Going back over old photographs, I was struck at how close river’s steel millemetri is to the version on display in the panerai museum.
So I pulled the trigger and ordered a river steel millemetri, having been wearing bronze versions for some time recently,
On receiving it, ai was immediately struck by excellent finish, good tolerances and the shape again, which is remarkably similar to museum version (bezel in particular). Head only weight with plexi is 137g.
So I decided to do some discrete mods of the case, which I will list below.
First off, get red gaskets in there. The red larger gaskets make the dial really pop. Also the crown gasket, if modded to a larger flat one, can improve the wr dramatically. I know of 2 members who have tested river cases with this gasket installed to 1000m wr.
Here are gaskets
First in caseback, then remove bezel abd plexi ring, put in gasket in front. It took a while, but I finally discovered if leaving the bezel on intact when. Taking off the ring, it makes it a lot easier to line up the holes to screw back down (duh)..
Caseback now red
Stock gasket to be removed
Red installed
Back assembled. Red makes dial pop. The stock river mm dial is also pretty good and v accurate. We will replace that in another post.
So we are nearly there. The only problem is the crown guard, no pin, and the crown has no beveled edge (see the museum shots). So let’s rectify that. The pin is easy- push out from back using a pin or corkscrew, turn the visible top in a dremel and sand, push back in. Here is a stock version on top vs pin modded below (apologies for poor image):
Crown guard is taken off and the flat wide gasket is put into the case- this mod in the old forum was known as the ‘spray can’ mod, elias i think came up with this. Im using a 0.7mm thick gasket which is initially very tight, but compresses down after a few days.
Stock crown gasket here
New thicker flat one installed
Watch should now be good for 1000m wr. Perfect for the pool!
Last step is the crown. For this, remove the crown from the movement. Be careful, don't mess up the keyless here. Once the crown is off, turn the top and bottom edges in a dremel or drill to get slight bevel, not too much. Really its to take the sharp edge off. This makes a big difference visually imo.
Now you’re done, ready for more mods later on, but you will have a very wearable, robust vintage homage with excellent wr and minimal fuss.
