# Eta 6497 skeleton project



## Stefan Ketelaars (Feb 22, 2017)

First of all, let me introduce myself, 
I'm Stefan Ketelaars, living in the Netherlands, student electrical engineering.
I've always been fascinated by mechanical watches, and since a few years also "experienced" enough to restore them.

As an engineer I've always been fascinated by skeleton watches, that's why I decided to make them myself in order to 
make a unique watch instead of buying an existing one. I've already made a few Skelton watches, this is the project I'm working on currently:

First making the Dial out of hardened aluminum 






















Disasembling the eta6497 movement








Drawing the design on the movement 







removed the excess material 








Finishing, carving, and fine-tuning the watch movement 















At the moment I`m thinking about the color combination (movement/dial/hands/case) by plating the separate parts. 
What would be a nice color combination?


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## PeterK. (Jan 4, 2014)

Nice.


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## ajsthe3 (Feb 17, 2013)

Maybe black or copper hands to math the name plate? Looks good though!


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## MechaMind (Mar 23, 2014)

Seems that your milling spindle has a very thin shaft behind the collet

( routing Aluminium is often critical when your bit is able to "hook" into the material due to elasticity in your system ! ( if you would be able to 
go with a higher speed use a thinner shaftmill ( eg. 1mm and reduce the blade length to a smaller value as the pass depth per cut!) cool with water oil emulsion or spirit to keep the Aluminium below the critical temperature...


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## no-time (Sep 17, 2013)

Are you looking to make only one piece for yourself or a few pieces to sell, perhaps to cover the costs?


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## Stefan Ketelaars (Feb 22, 2017)

This piece will remain in my collection, when this one is finished I am thinking about making a few to sell. I'll post a picture of the in between result soon, I’m pretty satisfied with the result so far.


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## no-time (Sep 17, 2013)

Good luck with the project and progress. There's lots of help and talent here to support you. I have business and marketing skills and am happy to help.



Stefan Ketelaars said:


> This piece will remain in my collection, when this one is finished I am thinking about making a few to sell. I'll post a picture of the in between result soon, I'm pretty satisfied with the result so far.


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## Stefan Ketelaars (Feb 22, 2017)

sneak preview:


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## Stefan Ketelaars (Feb 22, 2017)

Alright, this is the final result:


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## pithy (Aug 22, 2010)

So the hour wheel is retained only by the minute hand attachment?

Is there any kind of tensioning between the two?


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## Stefan Ketelaars (Feb 22, 2017)

pithy said:


> So the hour wheel is retained only by the minute hand attachment?
> 
> Is there any kind of tensioning between the two?


That's a good one, when I was doing research I found many examples of skeletonized eta6497/98 
where they used this principle. And the amount of force that the minute hand will endure is very 
slight (from my opinion) please correct me if I'm wrong.


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## pithy (Aug 22, 2010)

Stefan Ketelaars said:


> That's a good one, when I was doing research I found many examples of skeletonized eta6497/98
> where they used this principle. And the amount of force that the minute hand will endure is very
> slight (from my opinion) please correct me if I'm wrong.


The internet abounds with poor watchmaking.

Best practices require that the hour wheel (and subsequently the minute wheel) be retained in position by a yoke attached to the plate with a "dial" type washer providing the spring tension required for consistent timekeeping and the robustness implicit in a movement used for a wristwatch.


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## Stefan Ketelaars (Feb 22, 2017)

A small project i`m working on currently:


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## maysatanong (Oct 10, 2016)

akkkk super stunning!!! 
love your dial so much

Sent from my Redmi Note 3 using Tapatalk


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