Building an Explorer homage from parts

This is the build I recommend to anyone who wants to start. Nothing here is cut, drilled or modified; every part arrives finished and the whole job is fitting them together in the right order. What you end up with is a 36 mm Explorer-style watch on a mechanical movement, for roughly the cost of a mid-range quartz.

Buy the cheap tools first. A beginner set will seat hands exactly as well as professional equipment will, and you will have a much clearer idea of what is worth upgrading after the first build than before it.

Choosing the movement

The NH38 and the NH35 are the same movement with and without date work. If your dial has no date window, take the NH38: an NH35 behind a dateless dial leaves a date wheel turning where you cannot see it, and the quickset position on the crown does nothing. Match the movement to the dial you have actually bought.

Set aside a clear evening and a lit bench. Most of this is unhurried, but the hands are not, and stopping halfway through those is how parts get lost.

Fit the stem and seat the dial

Take the crown and stem out of the case and push the stem into the movement for now. You need it to advance the hands later, and it is easier to fit before the dial is in the way.

Hold the dial against the movement and look at the feet. Dials are made with several sets so one part fits a range of movements, and the sets you are not using have to come off, or the dial will sit proud. Snip them flush with side cutters, close to the dial back, and check there is no stub left standing.

Line the remaining feet up with their holes and press the dial down evenly with your fingertips until it sits flat against the movement plate. Press on the edge, never the centre.

Fit the hour and minute hands

This is the part that decides whether the watch runs, and it is worth more time than everything else here put together.

Do not pick hands up with steel tweezers. Twist a piece of Rodico to a point and lift each hand with that instead; it grips well enough to place a hand and will not take the lume off the back of it.

Set the movement to twelve, then place the hour hand pointing at twelve and press it onto its pinion with a hand pusher. Press harder than feels reasonable and press square. A hand that is on at a slight angle will foul something later.

Wind the movement through a full twenty-four hours and watch the hour hand pass the indices. It should clear them and arrive at twelve, not near it.

Now the minute hand, again at twelve, nudged into line with a scrap of Rodico before you commit to it. Press it down and run another twenty-four hours, watching the gap between the two hands as they cross. They must not touch. Any contact at all will stop the watch, and it will stop intermittently, which is much harder to diagnose than a watch that never runs.

Fit the second hand

The second hand goes onto a pivot narrower than the hand itself, and everyone finds it tedious. There is no technique that makes it easy; there is only lighting, magnification and a steady approach from directly above.

If it keeps sliding off the pivot, a printed alignment guide that drops over the cannon pinion will hold the hand centred while you press it. They cost very little and they save a bent pivot, which is not a repairable mistake at this level.

With it on, run the hands round once more. The second hand sweeps past the minute hand sixty times an hour, so it has the most opportunities to catch.

Clean everything, then case the movement

Pull the stem back out. Take the caseback off and lift the gasket out of its channel.

Now clean, and take longer over it than you want to. Blow the dial and the inside of the crystal out with the blower, lift what the air leaves behind with the cleaning pen, and pick up anything still sitting on the dial with a point of Rodico. Dust that you can see now is dust you will be looking at for years, and the only way to reach it later is to open the watch again.

Lower the case over the movement rather than dropping the movement into the case, then turn the whole assembly over so the back of the movement faces you.

Cut the stem to length

The stem will be too long. Push it back into the movement, close the case, and measure from the face of the case to the back of the crown with calipers. That gap is what has to come off.

Take the stem out again by pressing the release lever on the movement with your tweezers, screw the crown onto the stem, and cut a little less than you measured off the end. Refit and check. Repeat.

Go in small steps. A stem cut a fraction long can be trimmed again; one cut short is scrap, and you will be waiting on a replacement. You are looking for the crown to sit flush against the case with the movement still winding, and both crown positions still working.

When the length is right, dip the very end of the thread in thread locker, screw the crown down and wipe the excess off before it sets. Leave it a day before you wind it hard. A crown that unscrews itself off the stem in your pocket is the usual result of skipping this.

Grease the gasket and close the case

Run a thin film of silicone grease around the caseback gasket between your fingers. It keeps the rubber from drying out and helps the seal seat evenly.

Lay the gasket back into its channel and check it all the way round for a twist or a pinch. A gasket sitting proud in one spot seals nothing, and you will not know until there is moisture under the crystal.

Give the crystal a last pass with the cleaning pen, then start the caseback by hand so you know the threads have caught cleanly. Only once it is turning freely should you tighten it with a rubber ball or a wrench.

Fit the bracelet

Line the end links up between the lugs and compress the spring bars into place with the forked end of the spring bar tool. Work with the case on a cloth, not in your hand; a bar that lets go under tension travels a surprising distance.

If the supplied bars fight you, try a shorter set from a mixed pack rather than forcing them. Half a millimetre is the difference between a bar that seats and one that scores the inside of a lug.

Peel the protective film off the case, crystal and bracelet last, once everything is together and you are sure you are not going back in.

If it stops after a few hours

Almost always the hands are touching. Take the caseback off, wind it, and watch the hands cross at twelve under magnification: what looks like clearance from above is often nothing at all from the side. Lift the offending hand, press it down flatter and square, and run it round again.

If the hands are genuinely clear, check the stem next. A stem cut slightly long holds the movement out of its click position and will stop a watch just as reliably.