Quartz conversion of HMT manual wind watch

[KennethLee]

I love the dial of this inexpensive Indian made HMT manual wind watch.

One day, the minute hand of the watch came lose and was rotating rather freely.

As I was trying to figure out how to remove the movement/dial from the case, I used too much lever force on one of the inside plates and it broke. On further investigation, the watch is opened from front and back.  Only then can the movement/dial be removed; from the front!

It sat in my drawer for months until one day I came across cheap SL68 quartz movement in Aliexpress.

The original hands couldn't fit the SL68 movement.  Holes were too big.  But I discovered that the hour/minute hands from a spoilt quartz Swatch watch fitted the movement very nicely.  The only that couldn't fit was the second hand.

The crown from the HMT watch could be unscrewed from the winding stem and screwed on the SL68 stem. The SL68 stem just needed to be trimmed to the correct length.  Took the opportunity to fit some tiny O'rings over the SL68 stem before setting it in so that water won't enter the watch case thru it.  It can probably just withstand light rain splashes as there are no o'rings in the back/front case.

The dial had 2 pins which blocked the movement from being positioned correctly despite snapping it off.  Hence, the dial is a little off centred.  One day, I'll get a dremel tool to slowly file off the pin remnant so that the movement can be positioned properly.

The movement is stuck onto the dial using double sided tape!

I lost the manual winding function but at least am happy to be able to continue use this watch.  Am now waiting for a watch which uses an SL68 movement to spoil so I can recycle the second hand.

 

 

[Graziano]

21 minutes ago, KennethLee said:

Am now waiting for a watch which uses an SL68 movement to spoil so I can recycle the second hand.

You could try this  use a small oiler and draw the paint on

or head over to http://www.ofrei.com/page501.html they have different colors as well

Edited May 1, 2021 by Graziano