sfa437 0 Posted December 29, 2009 Well I stole..umm...bought Nembo's vintage Seamaster 300 on RG a few weeks ago and it's been on my wrist a lot but wasn't vintage. Everything was all nice and shiny- looked like it was NOS rather than being the military watch like a NATO Rollie. Here's a few pics of what it looked like before the transformation in the hands of yours truly. Pretty sweet watch but to me this model does not look right all bright and shiny- plus the factory strap HAD to go. PAM249 from RG was selling an OD green NATO that I thought would compliment this watch perfectly so I snapped it up before any of you yokels saw the sales thread. When I got the box I was surprised to find not one new strap but one new one and one that had already seen a lot of use. Solves the problem of distressing the new one. Kudos to PAM249- this little extra really made my day!!! The strap showed fading and a little bit of fraying- absolutely PERFECT for this project!! So I got the strap- now to work on the case. I brought out my trusty chunk of concrete as highlighted in my 2533 thread and went to work. I used an emory board out of the wife's nail kit to "break" the sharp edges on the case and used the concrete to give the case some simulated pits.`I went a bit heavier on the crown side, as this would be the area getting whacked more so than the left side. The bezel got a light bleaching followed up by a few small scratches (one of which occurred in the course of wearing it ). I didn't want to go too overboard here- just give it a well worn look. The dial was good to go as is. The lume is a beautiful creamy white with some slight irregularities and has a good "vintage" look when charged. The plexi recieved the tiniestbit of roughing up- just enough to make it not perfect, mostly centered on the top of the dome- exactly where you would expect the plexi to make contact with hard objects. And of course we had that mirror finish caseback. That just HAD to be dealt with. I could have shaved using this thing as a mirror. Perfect finish for a Breitling- not so much for a military looking Omega This was done with emory board and 1200 grit sandpaper followed up by a Dremel and a wire wheel. Again all sharp edges were "broken" using the emory board and the scratch pattern is what you'd expect to see after dirt/sand got between the strap and case. Finally ya gotta take the wristie :yoda: Overall this was quite an easy transformation from new out of the box to believably vintage. Out of all my reps I'd hazard a guess that this one is going to be the one I never get called out on. It's unassuming, wears smaller than the listed 43mm size and looks great with a little character added. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dingle 57 Posted December 29, 2009 masterbat....*cough*...I mean masterbeater you are Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
AustinTech 0 Posted December 29, 2009 Man, nice job! Looks awesome, probably a perfect fit for you. Nice NATO. I want one Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sfa437 0 Posted December 29, 2009 Thanks guys! The extra NATO that PAM249 sent when I bought the new green one from him is fucking awesome. It fit so damn well into the look I was going for it's insane. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
trailboss99 994 Posted December 29, 2009 Very nice sfa. VDB had best watch out! Col. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sconehead 5 Posted December 29, 2009 Looks ten times better now you've beat it up a bit... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Member X 91 Posted January 6, 2010 Nice work! That looks seriously good. I need to get me some vintage stuff... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Massimo 53 Posted January 6, 2010 Looks spot on, not too much vintagising but just enough. Kudos on the macro shots too, and thanks for the mini tutorial. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
P_Diddy 0 Posted January 31, 2010 have you tried ageing the lume on the dial with a UV lamp? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
PCSAM 0 Posted January 31, 2010 looks great mate ......i have MBW 1660 rolex that could do with vintigising ??????????? it lust looks to good to be true ........................ Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
madcatlancelot 1 Posted January 31, 2010 have you tried ageing the lume on the dial with a UV lamp? When ageing the dial lume using a UV lamp, do you have to remove the dial or can you do it without removing the dial? thanks Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Crab 0 Posted February 5, 2010 (edited) Once again a very good vintage work on that watch. gratz Edited February 27, 2010 by Crab Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
