I saw a Fortis Marinemaster kit on e-bay. Seller claims it is a NOS set, but there are some online discussions debating wether it is a reproduction kit from China or not. The set was not too expensive and I decided to buy it. I also bought an Accurist donor watch that has the appropriate ETA calibre 2783. I want to state for the record that I do not claim this to be an authentic watch, but rather a fun project for my own amusement.
Let’s start off by having a closer look at the kit. The case back looks well made!
Dial looks very good.
Case is well made.
Case ring looks correct.
Rotor looks good.
Hands look good.
Case back markings.
Here is the donor watch. Fair to say nothing hugely important will be lost in the world of horology.
The movement is in top condition.
Not bad for a watch that probably has never been serviced since new.
I must admit I do like the tiger eye dial effect!
Dial and hands taken off and everything looks very good.
Well I have to change the rotor.
I push the rotor bearing out of the osculating weight.
I then push fit the bearing onto the new osculating weight .
Like magic, the Accurist movement has been transformed into a Fortis movement;)
I start taking the movement apart. Here you can see the autowinder gears.
It does not take long until it’s almost completely apart.
Old mainspring before taking it out of the barrel.
All the parts cleaned and ready to be put back together.
I dip the pallet, escape wheel and cap jewels in Epilam
I see that the balance moves freely after fitting the cap jewels.
Gear train comes together.
Base movement back together and running.
ETA performance.
I dip the autowinder wheels in Lubeta.
The date mechanism back in place.
Oops.. Dial feet do not align with the movement or date ring…
Well this is not going to work…
The old dial feet get chopped.
Dial foot soldering time!
I have customised the tip of my soldering gun.
After a lot of trial and error I get somewhere. I still have to match the dial foot master; Christian at watchguy!
Lets try again…
Yes! That took a lot of attempts! Phew, I did not burn the dial.
The hands go onto the movement.
I have to say, the movement looks pretty snug in its new case.
Too large for my wrist, but I like it!
3 Responses to Project Fortis Marinemaster
So dial is aftermarket?
I do not know.
Cool project, and a vast improvement on the Accurist…..
Thanks for sharing openly and honestly!