Want to make a very unique watch but need some advice

General Discussion
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#1

Hello everyone,

I’ve got a dial from a Mitutoyo dial test indicator that I broke at work. I would love to make that into a very unique watch.

The dial diameter is 36mm, 2mm thick and centre hole is 2.1 mm (I could drill or ream this a bit out if really needed)

Does anyone know if there is a watch kit here where my dial would fit? Would love a mechanical movement one, battery movement will be fine too.

Oh and the dial has no feet, because it had to rotate in the indicator. But I could epoxy some on, does anyone have experience with that and do I have to turn the tiny dial feet pins myself?

Thanks in advance and happy new year!

  • Michael
#2

I measured my diver dial and it’s around 28mm in diameter. Hope this helps

1 Like
#3

This is an awesome idea!!

Yes, if you’re alright cutting down the diameter, you could definitely drop this into a watch. Most Seiko mods use the same diameter dials. I’m not sure the width. DIY uses a sandwich dial which is thicker than average, so I’ll need to measure it when I get the chance. But 2mm sounds doable, as long as you glue the feet on adroitly.

Adding the feet is a common procedure. If you have a dial lying around you can snip and glue. Otherwise I’ve seen kits of spare feet available for sale.

Only recommendation is stay away from GMT models. The fourth hand means a wider center hole and less clearance under the hands. Otherwise this project seems totally doable.

#4

I went back and googled what this looks like. Hmmm…. This may be tougher, because if you cut down the diameter, you lose the markings. 36mm is the total size of some watches (for reference, I never go above 40mm). That includes about 8mm of actual case outside of the dial, so you’re looking at a 44+mm pilot watch.

You might have to do some serious searching on who makes such a large watch, buy one, and swap out the dial. Alternatively, you’re looking at making a custom case. I know people do make cases, but that is outside of my world personally.

All in all may be a bit of a challenge, lessened by every millimeter you’re willing to shave off the dial. But challenges are fun. I’m pretty sure I own the only 38mm tritium automatic in the world, even though the project took about six months to source and resize the parts. That’s part of the magic!

#5

Doing some additional reading, it looks like a lot of ETA watches, especially in the flieger design, go up to 40mm. How small are you willing to resize the dial? That should give a range for searching.

#6

Thanks for the help!
Yea the dial is pretty big… and sadly I can’t get much smaller or I’ll lose the division markings. Maybe I could take it down to 35 mm but the case will block a lil bit off the dial too.
The centre hole is easier to resize because there’s not much details to be lost there.

It’s starting to look like quite the project hahaha…
I was hoping diywatchclub would have a case and movement kit that would fit.