Okay, so I’ve been wanting to do a remake of the Patek Philippe Calatrava 5227J-001 for a while now. It’s a beautiful watch, and I thought it would be a fun project to try and recreate it.
First, I started by doing some research. I looked up the specs of the original watch, like its 39mm yellow gold case and the champagne dial. I also checked out some forums and websites to see what other people had done when they tried to remake this watch. I found this one forum where a guy paid $498 for a remake, which seemed like a decent starting point for me. The original one is way out of my league, going for like $41,710 retail and $29,127 pre-owned.
Gathering Materials
Next, I started gathering the materials I would need. I ordered a 39mm yellow gold-plated case online, and found a nice champagne-colored dial that looked pretty close to the original. I also got some gold-tone dauphine-style hands and index hour markers. Oh, and a brown alligator leather strap to complete the look. I managed to find all of these parts online, which made things a lot easier.
Assembly Process
Once I had all the parts, I began the assembly process. I’m not going to lie, it was a bit tricky. I started by carefully placing the dial into the case, and then I attached the hands and hour markers. The movement was a bit more complicated. The original watch uses a self-winding Caliber 324 S C movement that is 3.3 mm thick, but I opted for a simpler, cheaper quartz movement for my remake. It’s not as fancy, but it gets the job done and keeps the cost down.
Fine-Tuning
After everything was assembled, I spent some time fine-tuning the watch. I made sure the hands were aligned properly and that the watch was keeping accurate time. I also adjusted the strap to make sure it fit comfortably on my wrist. It took a few tries, but eventually, I got everything just right.
The Final Result
Finally, my remake of the Patek Philippe Calatrava 5227J-001 was complete! It’s not an exact replica, of course, but I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. It looks great, feels good on my wrist, and it didn’t cost me an arm and a leg. Plus, I had a lot of fun putting it all together.
Here are some of the things I learned from this project:
- Patience is key. It takes time and effort to get all the details right.
- Research pays off. Knowing the specs and seeing what others have done helped a lot.
- It’s okay to improvise. I couldn’t get all the exact parts, but I found good substitutes.
Overall, it was a rewarding experience. I might try remaking other watches in the future. Any suggestions?
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