alligoat

I must admit that my gen Rolexes are all in the safe- seeing very little wrist time these days. My replicas with eta movements are running strong. I even have a few dg2813s that have stood the test of time. I did have to have a couple of franken DJs serviced a year or two ago- a 16013 and a 16014, both with 2836-2s, I built them 16 years ago. I have gotten into Seikos recently- building homage watches with the NH35 and NH36 movements- nice $200 beaters. They may look like a YM but they're not.

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I'm with pompompurin on this- buy the Korean case. Granted you'll have to buy a crystal, bezel, crown, a set of hands and a VR3135 or VS3135 movement. But I think you'll be happier in the long run. Another option would be to buy a 36mm rep DJ with a 3135 movement in it and swap in your dial. These would likely be the later DJs- 116200 or the 126200, but this would be a cheaper route.

Interesting that you were able to use a BP case. Which movement did you use? We're seeing people use this gen spec case for these 16710 builds https://www.ebay.com/itm/363982081862 They still have to get the gen spec bezel parts, most go to Startime Watch Supply here in the USA.

A real Day Date in white gold would be a 118239, so I'm assuming this is a rep. Also, a real DD wouldn't need to have the date aligned! I don't know of anyone who can do this type of work for you. I used Mymanmatt and he was very good at dealing with DWOs, but if he's retired, that's too bad. Maybe you could find someone over at RWI who could help you out.

The JKF- JK Factory- makes a decent 1680- it is a cartel watch, but it can be a base to start from. It comes with a 2836 clone or a dg2813. With the 2836 clone, switching to a 2846 is easy but even the 2846s are hard to find these days. Case shaping is needed- esp. at the crown guards. But to do cgs, I have to pull the case tube which means I've trashed it out getting it out of there. Tap the hole, install a 7030 tube and a 703/704 crown. I use the WSO990 case tubes and have found a nice 704 rep crown on ali express for around $20. 702 assemblies are around- Athaya has them, but not sure how good they are. Drilling lugholes always helps. Bracelet is a 93150 rep, but it's decent. Haven't tried the fat 2mm spring bars, but the 1.8mm old style DJ bars work fine w/o having to enlarge the holes in the bracelet. Crystal is glued on, but it's a decent top hat so I've left it alone. Bezel insert has a decent all acrylic pearl so I'm happy with it. The JK comes in red or white, so take your pick. You could swap out the dial if you want- decent rep dials are around. DWOs, date wheel overlays, are also around- I just haven't found one lately. JKs run from $145 to maybe $245, so the price is reasonable. I've been buying from Marvellous lately. Next step up is a Viet case from someone like Ruby, but that will put you over $1K pretty quickly by the time you get a movement- not sure what will fit- a dial, and a bracelet. 93150s are tough to find these days, btw.

Building a 1680 is tougher these days- gen parts are few and far between. They're also very expensive and there's a bunch of fakes out there parading as gens. I've built a few frankens with gen movements back in the day, but wouldn't do it these days. Servicing 1500 movements is getting tougher- 1530, 1520, 1560 and 1570-5. If you have a decent watchmaker you'll probably be ok, but obviously you can't go to Rolex. My recent 1680 was an old MBW which I was lucky to pick up. I put in an eta 2846-2, and a few gen parts and did some case reshaping. Your 1500 is going to be worth more than any franken you build. Phong is still around, Rubyswatch.com has cases and dials, MQvintagewatches.com is in Vietnam. Mochacha.com has dials.

I've been looking at these Polars lately. I'm doing a Seiko one- GMT white Seiko dial from Aliexpress, NH34A GMT movement, case and hands fr Ali, under $200! Waiting on parts from China! The other possibility is a BP Polar, modified with a VR3186- still thinking about that one....

Nice! I've been on a NH35/36 run for the last few years. The availability of aftermarket Seiko parts is amazing. My friend refers to some of the dials as feiko Seikos. From China of course. But it's fun to put together a watch for $150-200.

Darn, none of the links to pics work for me

As I recall, his website was shut down. You click on his site and you get that ugly message from the law firm. Kind of like when they shut down Trusty or one of the other rep dealers. Of course the CN rep guys just move to a new website. I don’t know how Phong has managed to avoid this. At the time I had just bought a vintage Daytona dial fr Jensen so I was still watching his website.

I have a question, is Vintage Watch Mods Jensen, Phong's son who got beat up by the Rolex police/lawyers? Chandler is a suburb of Phoenix.

The cyclops will also be too far to the right. Also, that's a Datejust dial for the 36mm case. You'd be better off buying a DJ case from rafflesdials and putting the DJ dial in there with a DWO. I'd leave that Prince Oysterdate the way it is.

Great write up freddy! I thoroughly enjoyed it. Can't decide if I need to get a modern Daytona, I'm more of a vintage guy, but we shall see. A 116500 with the ceramic bezel might do the trick. Cheers!

I've used Mymanmatt a few times and been happy with his work. But building a super franken is going to be expensive and not easy- parts are tough to come by. Gen 18238s are about a cheap as they'll ever be at this point. You also might be able to find a good rep if you check out Trustytime- Andrew. https://trustytimewatch88.io/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1_14&products_id=1942 A full gold bracelet and case will easily set you back $10K, maybe more.