Cartier Ferrari Formula case-back removal tool - coming soon ! Back in February 2013, I was initially toying with the idea of having a batch of precision engineered case-back 'spanners' made locally, to this design:
- Guess_zps92a45032.jpg (47.97 KiB) Viewed 162 times
I planned to use EDM wire cutting, however, alas, the couple of quotes I got were prohibitively expensive.
Instead I approached a Hong Kong-based eBay seller, WatchmeHK, a.k.a. Thomas Leung, who already produced other tools for Breitling and Panerai watches, with a view to him designing and manufacturing a similar palm-held case-back tool for the Cartier Ferrari Formula. As you can see from the thread, the prototype arrived in November 2013 and after a slight modification to improve the tolerances, they were in production and available to order on eBay in January 2014.
So why am I raising the subject again ? I'm assuming that everyone who wanted one, bought a Ferrari Formula case-back tool from WatchmeHK. Sadly he seems to have disappeared from eBay (and Instagram).
Yesterday, like a bolt from the blue, I received an email from a Belgian member of the old forum, Geert Verhaeghe, whom I probably hadn't corresponded with since 2013. Geert's username was 'FerrariFormula' - with just reason: he owns probably the largest collection of Cartier Ferrari Formula Cal. 531's and Cal. 532's in the World !
His email was fairly brief. the crux of it was:
Some years ago there was a tutorial on your forum about watch back openers for Ferrari Formula chrono watches.
I have several of them for sale, 50€/piece. You never know. They work really well (pictures in attachment)
- CartierFF-Case-backTool-GeertVerhaeghe-1.jpeg (38.09 KiB) Viewed 157 times
- CartierFF-Case-backTool-GeertVerhaeghe-2.jpeg (61.71 KiB) Viewed 157 times
For anyone interested, Geert's email address is: autocentraleverhaeghe@gmail.com