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Inside the Best Replica Rolex Daytona |
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Articles -
Watchmasters Corner
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Written by Ziggy Zumba
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Page 4 of 4
Why not disassemble
completely??
If your following along, you note that new gears have to be press
fitted on the original posts to carry the motion to a new location on the dial. These new
gears and the shafts they go over are small, the shaft diameter is 0.18mm, or about the size of
the period at the end of this sentence. Unless the watch was broken, then in my view, it is too
risky to press the gears off the stems when you don’t know the quality of the gear material.
It looks like brass, which is very soft, whereas most Valjoux gears are made from Glucydur, an
extremely hard and stable material.
Conclusions
So now that we know how
they did it, what is the final verdict?
No question on the movement origin, it’s a real
Valjoux 7750. The basic movement is very well made, fantastic finish on all the parts, and
runs really well. It’s a strong runner and by itself should last a lifetime if serviced
correctly and maintained over the years. The additions made to the top of the movement, are
well-done, good quality on the bridges and gears etc. Most of the pivots are jeweled, except
for the one that should be jeweled but isn’t (running 6 seconds).
So overall a great
piece of engineering, how well will it hold out in the long run is anyone’s guess. What will
fail first is the running seconds, simply because of the extra drag from 5 new gears,
non-jeweled pivot, the drag from that big gear in the center of the movement. All added
together – it certainly exceeds the design limits that the movement was originally intended to
power. Proof of this is to simply look at the design drawings of the variants (7753, 7765 etc)
of this model, every added gear is mounted to have the least possible resistance on the
movement.
How to make it last.
Good chance that the chrono large seconds
hand will slip on the shaft and stop resetting to zero. Common chrono flaw. Fix = don’t reset
any further than +- 10 seconds from the 12 position.
Have the movement oiled, so the new
bridge and gears are offering the least resistance to the movement.
Get a jewel
installed in the bottom of the running seconds pivot, biggest improvement for
sure.
Is it worth it??
If you’re a Daytona fan, and must have the
post-2000 model, then I guess it is. The 7750 has about 2 thousands of clearance between it
and the case interior, the smallest I have ever seen, it’s a really tight fit.
On this
particular model, one of the movement hold down clamps was out of place and not attached to the
case side grove, the top pusher was sticking and needed to be lubricated, and the 12 hour
counter reset to the 4 position. A bit of a let down for the price paid.
These are
small details, but unless you can open the case, remove the movement and remove and reposition
the 12 hour sub dial hand, reattach the movement clamp, and lube the pusher, then your left
with a watch that the chrono doesn’t work, and possible problems because the movement is loose
in the case.
If you remember I said I would eat a balance wheel if they did what I
figured was impossible, got to go now, I think it’s time to pass it (God I hope it doesn’t come
out sideways like the last one did…..)
Articles 
Asian 
Daytona 
Rolex 
Watchmasters Corner 
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Ziggy Zumba |
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 14 August 2007 )
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