Angelus 240 cal Movement: The movement was fully stripped and carefully inspected. Many parts were checked under a microscope for signs of wear. Below are images of donor movements. Any part that was worm was replaced, the movement was then cleaned and fully serviced and then rebuilt. It was also checked on a Timegrapher and is accurate to an average of 7 seconds a day...

 

Case Type: The shape isn’t accurate and the finish is brushed stainless steel but the lugs are large and there’s enough metal for me to re-shape the case. Also the lugs in this image are about to be re-drilled to take large springbars.

 

Bezel Removal: First stage is to remove the bezel and crystal, the crystal will be replaced with an authentic 1968 Tropic 24

 

Bezel and Tropic Plex: Here the bezel has been machined a little to take the Tropic 24. I was lucky enough to buy an authentic plexi from a batch dated 1968. Here is the plexi added to the bezel for the first time.

 

Case Re-shaping: Here is an image of the case after re-shaping and also with the new bezel and plexi added. The brushed finish has been removed and the case has been fully polished to a smooth finish. The case has also been aged but very lightly, I want this watch to look like its been taken care of. Although there are no dents the case still looks aged, the bright shine that comes with a new watch has gone and the aging is very subtle...

 

Engraving: Authentic cases were not engraved they were stamped. My case hasn’t been stamped but in order to get this finish a fine diamond cutter was used, the alignment, fonts and sizes were closely matched to that of an authentic vintage watch

 

Case and Plexi: Here we see the re-shaped case with the Tropic 24 Plexi fitted

 

Case Back: Made a new case back, slightly different from previous case backs I have made. I have also been a bit agressive when polishing this case back to make it look somewhat worn over the years.

 

Case Back Modifications: Made some small modifications and slightly increased the edge camber. Also I have moved the text Brevettato more to the edge of the case. The plexi has been changed, I haven’t found an off-the-shelf plexi that’s perfect but I did find a plexi that has a very close shape to the authentic version. The trouble is that this plexi needs cutting down so it fits the case back. Here it is fitted the dome is slight and much flatter along the top.

 

Spring Bars: Bought a heavy duty set and modified them to fit this case

 

Stem Tube: Removed the standard type stem tube and replaced with a better Tube as I plan to use a spring loaded crown.

 

Crown: The crown has been turned on and lathe and the “step” removed and replaced with a brass section. The authentic versions uses 6.2 diameter bronze. I plan to also use bronze at a later stage but brass will do for now (I will also age the brass later).

 

Brass Case Ring: Here the case ring has been made to hold the movement in place.

 

Dial and Hands: Here we see the original Angelus hands fitted onto the tall cannon pin, no need for any modifications here, everything (except the dial and case ring) is authentic...the hands have aged nicely over time

 

Dial and Font:Here we see the deep font and “close spacing” font. This type of font was used with Angelus movements. Panerai used different size fonts and also different size font spacing on the Rolexi 618 and Angelus 240

 

Dial Aging and Font aging: Here the dial has been aged and faded. Black dials don’t appear to have aged as much as the brown Panerai dials for example; therefore I haven’t aged this dial too much. Also the dial indices are aged and are “Off White” whereby the dial text is still bright white; this is common on many vintage Panerai watches. The dial indices have” very light lume”.... most vintage watches will have lost their lume over the last 50 years therefore I have been careful only to add a tiny amount of lume to this project.

 

Assembly: The parts come together for the first time.

 

Bridge Work: Whilst the movement is an authentic 240 its does however have the alarm function in place. Authentic Panerai watches had this function removed and a bridge plate was used as a replacement. I have also noticed there are a few types of bridge plates, some have the hole for the alarm winder, some dont have this hole, some have cotes de geneve bridges whilst others have a brushed finish.

 

Bridge Plates: This next section shows how the bridge plate was made. All the work is by hand using thin copper plate.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Electro Plating using Nickel: Once the copper plate has been cut to size its electro plated with Nickel. This process can be carefully controlled by balancing chemicals used to give a close colour/shade and brightness match to the original plates.

 

 

New Bridge added:The new bridge has been added but it doesn’t match the balance wheel bridge, one is a brushed finish the other Cotes De Geneve

 

Bridge Swap: The Cotes de geneve bridge has been removed as it doesn’t match the brushed steel plate that has been made

 

Bridge Comparison: Here we see two types of bridges the Cotes De Geneve bridge will be swapped to brushed steel finish so that it matches the plate that’s been made.

 

Movement with new bridge: Here we see the new bridge plate fitted note how the new plate matches the authentic bridge plate.

 

Thick Crown Guard: This was made from 316 grade stainless steel. The hole depths were drilled to the maximum, this allows for greater screw thread usage.

 

Strap: This is a Gunny Mission Impossible II Here’s the Completed Watch....