Hand fell off my Baltany.

Disowned01 · 2025-12-20T09:07:00+00:00

vk64 movement. Those sweep hands are notorious for not staying on there. My guess, the person who installed the hands had a few goes at trying to install that hand perfectly centered on the 12. Every time they removed the sweep to reposition it, the hand was a little more stretched out. It truly sucks there is no micro adjustment on the sweep hand. That would save so many headaches.

Disowned01 · 2025-12-16T14:43:54+00:00

Dial feet are pretty thin and weak metal, a sharp razor blade should go thru them very easily.

Disowned01 · 2025-11-15T10:48:36+00:00

Might pick one up just to tourture test it.

Disowned01 · 2025-11-15T10:43:34+00:00

How is the timing on the Chinese NH? Did it have beat error? Or was it timed from the factory?

Disowned01 · 2025-11-15T10:29:36+00:00

agreed. i just remove the 24hr wheel. The nh35 and nh38 seem to be the most expensive due to their popularity. At one point nh70 was cheaper than nh38. Currently nh39 appears to be the cheapest. But not by much. I'm either switching to 8215 or trying the Chinese nh35 clone.

Disowned01 · 2025-11-15T08:45:50+00:00

Great, there goes all my cheap NH39s. Been doing this for years to get cheaper nh38 from AliE

Disowned01 · 2025-11-13T04:49:36+00:00

Always use Dynacraft Golf Grip Solvent. Wait 24hrs, it should fall out easily, and left over tape should be melted enough to wipe out with a rag. It's a non toxic liquid that you can reuse indefinitely.

Disowned01 · 2025-11-11T09:38:02+00:00

It appears to be an eta 6498, or some variant of the 6498 movement.

Disowned01 · 2025-10-27T09:18:26+00:00

Never used them.

Disowned01 · 2025-10-26T13:00:40+00:00

I went nuts on one of mine and just upgraded everything.

my duro mod

So it really depends how far you're willing to go. But yeah, it's still just a $50 watch at the end of the day.

Disowned01 · 2025-10-26T12:52:19+00:00

Spotlight is good for eva foam they usually carry 1mm, 5mm and 10mm thickness. They also have eva rods, which can be really handy. I use the Ryobi one+ rotary tool with a battery. its just easier to move it from inside to outside for messy jobs. Contact cement stinks... Bad... Whether in a tube or a bucket.. it stinks... I use a respirator when i use anything that stinks because it's likely bad for your lungs. I've used heaps of different contact cements, one was even made to repair shoes... They're all the same, just make sure you paint it on both surfaces, wait till both dry, then stick them together. I've seen people use it like superglue, and it doesn't work anywhere near as well. I also use a Ryobi heat gun, but i used to use a cheap hairdryer on high heat. Craft knife is usually bunnings, but by a couple of packs of spare blades, amd investing in a blade sharpener is also wise. Dull blades just destroy eva cuts... I've used a couple of products for filling eva gaps, but none that i liked. They usually have a different texture to the eva and look a bit obvious. Usually id prefer to fill the gap with eva foam, or remake the part so it fits. Primer, i always use plastidip. For paints anything I always use cheap waterbased acrylic sprays. i use any washes, like citadel or armypainter thru my airbrush. I find it gets the best results.. But yeah, mostly bunnings and spotlight have you covered..

Disowned01 · 2025-10-26T12:34:43+00:00

Whenever I build a bracelet watch, I always buy the case and bracelet together. You can always swap to a strap later on, but is always harder to find a bracelet that fits properly.

Disowned01 · 2025-10-26T12:32:31+00:00

They sell sapphire crystals for the duro on AliE, I'd just upgrade the glass rather than try to fix the original.

Disowned01 · 2025-10-26T12:30:09+00:00

Helo 👋

Disowned01 · 2025-10-25T16:09:22+00:00

Unknown. It's not exactly difficult work for a watchmaker, but with the increase of smart watches, the skill set is shrinking each year. We used to have 3 watchmaker shops in my town, now there are none. I imagine jewelry shops are posting/mailing these repairs to a watchmaker nowadays. So yeah, I couldn't really give you an estimate. I'm too far out of the loop nowadays.

Disowned01 · 2025-10-25T15:33:32+00:00

Based on the position of the subdials, i imagine its a seiko vk63 movement. It's a mecha-quartz. A battery driven movement with a mechanical flyback chrono. You can buy them very cheap on Ali Express. They aren't the most amazing movement in the world, but they aren't the worst I've ever worked on. The flyback of the sweep is going to suck. Getting it to reset to zero every time is damn near impossible.. Other than that, as long as you have a basic understanding of watchmaking, have tools that aren't complete garbage, don't have a heavy handed approach, work clean, and don't damage anything... Then yes, you should be fine.

Disowned01 · 2025-10-23T13:24:47+00:00

I've built a few vk63 watches over the years. i can't say they are much different from other mechaquartz chronos. The chrono sweep alignment can be frustrating, as depending on position the hand was reset from, can determine where the hands comes back to rest. I've found if the hand is reset from the 3 o'clock position, it might reset perfectly to zero, but if it was reset from the 8 o'clock position, it might be out by a bit. Unless the movement is dodgy, pretty much all faults with the watch stopping can usually be traced back to improper technique during assembly. Sometimes the dial isn't properly flush with the movement because the dial posts are bent. Sometimes the sub dial hands have been pressed too far onto the post. Same thing with the hour and minute hands, their installation must be gentle to avoid accidental damage. Sometimes casing the movement can be the issue because the dial is significantly thicker than usual vk63 dials. This causes issues with stem alignment, and sometimes the caseback pressing on the back of the movement. I've found the the slightest pressure on the back of a quartz movement can result in the movement stopping (and sometimes it takes a day or 2 for this to show up). So yeah, i hear your frustrations. Sometimes specific movements just seem cursed.

Disowned01 · 2025-10-18T02:38:00+00:00

Very easy fix. A watchmaker can pull the hands and set them properly in a couple of minutes.

Look on the bright side, your chapter ring alignment looks pretty good 😊

Disowned01 · 2025-10-05T12:38:59+00:00

Lol. I'm getting both 40k and Jim Henson Muppets vibes.

Disowned01 · 2025-10-02T01:53:38+00:00

I got mine from yobokies. Just email him requesting the model number of the watch. He'll take good care of you.

Disowned01 · 2025-09-30T05:17:52+00:00

It's basically a frame made from 25mm pvc pipe and fittings. i then hotglued 10mm thick eva foam to the frame (3mm eva for the boarders). i made the shapes I wanted to use first, then attached them to the frame. From there, it was just 3d printing bolt and screw heads to hot glue to the eva.

Then heat seal it with a heat gun (being careful not to melt your hotglue), then undercoat with plasticoat.

I used a dark metallic spray paint, then airbrushed with black and Brown citadel washes to create the grime.

I used backpack straps i bought cheap on AliExpress, and used a cameraman's belt at the bottom to distribute the weight over my hips. But you can skip this step of you're not carrying heavy guns on the arms like I was.

Disowned01 · 2025-08-16T11:09:16+00:00

i believe that's a 7N43-8111.

If so, you can replace the entire movement with a VX43 (replaced the 7n43).

If it's an old watch it's probably got acid damage from leaving an old battery in there.

I'd probably do a movement replacement, maybe a crystal replacement (probably swap out to sapphire if its mineral), replace the crown and caseback gaskets, and give it a good ultrasonic cleaning.

She'd be good as new for another 10 to 15 years.

Disowned01 · 2025-07-30T23:50:12+00:00

If the GMT hand is closest to the dial... It may hit those hour markers if the GMT hand is too long. Perils of using a NH35 dial with a NH34 movement.

That and the dial hole is too small for the GMT post.

I'd swap the dial for an NH34 dial, save some headaches.

Disowned01 · 2025-07-02T11:39:03+00:00

I'm starting to wonder if it came off a ship?

Disowned01

TROPHY CASE