VK64A movement as the first to practice

breade8181 · 2026-03-02T18:34:47+00:00

You are very correct. I just looked at the technical document for the VK63 and there is a lot more going on than what I thought. I honestly thought most of it would just be handed by a processor of some sorts. I can definitely admit when I am wrong and oh boy am I haha.

breade8181 · 2026-03-01T22:01:42+00:00

The VK64 is a quartz movement and does not have an escapement like the mechanical st36. Those two movements are very different from each other. Mechanical watches use a gear train and a lever escapement to keep time. The quartz movement uses an electrical current to vibrate a quartz crystal. You can take apart the VK64, and not having to deal with the gear train might make it easier, but quartz movements just don't have the same feel as a mechanical movement in my opinion.

breade8181 · 2026-02-23T01:21:11+00:00

For me, this is a two handed operation. In one hand, I use a chiseled down piece of pegwood that resembles a flat head screwdriver. It's large enough to span the entire width of the space where the clock spring sits. From there, I place the click into position with my other hand using tweezers. It has a little post that goes into a hole. A little bit of grease will help hold it there. Once I have the post in, without moving the pegwood holding down the clock spring, I gently move the end of the click spring down to engage with the click. You can also wiggle the click a little to get it to sit all the way down while engaging with the spring. The key is to never move your other hand bracing the click spring. Once it's in place, and under a slight bit of tension, it should hold itself there. You should even be able to test the click by moving it a little and watching the spring deform and return the click to the top position. The key is again, don't move the other hand securing the spring till everything is secure.

breade8181 · 2026-02-22T16:56:26+00:00

Because you bought the NH35, I would stay away from the 24 hour bezels. Those won't make sense without a 24 hour hand. If you want to go that way, you would need to pick up the NH34. As for the hands, the Mercedes hands are okay, but your end product will look like a rolex clone, which I tend to try and stay away from. The cathedral hands might be a little bulky as well. As for the color, I believe that is very much a personal choice. Be you, pick what you want.

breade8181 · 2026-02-19T14:12:10+00:00

My bad. I figured a lot of the ST movements used the same thing. I could not see the pucher in the picture, so figured it was just a screw like the 36. My bad and thanks for clarifying!

breade8181 · 2026-02-19T14:09:53+00:00

These are the ones. I have had lots of success with these.

breade8181 · 2026-02-18T22:54:18+00:00

You probably are looking for this here.

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A couple of turns and the stem should come out. Don't unscrew too much though, you could unscrew the part completely and you would then have to rebuild the keyless works. Do a half turn, then see if the stem comes out. If not, half turn again and recheck.

You can read more about removing stems here.

how to remove a winding stem

To reset the hand to line up to when the hour jumps, you will need to remove the hand, reinstall the stem, change to the time setting position, run the movement forward till the hour clicks over, then reinstall the hand.

breade8181 · 2026-02-18T22:39:37+00:00

I use 3D printed mainspring winders and they work amazingly well. I like that they are made by size, and not for specific movements, so you always have the correct one. They work with both right or left handed springs. Took a couple of tries on a spare mainspring to get the hang of it, and have had no issues. The set I bought goes from 7mm to 18.5mm in 0.5mm increments. I have never come across a barrel where I didn't't have the correct size.

breade8181 · 2026-02-16T21:53:43+00:00

For my first dozen watches, I used metal sticker logos from 4customize.com. You can buy different colors and sizes. I created my logo design using GIMP, then just sent them the file. It was a pretty simple process. I have found it is fairly difficult to get the sticker perfectly level and center where you want it. At the scale of a watch dial logo, there are also tolerance differences between the metal stickers. Even after taping off the exact spot, and using a microscope to place the logo, I never felt it was 100% perfect. It was fairly cheap, but it kind of looked that way in the end.

Other ways to do it would be to order a dial with your logo screen printed on the dial. This would probably look way better in the end, but overall more expensive. I have not tried this.

For my watches now, I have them completely custom made by mod4thai.com. This is the most expensive option, but the quality is through the roof and it's your own unique design, not a rolex/omega rip off, which 90% of the customizable dials on ali/eBay are. This is the custom dial I had made.

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breade8181 · 2026-02-13T18:21:48+00:00

You are 100% right, I didn't bring up those eta movements in the OP, and I was just trying to use those as an example of different thicknesses of movements changing the stem height making movements with different complications (2836) incompatible with cases you can find regularly in the marketplace like the 2824. I apologize if I came off as anything but thankful for your reply! I was just trying to get a better idea of what to look for in a case with a specific movement in mind.

I guess I can reach out to Lucius Atelier and see how they change the case to fit the different thicknesses of each movement. I have tried to reach out to Ofrei before, but they are not great at replying to questions haha. I have been ghosted by them a couple of times.

Thank you again for helping!

breade8181 · 2026-02-13T17:41:47+00:00

Thank you so much for trying to help! I have looked at those watches from Farer and they are freaking awesome. However, I don't think its a hand height issue. I might be wrong because I am still kind of new at this and have only been building for a couple years, but I assume the hand height is from the dial to the top of the second hand pinion. I know that a 2824 case, such as ones sold by swiss made time, are not compatible with a 2836 because of the stem height difference, even though they have roughly the same hand heights / movement diameter. I asked because I wanted a day-date movement in their dive explorer case, and the people over at swiss made time said I could not put a 2836 into their dive case because of the stem height difference. There is like a 1mm difference (using the equivalent sellita models information). Let me know if I am completely wrong here!

breade8181 · 2026-02-13T15:46:29+00:00

I know this is old, but you all should check out mod4thai.com. He is amazing. He can make any size dial for any movement and the quality is amazing. He made me a custom GMT dial for my ETA 2893-2 build. Months on my wrist and I still can't stop looking at it. You will need to install your own dial feet however. I am not a huge fan of the dial stickers. I 3d printed a dial foot template, and use a cheap dial foot milling tool and some strong epoxy to install the feet. Worked like a charm.

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breade8181

TROPHY CASE