1655 cartel build
After a couple of high end builds which used expensive parts I felt the need to go back to some more basic stuff.
You know, I do like to build watches with HQ parts as they satisfy my eye for detail, but at the same time (from a modder's perspective) a "basic" build made using as many parts coming from the donor watch as possible represents a true challenge, and a playground where you can really grow and show some skills.
I had this 1655 laying in my drawer that was waiting for his destined dial to arrive from Vietnam. I was looking at it and thinking "Hey look at this, it appears cartel has improved their orange GMT hand, now it's very nice!", I thought it would be cool to use it but the dial was still showing those incredibly ugly neon orange markers. I thought they where beyond any chance of salvation, but maybe I was wrong.
The dial I used on this build went through a lot: I aged it, relumed it, textured it and aged it again then matte sprayed it. I was happy with the dial, then my thought was "how far can you go?" and I decided to complete the build using only cartel parts.
Same as I do with higher end builds, this cartel case went through a heavy reshaping session in order to remove metal from the lugs side and correct the ugly OOB case shape.
CG's have been retouched accordingly and lugs drilled to accept 2mm gen-spec springbars.
Cartel bezel was aged to match, while plexi was left untouched as that's how I like them on rolexes.
I think the final result is nice despite its limits, but I do know each one of us looks at his own son with an often too kind eye, let me know what you think about it
A few more pics:
That's it for now, hope you enjoyed the pics!