Hamilton 870 conversion: PAM homage

In my last Bulova completion post (http://iwanttomakeeverything.blogspot.com/2012/04/bulova-16ac6497-pocket-to-wrist-watch_27.html) I eluded to the need to work on the Hamilton 870, lo and behold here I am with the completion already. The movement comes out of a Hamilton Masterpiece pocket watch from the Swiss buy out era and the movement is run by a Hamilton 870 which is really an ETA 6497 as I touched upon in the Bulova post. The pocket watch is a 12 size case with the internal dimensions for a 10 size movement.

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The dial is over-sized with a slight bevel to accommodate the larger case size

along with the 12 size hands (if you were to re-use the hands in a 44mm case, the hands would need to be trimmed to fit). The movement must be removed from the front do to the larger-than-movement-dial.

PAM homage watches are relatively commonly built with a 6497 or 6498 variant movement and with that in mind, I shouldn't have to fit the watch in nearly as much with a pilot case. I test fit the sandwich dial I bought for this project and the feet match up perfectly to the Hamilton 870 (the dial was made for a ETA 6497) and next comes soft fitting it to the watch case. I already stripped the case down so I drop the movement in and.....wow, it fits amazingly well. I fit a retainer tab for the movement where a small metal washer is screwed in where the case screw would normally go and on the case side, there is a small slit to accept the retainer tab. I had to find a taller hour wheel to mount the hour hand higher and give the second enough clearance and first assembly complete.

During testing I noticed that the sandwich dial wasn't tightly bonded together and it was creating interference with the second hand. I take apart the sandwich to clean out the old glue and to re-bond it together again. While cleaning the lower portion of the dial I had the upper portion resting on the movement and I came to like the look of the cut out markers of the top part of the dial against steel as it reminded me of my very first build (http://iwanttomakeeverything.blogspot.com/2012/02/hamilton-917-wrist-watch-conversion_16.html) and decided to remove the bottom portion all together, you can even see a bit of the winding mechanism through the cut out number three. Here it is, complete!

I am selling this watch, contact me if you want it.