somervillewatchworks

[somervillewatchworks]

Junkyard mod.

[somervillewatchworks]

I like it better on the green strap. It is my NorCal-inspired watch. I think it is reminiscent of the bluff-top meadows along the coast that lead the way to heavy surf!

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[somervillewatchworks]

Based on a Vostok Amphibia and inspired by the Blancpain 55 Fathoms. Pretty pleased with this one. Super fun to collect all the parts together and get them to fit! Will probably paint the tip of the second hand red.

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Not bad!

[somervillewatchworks]

I love this one. Super simple. The dial and hands were the ones that came in the SKX I am fixing up. I just can't get enough of the patina on the hands. It's got a blue coated single dome sapphire crystal.

[somervillewatchworks]

A couple works in progress. The left one is a a Seiko SKX007 that I got from the Philippines. It requires some serious refurbishing. I got a brass bezel insert for it. I baked the bezel insert at 400 F for about 13 minutes to turn the white lume pip a brownish color. It'll take a while to gather parts for the watch I have planned. The one of the right is a Seiko 5 Sport diver from the same guy that I am refurbishing. The bezel is a dodecagon shape that I think is really cool. I am painting the engraved numbers Ted and black. I am going for a red Omega Seamaster-type look. We'll see how it goes. The case needs a new crystal, movement, stem, and crown. Will also take a while to gather up.

[somervillewatchworks]

[somervillewatchworks]

[somervillewatchworks]

Seiko Sea Urchin mod. Dagaz bezel insert and hands. Raffles dial. Painted second hand tip. Hypergrand NATO strap.

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[somervillewatchworks]

I'm not sure yet what to call this watch. I was inspired by the Omega Seamaster Professional seen here. The dial is from a vintage Seiko 5 I got on eBay from India. It is pretty neat up, and has an outside blue ring of indices with submariner style hour applied indices. I removed the Seiko 5 logo and applied my program's logo instead. The bezel insert is from Yobokies and is a nice metallic blue. It's more navy that a marine blue like the Omega, but it works. The hour and minute hands are from Ofrei and have greenish C3 Lyme. The second hand I got from Dagaz, also has C3 Lume, and I painted the tip red with Testors matte mode paint. You can't see it, but the sides of the case were polished silver and I applied a brush finish using a fiberglass 'pen' brush. It's fun to wear; it has a well travelled look to it. The original watch was a Seiko SNZH.

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A couple I did yesterday. The first on the blue strap is an update to my original EIS watch. I added a logo and changed the hour/minute hands from silver to black, and changed the second hand from black to silver. The second I'm calling the Epi Ranger (for now). It is built with a California style dial with metallic silver printed minute indices along the outside, white luminescent hour markers, ranger hands from eBay, and second hand from Dagaz. Built into a Seiko base, of course. I like it!

[somervillewatchworks]

Had metallic logos made at a place online. Planning on making watches for my supervisors and will put this logo on them.

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Just a few pics from doing the quartz GMT build.

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OK this is the first official watch of what I am calling Junkyard Mods.  The case, movement, and chapter ring are all from a vintage Seiko 7009 seiko 5 that I got in Ebay from India.  I skeletonized some black mercedes hands (punched the lume out of them), and the dial is an old russian quartz pulsations dial made for a rectangular watch that I got off Ebay as well.  It’s really fun to mod these old gritty watches.  They are already imperfect and with character, so it takes some of the pressure off!  And some of the old dials are pretty neat.  Oh yeah, I also put a domed sapphire magnifying crystal on it to make the pulsometer easier to read!

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And here it is, my first GMT build!  I did this with a Harley Ronda 515.24H quartz movement and a case from Ofrei.  The red GMT hand was an alarm hand, and I had to clip the pointer off of it to get it down to the right size for the red 24h inner dial.  The GMT hand isn’t independently set-able, and right now just reflects military time.  Eventually i will choose a different timezone, open the watch, and set the red hand to that timezone.  I figure I can make the regular hour hand Eastern time and the GMT hand Pacific time.  

It’s a small watch, so I am going to put it on a black leather bund strap.  Pics when it arrives.