SCShrek 494 Posted April 6, 2021 I didnt even know what a Rolerai was until I saw Rich post his build of one and then started reading up on it. General consensus is no one really knows if these things ever existed at a time when Panerai was getting some of their parts from Rolex but I love all things interesting and the meld of two luxury watch companies was enough for me. I started my quest looking for the dial which is unique. I wasnt able to source a blank brass dial like Rich did from Ross over on HP but Belkin over there makes a terrific dial, so I grabbed two. Since I have never messed with PAM's at all, I wanted a watch to experiment on and then a proper one so I went to Ali and got a $40 copper plated case. It's still vintage PAM but not correct for what a Rolerai is "supposed" to be. For that, I went to River and purchased one of his 6154 case sets which is slightly cheaper than Athaya. River's set comes with everything including a choice of case back, extended tube hands, movement ring, etc. The Ali case, not so much . A couple of 6497's from Ali which ended up being a ST36 swan necks and we are in business. So lets get to it: The first hurdle was the movement. They came with the seconds hand pinion protruding from the top of the movement. You can find this procedure here on RWG, but I am going to put it here too. I decided, rather than clip the pinion, I would do it the correct way and learned a good deal... The first one went flawlessly: This is what we must remove Pulling a couple of bridges exposes the train: The seconds wheel is easily removed after removing the train bridge and the small bridge on on the escapement wheel. It's the one engaging the escapement wheel. Snip the pinion but not too short as it will not go back into it's jewel and you will be screwed. I almost went too short with mine. Back together and no pinion poking up through the hole Next came the case. Several ways to vintage a case...the egg method, the heat and douse in coffee grounds method but I decided to go with the chemical method. There are a fair few homegrown chemical mixtures I found but I wanted something I know would work and settled with this: No need to remove the Xtal, just need to remove the mirror finish with a Scotch Brite pad and apply with a QTip. Stainless turns black...dark black instantly. Dunk it in water to stop the reaction and some of the black will wipe off with a paper towel. It will look something like this. Take the Scotch Bright to it until you get the right amount of oxidation off that suits the amount of grunginess you want. It's easy and foolproof as it can be polished all the way back to mirror if you want. This is what I settled on. I did use the egg method on the hands for the stainless case, three hard boiled egg in a plastic baggie with the hands not touching the eggs for about 15-20 minutes Now came the fun part. River's case is fitted for a 3 layer dial that's 1.8mm thick. Belkins dial is .5mm . I went looking for sterile dials and found some at about $15 each but then ran across this at my local hardware store for $0.48 and it was exactly the thickness I needed. And since the ST36 provides ample room for 2 sided tape, I decided not to epoxy feet to the spacer. This is called a hurricane tie in the states... A bit of dremel work later... I sandwiched everything together and done. I did exactly the same thing with the copper case except I ran to an issue with the seconds wheel (see below) and I was able to use the footed back plate of an old 2 piece PAM dial as this case wasnt as deep. Applied the same blackening but didnt do anything to the hands but relume. Some finished pics: I promised a little epilogue... On one of the watches, when I removed the seconds gear, I accidentally pulled the escapement wheel with it. I thought, no problem. It took multiple attempts (and no, I'm not saying how many) before I realized the escapement wheel was not fitting back in it's jewel because I had snapped the small part of the pinion off in the damn jewel... The right side pinion is supposed be a little longer. PSA, be very careful pulling gear out of a movement Since these wheels are around $18, I just ordered a new movement for $30. It came in a padded envelope and a bent stem... good thing I had extra parts...well, I thought the stem was bent until I tried to pull it out. Had to take apart the keyless to get it out and I hate keyless works! I think this was dropped as well because it was +73 s/d on the timegrapher and a beat error of 2ms. I have the timing adjusted to -2s/d now and wasnt going to worry about the beat error, but it's so bad, it needs help getting started and tends to stop. It has a lever to adjust but I'm suspecting the balance wheel may have come out of it's jewel. Any watch smiths want to chime in ? Anyway, once I get the movement sorted or replaced...again, I will be extremely happy with these two. Thanks for looking 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SCShrek 494 Posted April 6, 2021 Sun came out so here's some in natural light. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Simonix 8,660 Posted April 9, 2021 Great work, and brilliant write up! love the stainless steel blacking. I have been trying to find something like this for a long time. Will have to see if I can find the same stuff for my builds too. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tribefan 6,768 Posted April 9, 2021 Fantastic work Shrek. What nearby household items were destroyed in the multiple attempts to get the train bridge re-seated? Love that copper case. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
NCRich 13,746 Posted April 9, 2021 Very nice! Great stuff. Imagine the odds of you killing a movement, I mean that has to be like one in a million. Just kidding, really nice looking watches. I see the copper cases on Ali, who did you order from? 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SCShrek 494 Posted April 9, 2021 7 hours ago, tribefan said: Fantastic work Shrek. What nearby household items were destroyed in the multiple attempts to get the train bridge re-seated? Love that copper case. Fortunately, my destruction seems to be limited to watches... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SCShrek 494 Posted April 9, 2021 6 hours ago, NCRich said: Very nice! Great stuff. Imagine the odds of you killing a movement, I mean that has to be like one in a million. Just kidding, really nice looking watches. I see the copper cases on Ali, who did you order from? Got it here: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005001271662059.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.5c6c4c4dpdYBEf Even the larger movements are no match for my powers of destruction!!! On a side note, removal and replacement of the stem is a lot less harrowing on the 6497 although I have since gotten the hang of it on the 28xx 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
BadPickle 2,746 Posted April 10, 2021 Nice work there, Belkin makes some rather super looking dials too. maybe it’s the pics but think both need a slight tweak to get them centred but overall a real good job 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mbari 2,227 Posted April 16, 2021 Nicely done! Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
