Unitas 6497 Custom Watch

[JBerry]

Hey folks, I'd like to share a watch I put together for my Brother's birthday.

The movement is a pretty old Unitas 6497 which I picked up from the widow of a watchmaker a year or so back, the plates have been skeletonised and I'm pretty sure this was a once off job by the watchmaker.
The mainplate is brass, and the decorated bridge plates appear to have been plated (quite crudely, when inspected under a loupe).
The movement is keeping great time now that it is serviced.

I made an attempt at a logo using the film-free transfer technique Mark has used in a couple of recent Youtube videos.
The logo didn't adhere very well to the dial, not particularly happy with it. In person and to the naked eye it looks pretty good I think.

The case is a 41mm case I picked up from Ofrei, who I sourced the dial and hands from also.

Hope ye like it!

Edited July 7, 2019 by JBerry
Spelling

[Nucejoe]

Absolutely gorgeous watch. 

[tritto]

Nice work, especially creating your own dial logo.
How have you found the ofrei case? I was considering one for my own project and would have paid the extra for the case (compared to the ones straight out of China), but Ofrei's international postage is criminal (around $80US if I remember rightly).
Here's mine, also built out of an old pocket watch.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[jdm]

Various cases for the Unitas can be found on AliX. These are the same sold by Ofrei and any other.

[jdm]

And  very pertinent on this subject the video made by out Host Mark Lovick 

 

[JBerry]

On 7/9/2019 at 12:56 AM, tritto said:

Nice work, especially creating your own dial logo.
How have you found the ofrei case? I was considering one for my own project and would have paid the extra for the case (compared to the ones straight out of China), but Ofrei's international postage is criminal (around $80US if I remember rightly).
Here's mine, also built out of an old pocket watch.

Thanks! Very nice watch, I love your dial.

I found the case pretty good, quality is better than I imagined for the price. I am in the US at the moment, so postage time and cost was pretty reasonable.

My only issue with the case was that it is designed to have case clamps which are fitted flush with the mainplate of the movement. Which is fine for more modern 6497-1 movements, however my old Unitas 6497 had elevated ledges on the barrel bridge which made the case clamps sit much too high within the case, so I had to file these down to fit my clamps flush with the mainplate... I hated to modify the plate like this, but otherwise the movement would just go back in the drawer indefinitely.

Here are the two styles compared:

 

 

[JBerry]

Here's another source for cases: http://www.shop.sk-watchparts.com/epages/Starck_Andreas44894456.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/Starck_Andreas44894456/Categories/Edelstahlgehäuse/"Edelstahluhrengehäuse für ETA 6497/98"

[Orhorolgy]

JBerry & tritto those timepieces came out looking beautiful!

Thanks for posting and sharing.