Part 4, The Final Assembly
With all the decorated parts back from plating Don continues by remounting the wheels on the pinions.
Any out-of-flatness must be corrected, which makes for much work.
Here we see the going train in place.
With the barrel and train bridges in place.
Add the winding train and click (the barrel and winding intermediate screws will be replaced with correctly finished ones later).
A first try at fitting in the case. The stem has not yet been cut to length and is way too long.
From the dial side. We notice that the keyless works has not enjoyed any finishing up ‘til now.
The buckle
Half of the keyless work finished, the other half waiting anxiously to be brought up to snuff.
Now it is time to mount the slate dial and ruthenium plated dial frame on the movement.
The dial frame is held on the dial itself with 3 little feet. They are then mounted on the movement as a unit.
Another fitting test in the case.
Now it is time to mount the hands...
Don had to ream the holes in the hands a bit, so the hands are going to have to be repolished and plated again in the future.
The cannon for the seconds hand. 0.8mm diameter, 1.20mm long, the hole for the seconds wheel axle is 0.25mm in diameter.
Now with the seconds hand mounted.
Before closing up the case a little hop on the timing machine. This looks acceptable.
Now cased up in the prototype case I think you will agree that the combination of gray ruthenium plating on
the movement and dial with the red gold case is magnificent.
Don’s attempt to unify the decoration on the dial and movement sides is quite successful.
The horizontal côtes-de-Genève front and back with rhodium hands and wheels works really well.
Fast-change straps, remarkable idea!
This has been a great story of the making of a one-of-a-kind watch by hand, from start to finish.
We thank Don for sharing with us the journey, processes and pictures to help us to better understand his work
and time spent from conceptualizing to the finished product.
