some movements, this spacer is not needed, but for this type, it is definitely a must. This was a relatively easy install. I got a bit more confident after this.

Loosening one of the screws that hold the dial pins.
Movement: Seagull 2813.

Since there are a lot of makers of this type of movement, it is quite hard to say for sure if the movement was really made by Seagull. Other makers are DG and Mingzhu. Since the online seller has Seagull in his posting, I will consider this a Seagull movement.

The Dial.

Sterile white dial that is clearly inspired by Rolex. I opted for the sterile dial (no branding or lettering), because my build would become a replica/fake if there was any sort of branding on the dial. It would effectively make my project illegal. While the design copies heavily on a popular brand, the lack of any branding makes the watch a homage rather than a counterfeit. Some may be uncomfortable with homage watches which is understandable. I on the other hand, am not. Personally, as long as a watch is not a replica (complete with branding and all), I don't have anything against it.

It's been said many times, but allow me to make it clear.

"REPLICA WATCHES ARE ILLEGAL! DO NOT BUY OR EVEN ATTEMPT TO MAKE THEM!!!"

With that out of the way, let's move on.

Dial Spacer. Cutouts on the spacer correspond to the dial pins.

The dial spacer is needed to lift the dial from the movement ever so slightly so as not to touch the calendar wheel. Without this spacer, the calendar wheel will not be able to advance potentially ruining the movement.

Spacer installed on the dial.



Dial installed on the movement. Here I'm advancing the time until the date changes which signify 12 Midnight. You will see the importance of that in a future post.

Step one done! I told myself that the rest would be relatively easy after this.

To be continued...

Enjoy!

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