Marathon modification...

To do or not to do, that is the question.....

I finally received the white on black date wheel from the US. It is pretty fast actually. I got 2 pieces. So do I do the modification? Do I swap out the ISA 1198-103 quartz movement from the Marathon JSAR to the ETA 2824-2? 

The JSAR.

The ETA 2824-2 movement. Brand new and 100% original.

The new date wheel, white date on black background.

So what is involved in the swap? 

• The movement is a direct swap, as both are 11.5 ligne. The movement is held by a metal ring (I believe).
• The hands are a direct swap, except for the seconds hand. The hand size on the ISA 1198: 90/150/20 (m/h/s), while the hand size on the ETA 2824 is 90/150/25 (m/h/s). So the seconds hand needs to be broached to the correct size. 
• Swap the date wheel from black on white on the ETA to the new date wheel.
• Trim the winding stem to the correct length. 
• Water resistant check after the modification is completed.

I guess I will have to say goodbye to my Marathon watch for a few days. I will be asking my friendly neighbourhood watch repair guy to do the swap for me as I don't have the tools to broach the seconds hand. 

So what about the second date wheel? 

Well, I have the original SAR watch. So the date wheel is for the this watch. What modification is to be carried out on this watch? I want to remove the cyclops from the crystal and change the date wheel. So I will asking my watch repair guy to do the modification for me as well. I will ask him to remove the crystal when he remove the cyclops as I don't want the heat to damage the crystal gasket. 

The SAR.

A closer view of the watch before the modification. Note the cyclops and the white date wheel.

I will update this post on anything else I find out about the modification.