interested

In.

It's certainly worth checking, but that case looks to be in the 44-45mm range, so I'm betting you'll find the lug width to be 22mm.

I like this O. Frei 41mm case, the smallest I've seen on the DIY market and which coincidentally matches the smallest commercial 649x offering I recall, the Stowa Marine Original.  Movement is 36.6 mm.

I'd love to do something like this but haven't yet found a dial to my taste.  I wish completely custom dials were cheaper.

I kinda did that.  

I had a vostok I didn't much like.  Weird case for my wrist.  Didn't really work.  The watch dial was not as good in person as I hoped from the photo.



The 420 case fit me better, and I have a vostok radio room ship's clock on my wall already.



So I ordered a 420 case, a radio room dial, a pimpin bezel, and a set of straight hands with a somewhat unique blue second hand from Meranom.  Around the same time they started offering see-through casebacks.

I bought some tools, studied the process a bit, and this happened.

Natos are nice because a spring bar can blow out and you keep the watch.  I've had good luck with silicone deployment buckles as well.



Very inexpensive.  Very comfortable.

For a bit more bling though, there's the (also inexpensive) shark mesh band



You size that with wire cutters but it's not hard.

Further reading this evening indicates that sometime in the last year, Tourby downsized their Unitas offerings from 42 mm to 40.5 mm.  I wonder if anyone else has fit a 649x into a smaller case.

Ha!  I have a 420 case I didn't like, so I bought a different case that I think matches your original one.  If we'd known, we could have traded.  

True, and that's sometimes a good thing, but it's a double-edged sword, since it generally means that anything that has hold of your watch has hold of your entire arm.  I'm leery of wearing them around machinery, in tight spaces, etc.

@winstonsmith

Care to list a detailed build parts list? I am really digging that watch.

I am a complete watch rookie, and would love to try my hand at replicating this. Time to learn something new!

Sure!  All parts save the movement were sourced from Meranom's Amphibia spare parts list..  I actually started with a watch I didn't like in a 120 case.  Disliked dial and case once I had it on:



That gave me a no date movement (the 2415).  This can also be bought separately here for $43.

Then the dial.  It's a "radio room" dial as was common in the radio facilities of ships, google it up for details on why the markings are as they are.  I have the vostok ship's clock with the same dial in the Fort Smith bunker and underground bar.  Meranom calls it the Amphibia 750 dial.

Then the 420 case (or whichever strikes your fancy).

I used the red and blue bezel, it's out of stock at the moment, there are others to choose from.


Then the "little glass" caseback here.

And a metal movement fixing ring to replace the standard plastic ring here.  (You can't see it through the caseback but I know it's there.)

Now the hands... They were a bit of fun.  The standard arrow style Amphibia hands weren't to my liking for this watch so I used black Komandirskie hands found here.  At the time, Meranom had just started releasing a few models with standard Amphibia arrow hands but an unusual blue second hand.  The blue second hand wasn't listed on the site but an email to Dmitry had him throw one in on my order.  It's now available with blued Amphibia hands here.

The nato band is just the standard stuff, don't remember offhand where I got it, probably Ebay or amazon.  I actually ordered proper Meranom 18mm springbars too.  You can get the springbars from anywhere I suppose but Vostok's are damn beefy and I've lost none of them to rust while replacing at least a half dozen thinner generic springbars that rusted out from the inside and fell apart with a tug.

Tools needed were a loupe, a watch crab or caseback spanner to twist off the retaining ring in the back, some very tiny straight blade screwdrivers (I actually ground some cheap ones on a stone to fit the tiny screws), and then two specialty tools for dealing with the hands, a dial protector (you can use an index card with a deep V cut in it), and a set of spring loaded hand removers.  Installing the hands was the biggest pain in the ass of the whole job.

If you want a step-by-step on the process I can give you that too.  It was fun.

One big advantage to Vostoks for DIY is that a novice can disassemble one, reassemble it, and not need a pressure test to prove that it went back together in a way that retains it's watertight seal.  Most others have the caseback screw into the case against a thin gasket.  If the gasket jumps it's groove or gets sheared during reinstall you won't know until it leaks.  Vostoks have a big fat gasket that the caseback sits on flat, then the retaining ring screws it down.  There is no shearing against the gasket, and as long as everything is tight at retaining ring and crown you can assume it won't leak.

ETA- if you change the case, check to be sure your stem/crown and bezel will fit.  Those two parts are particular to the case. Case size also determines the width of the watch band and springbars, most Amphibias are 18mm but the 710 and others are 22mm.  The 960's have kind of a reversed attachment point for bands that pretty much locks you into Vostok's own bands, I don't recommend them as their bands are generally pretty bad.

Terrific write up. When I get back home I will be placing an order for the parts. I really like the different look of that.

I noticed the movement does not have the post (?) That the hands attach to? Is that something that needs to be ordered?

And the winder knob is gold. I assume I would have to order one to match the 420 case?

The post the hands attach to is built into the movement.  You seat the hour hand, then the minutes hand, then the second hand goes on top.

You will need a crown/stem though, yep.  The one I had from the 120 worked on the 420 but if you're not starting with a donor watch you will need it.  Meranom has a few to choose from.  The standard Amphibia crown is plated brass, that's what's on mine, but I might've gone steel if it was available at the time.  The machining is nicer on them.

Ok thank you for your help. And I hope you do not mind me copying you!

I really admire your watch!

Glad to help!  Give a shout when the parts get here and I'll tell you how to assemble them.  The process is pretty easy if you have steady hands.

So I have everything on order with Meranom waiting to ship until the blue and red dial is in stock. I thought about jut going with a all red dial, but I do not think it will be as striking.

That looks nice!

I have been waiting for my stuff to arrive from Meranom. Beennon order for over a month now.

So it has been about 2 months since I placed an order from Meranom. Order still says processing. Is this normal for them?

Only if they were waiting on production of parts.  Did anything say "10-30 days"?

Yes. But we are well out of that 10-30 days now. 60+ days.

I'd give 'em a shout at [email protected], see what's going on.