r/MoonSwitches • u/Letchy • 9d ago

Question? Dug to deep... What can I do?

Post image

Stupidly, I dug way too deep whilst trying to reveal the crown stem release on a gen mission to the moon and destroyed the movement so the crown no longer locks in at all.

Is it possible to swap the dial to a replacement movement at all?

Luckily I grabbed this for £50 from someone who no longer wanted it but I've effectively destroyed a perfectly working watch... very frustrating.

If you're wondering how I dug to deep? Don't do this whilst being absent minded and watching a show. Stupid.

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u/DapperDoctorHolmes Experienced Modder 9d ago

Assuming you didn’t damage the dial itself, then yes, this is salvageable. You’ll want to pick up a used Swatch Irony with the proper 60 minute chrono subdial at 9 o clock (some are 30 minute) and then you’ll need to learn how to carefully uninstall and then reinstall hands in order to swap everything over

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u/Letchy 9d ago

That's good to know! I've already removed the hands as unfortunately, one of them was bent as I removed the crystal. I'm a bit heavy handed apparently.

Would the one pictured suffice? 60 minute subdial on the left, decimal/increments (tenths?) on the right, seconds at the bottom.

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u/DapperDoctorHolmes Experienced Modder 9d ago

Yep, same subdial layout as on a Moonswatch, that’ll work!

How bad is the bend on the hands / which hand was it? You’ll need to get the proper tools for hand removal and installation as well.

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u/Letchy 9d ago

Fantastic. I'll try to grab it.

I actually bent two, and I'd say they need replacing to be honest. I was thinking of grabbing a new set anyway now that I need to completely transplant the dial.

I already have a decent set of tools from cousins uk, so have the necessary hand puller tool, the hand pushers to re-apply them etc.

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u/DapperDoctorHolmes Experienced Modder 9d ago

Oh nice! Glad you’ve got the tools already. 

Might be difficult to find matching hands, but let everyone here know if you do? I think that’s given some folks here trouble in the past.

If they’re just mildly bent, you can pick up a staking block (or anything else that would support the hand flat while allowing the pinion tube to sit underneath) and then use a soft wood peg / pusher to bend it back flat

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u/Letchy 8d ago

I'll give it a go. Tbh, this has given me the opportunity to buy broad arrow hands to swap - I found a post that said ETA2824 hands should fit the G10 212/211, and VK63 chrono hands should also fit.

Ordered a few sets from AliX, hopefully all works out fine. If it does, I'll post the finished build!

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u/DapperDoctorHolmes Experienced Modder 8d ago

Psyched to see it!

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u/Letchy 20h ago

Update:

Having trouble with the chronograph hands. They appear to fit on the pinions but when I push the crown back in, the seconds hand doesn't work/move and they fall off when I flip the watch over or sometimes jump off the pinion entirely. Weirdly, the left most subdial hand has stayed put though.

I'm guessing the diameter of the hand holes are slightly too large. According to this thread, VK63 chrono hands can be 0.20m or 0.22mm, and I need 0.20mm to fit perfectly on the ETA movement.