Installing hands on raised dials?

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Subterfuge

Member
Mar 10, 2018
33
24
8
Hi HB!

I recently bought a beautiful franken rolex date 15010 with a gen swiss eta 2824-2 from a fellow member on this forum. Everything was as advertised, except for the datewheel that was grossly misaligned, as such, I decided to take matters into my own hands and realign the datewheel. Turns out it was just a glued on wheel so it was fairly easy to detach and reattach in the correct position. I really only ran into problems when I reinstalled the hands on the dial, it caused me the most grief. On hindsight, I should've snapped a photo of the handstack before pulling it apart.

As you know, most of rolex date/datejust models have raised indices/markers and I realise the cannon pinion clearance may have been compromised due to the dial spacer used by the watchmaker who put the timepiece together. I find myself having to bend the minute hand in order to clear the height of the raised markers, but as you can imagine, i had to do the same for the second hand. It was most frustrating when I thought I had it right but discovered the next day when I was enjoying the watch on my wrist that the hands would get stuck at the 25 min mark.

I had to redo it and now everything is fine, but my question here is whether the best practice is to simply pin down the hands on the pinion as much as possible? Or is it to allow slack depending on the intricacies of the dial? If the latter, I notice my minute hand came loose quite easily when it was installed high enough on the pinion to avoid bumping into the markers and operated fine for time adjusting but would eventually fall off during usage.

Can any experts shed some light on this matter?

I know the land of franken/put together watches is quite murky and this sorts of problems are usually not found in all original parts watches, but some advice from the modders/rep community will go a long way in me honing my skills! Thanks.
 

tribal

Member
Feb 26, 2018
28
9
3
Best way is to get H4 pinions on the Eta 2824-2


Gesendet von meinem MI 4S mit Tapatalk
 

bobandshawn

Well-known member
Mar 24, 2018
107
58
28
Best way is to get H4 pinions on the Eta 2824-2
k
Best, but more complicated for sure. The hands need to be set firmly, but not too "hard". In this situation knowing that I would have to ever-so-slightly bend the hands, i would mount it all up and wait. If it gets stuck, go in from the front to adjust the hands this time. Then wait another day and see. Try it in different positions in case the mvt screws aren't really tight.

Close it up!

B
 

tribal

Member
Feb 26, 2018
28
9
3
That works I know, but this is not a clean install.
If you have a Date overlay you need also spacer for the Dial.
So there is not much room for the hands to rotate free.
You can get a H4 Set cheap on the bay.

Gesendet von meinem MI 4S mit Tapatalk
 
OP
S

Subterfuge

Member
Mar 10, 2018
33
24
8
thanks for the input. the movement did come with a spacer, im not exactly sure how the watchmaker who put it together manage to stack the hands up on the pinion it came with but my vague recollection seems as though the pinion had a lot more height. now on closer inspection, it seems the hour hand may be making faint swirls on my dial because it is installed too close to it...

my best guess is that I may have installed the spacer in such a way the pinion has less clearance now on the dial as the spacer doesn't seem symmetrical with random 'feets' soldered on. But the spacer does have gaps for the dial feet, so there's really only 2 ways I could've mounted it. I've tried both and i run into the same problem either way.
 

tribal

Member
Feb 26, 2018
28
9
3
It's a bit tricky to install the hands with enough space to the Dial.On a 2836-2 it works on a 2824-2 it's pain in the ass.
So here is my WM9 powered by gen Eta 2836-2 with normal pinion height.1055074a00f5c12ee7f7685a73803fd9.jpg

You can see there is enough space for the hands, but this is installed with no dial spacer.
 

pompompurin

New member
Mar 3, 2018
6
4
3
what hands are you using?

get the raffles tall post hands - their posts are taller so that you don't need to use H4 wheel/pinion
https://www.ebay.com/itm/ONE-SET-OF-SILVER-DAY-DATE-HANDS-WITH-LUMINOVA-AND-LONGER-POST-FIT-ETA-2836-2824-/352342019454?hash=item5209388d7e

And once you get the raffles tall post hands, they should fit and clear the dial indices. I used the same hands for my franken Rolex date build with 2824-2
MuB06hY.jpg

oh yeah and if you decide to try H4 wheel/pinion swap in the future, opening the trainwheel bridge is like opening a can of worms. Be sure to make sure all the gears are aligned into their appropriate jewels before you screw down the trainwheel bridge. Screwing down the train wheel bridge with misaligned gear posts will result in broken gear posts or possibly even a bent trainwheel bridge
 

TickleShoes

Member
Mar 8, 2018
12
13
3
Better yet, the balance and pallet for should be removed first. Just taking off the minimum amount of parts is a recipe for disaster but the above is correct. You need tall post hands or H4 pinions on a 2824. The 2836 already uses H4 pinions as standard.