I want a black watch now.
All my watches are stainless/silver.
I have orange x2, sunburst green x2, yellow still getting here, black, gray mop, black mop, and 2 shades of blue dials already.
I haven't bought anything yet, but I have this in my cart.
Clear back casing, 30 atmosphere rated, so it's gonna get wet at the lake.
What color dial, what hands, would go with this case ?
Trident second hand ?
Going nato or z22 rubber.
Day/date, or just date movement ?
White or black movement  ?
Give me some ideas guys !

I'm kinda liking this dial with white skeleton fish hands.



The dial reminds me of sea foam off the side of a ship. This pic is from our last cruise.

Noone has any ideas of what would look good !?
I went ahead and ordered the above casing, hands, and minute hand.
Waiting to hear back from the seller of the dial on my offer.
I also ordered a new nh35a movement with a gold rotor. It's a metal add on with double sided tape. Just a rotor is about 40 bucks, and stickers are maybe 10, but they are sticking it, and cheaper, bought together.

That will look great, out of curiosity do you build all of these for yourself or do you sell mods?

If you don’t mind me asking what does this cost vs buying a Tuna? Interested because I wish I had the time to pick this up as a hobby.

Thanks,

I'm just building for myself.
The case was @ 45 bucks, the nh35a date only movement was @31 bucks, the hands, and seconds Trident, were 7 bucks each, and the dial was 17 bucks. A band of your choosing ??
You can buy a Steeldive Tuna for about 90 bucks on Aliexpress.
I'll have a cool watch that only I own. I hope noone would copy it, so it's a 1 of.
Pride in making something yourself.

To my knowledge they never used the NH35A in a Tuna. Will the NH35A drop in to a Seiko case? It's a bigger movement than the 6159B, 7549A, 7C46, or the 5M23A. Do you have to modify the stem?

I'm still waiting on the case to get here.
It's been sitting in Irving, TX since the 4th.... grrrrr...
Here's the ad I bought it from.
I have the movement, and hands. A wrong dial was sent, so I'm waiting for a new one to get sent. It only has 2 pins instead of 6.

Interesting. I had no idea there were clone Tuna cases out there. Damn China. I hate to admit, but it is cool they at least had the foresight to make them work with a modern mechanical movement.

Since diving into this watch building hole, I'm amazed at what is made in China !!!
I would love to see the manufacturing machine they have going on.
Everything from design, made or stolen, modifications to existing, to making stuff, not just watch stuff.
That country must have factories stacked up making something of everything.
Look on Aliexpress...
It's mind boggling at the shear amount of products made, and sold out of China.
Why can't we do this ?

Because Americans won't work for peanuts. The poverty in mainland China is rough. Chinese labor is next to nothing. No OSHA. Factories don't have to worry about someone loosing a finger like they do in the US. All things factor into their labor costs. Seriously, I can buy a finished machined cast iron engine block from China for $150 shipped overseas. Their factories are rough. Dirt floors are common. Factories have no AC and are open to atmosphere. Muddy pot hole dirt roads can cause shipping issues. That doesn't mean their quality is garbage, but it often is. Often times they use higher end CNC equipment, but the overall quality checks and standards are lackluster. I've seen time after time a facility with $20M+ worth of CNC equipment that can't hold 0.25mm tolerances. It's a mindset thing, they don't have a focus on holding quality control. They are experts in making things that look like they work, but often doesn't.

A lot of it came from the Clinton's support of China back in the 90s. That really pushed China to be the superpower they are now. American's not willing to spend the extra money for US made goods. Everyone after buying the cheapest good they can get their hands on. Why are there Chinese companies that manufacturer fake Rolex watches??? Because people freaking buy them.

I have to deal with Chinese manufacturing in my day job. In my hobbies, I get to choose to spend money with companies that are like minded and quality focused. I don't support Communism or companies that manufacture clones or fakes

So, if you have no choice but to buy Chinese,  do you not buy at all ?

I have an iPhone if that answers your question.

Edit: Not trying to be harsh. Building a watch on your own from parts is really cool and can be a great learning tool. I think it's an awesome aspect of this hobby and I highly encourage it. I think most people here would be more supportive of using authentic Seiko parts in building or restoring a Seiko as opposed to using Chinese clone parts. Again, I mean no offense, just a suggestion.

I'm not sure where to source real, new, Seiko cases ?, and I'm not paying crazy money for Seiko dials, and hands, but, nh35/36 movements are Seiko.
If I were to buy parts, I might as well buy a complete watch.
But, it's mass produced, and not custom.
You can source non seiko marked parts, but if I am rebuilding a real Seiko watch, I'm going to use Seiko marked parts.

Here's another I like.

That one is sort of cool.  I saw somewhere else there was someone selling Heimdallr titanium tuna cases.  That would be kind of neat too.  

I'm curious how the lume is on your dial?  That is one place the aftermarket seems to lag behind on, unless perhaps its from Yobokies.

I'll charge up the 2 pin, and take a pic in a bit.

Here's a Heim monster case.

https://www.namokimods.com/products/nmk920-tuna-skx007-srpd-watch-case-bundle-black-finish?_pos=3&_sid=0cf9fa9ec&_ss=r
this is cool.

im a sucker for stainless though.

https://www.namokimods.com/products/nmk920-tuna-skx007-srpd-watch-case-brushed-finish?_pos=4&_sid=0cf9fa9ec&_ss=r

im thinking next month im going start ordering parts.
i wanna do a black dial, raised chrome ring indices and Samuri hands to match.

also, really contemplating a Milgauss homage... soo idk.

tuna would get in the way for me at work..

ive used namoki before, and their stuff is top notch.



everything but the dial, and band is namoki

Very nice.

I think that has a sapphire crystal too. Something my old Monster lacked.   I've been thinking about building one of these for my son.

My case came in today, so I did a mock up until the correct dial comes in. The NH35A movement is sitting in there with no stem since the dial is a 3 o'clock model.
I have a visual of what I invisioned that I wanted.
I like it !
I put a sunburst purple dial in and my wife really liked that, and said to use silver hands.

And the back.

There's an NH36A in this one.

I started with a flashlight on the bottom right, the new build dial for 20 seconds each. Moved to the top right, a Steeldive SD1953, then top left, a Steeldive SD1970 turtle, then down to a factory Seiko skz209j Atlas.
Lume is good. In a bit I'll go check to see what's holding up still.


21:45 Edit: nothing is bright. All 4 are about the same brightness.(very dim)
What I expect for 20 seconds !!

The tuna is finished, and running very well. Best I can time it, I've lost 2 seconds now, in the last 3 days.
Decided not to use the white fish hands. They blended in too much. I did order black ones, so we'll see.....
I put it on a Seiko rubber dive band.

Tuna Jellyfish - as many clear or transparent parts as possible. Good luck!

The back case is clear. My NH35 movement has a silver, factory, rotor now.