There are lots of aftermarket merc hands out there that will fit, however, they are notably of lesser quality and dimensionally inferior to original Rolex hands.
I knew someone was going to do this. I own the BB54. I would personally buy another one and have this done, but Tudor will no longer service it. And that’s an issue for me. You can’t get parts for that movement. Beautiful work 💜
True if you do the crown mod. However, if just hands are done you can swap the them back if parts are still not available once it needs repair (if you want to send to them).
Thanks! Great question. My intent was originally to use the 8mm system but that ended up being too big for the midcase. Also the 7mm looked more appropriate once I had it mounted.
That looks awesome. Kinda wish Tudor did that. I like the vintage tudors that have Rolex cases. Why hide their true heritage. Rolex quality without the price tag.
It’s interesting that Tudor did make big crown Black Bays. I’m wearing my big crown 2017 BB36 as I type this. But now they are changing all their new watches to that tiny small crown.
Thoroughly enjoyed that. Love my vintage and also love my bb54, so this is perfect. Can I just ask: what hands did you end up using, 15xx or 31xx? Also any tips on getting the inside of crystals perfectly clean before assembling the watches?
I've been contemplating doing a hand change, keeping the seconds hand. Are there good quality Mercedes hands out there that exactly match the Gilt and lume of the bb54? A service you guys offer?
Before doing this project, I searched far and wide, there are plenty of aftermarket hands out there but they are noticeably poor in quality and their dimensional characteristics are off. This is why i take the time to source original Rolex hands and broach them to fit the tudor movement. Its a lot more expensive and time consuming but its worth it. You won't believe what your eye notices from a far. Small variations in sizing can go a long way in how a watch presents as a whole.
The crown looks rough as guts. At 5:15 you can see it all pitted and nasty. Under close inspection at 5:22 the hour and minute hands look crusty. This is a "good from far, but far from good" kind of mod. I do feel that these hands suit this piece far better than snowflake, which is more suited to Palagos-style indices.
If anything the bigger crown gaskets and tube are more robust so it could even increase performance. For the purpose of this video we chose to show the vacuum tester at work, which only goes up to a max of 5bar which translates to 50 meters depth.
