River 6154 case and Belkin dial help

[gwbmcse]

Hey guys, been around for a bit but not posting too much. While I have good experience with vintage Rolie's, I've just decide to dive into vintage PAM's and I need some assistance.

I have a new River case set and a Belkin Roleria 39mm dial but I dont have the movement yet, its a 6497. The dial looks really thin, like .5mm maybe? I havent put the micrometer to it but the sandwich dial River sent with the case is really thick which obviously raises some questions I dont encounter much on a 1675 or a 5513...

How do you make up that gap? Will a sterile sandwich dial from EBAY work or do I need a simple 6497 backplate? I saw there may be a need for a rehaut spacer? And then there's the hands. Obviously River sent long tube hands given his sandwich dial so I hope those are good. I really dont want to do any CP modding as this thing may never work. The seconds pinion will have to be clipped but that's no issue.

Anyone having done the same project, please let me know what modifications you had to make. I havent felt like I was up to my ears in doubt in a long time. LOL

[hako]

Measure the thickness of the Belkin dial and cut a backplate from appropriate thickness brass sheet metal. The thickness you get from the difference between your Belkin dial and the River dial. You can add dial feet on the backplate if you wish.
In any case you glue both dials together. I use very thin 0.1 mm double sided tape to be able to undo every thing again. Make sure that you take the tape thickness into account.
The sheet metal is available from eBay.

[mountaineer]

I cannot speak for River’s case specifically.

All of my builds I use the cheap two piece 6497 sterile dials. This will give you a backplate with feet.

Split the top piece off. Add Belkin’s dial to backplate using dial dots. Get creative if you need to adjust thickness. Maybe you do not need to remove top piece.

Sounds like tall tube hands will take care of cannon pinion height

[hako]

Make sure you have an H3 CP. River‘s tall tubes a smaller than you think.

[thelonedoc]

I built essentially the same watch a couple of years ago.

On ebay you can find cheap 6497 0.5mm dials that have dial feet already.

What I did was use some thin double sided tape (carpet tape) to attach the belkin dial.

Worked very well.

[Belkin12]

As far as I remember the best dial thickness for the rivers 6154 case is 1.8mm. So a backplate of 1.1-1.2mm thick + dial dots will give you the necessary 1.8mm. As guys rightly say the best option is to use a spare 6497 dial(s) with feet.

[gwbmcse]

As far as I remember the best dial thickness for the rivers 6154 case is 1.8mm. So a backplate of 1.1-1.2mm thick + dial dots will give you the necessary 1.8mm. As guys rightly say the best option is to use a spare 6497 dial(s) with feet.

I ordered a sheet of 1mm thick brass to cut a backplate from. Between the glue to adhere the backplate and dial dots, I should be close to 1.8mm, Thanks for your help sir.

[Phaedros]

If you drill a hole into the backplate in the correct position, you might get away without snipping the second pinion. It usually only stands out by a hair and you don’t risc damaging anything in the process.
There are also „no second“ fourth wheels for the eta movements on ebay for relatively cheap.

[gwbmcse]

If you drill a hole into the backplate in the correct position, you might get away without snipping the second pinion. It usually only stands out by a hair and you don’t risc damaging anything in the process.
There are also „no second“ fourth wheels for the eta movements on ebay for relatively cheap.

I was thinking about doing that just in case I wanted to use the movement for something else later on but have decided a 6497 is cheap enough from Ali if I want another. Some snip, some file but that seems risky to me. It's only 2 bridges to get to the seconds wheel, pull it, snip it, put it back in I think you can get that wheel for fairly cheap on Cousins and/or Esslinger. I have seen the seconds wheel sans the pinion too if you wanted to replace it proper. That leaves you with the ability to put it back if you ever needed it.