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In the weeks its wonderful. Can hike for hours and not meet a single person... In the weekends all the tourists come.. These are not wristies. So if admin wants to delete them they can.. But instead of making a whole thread ill share some pics from today. I seldom bring a camera on my hikes..

Taken yesterday, but still wearing.. The mountain sun is fierce, so I am getting a bit of a tan going on my arms & head..

Heres mine back from the Zigmeister's spa. Full service and relume.

My Project is ready AP Diver V3 -DLC coated -blue superlume -polished endlinks and crowns -AR date lens What do you think???

That is some bad luck. But unfortunately not uncommon with reps. If you know where these watches come from you will understand that they are assembled under different circumstances than genuine watches. Poor QC to speed up the production and cut costs. If you take a look at my signature you will see how some movements look when they come straight from the factory. Like MD pointed out sometimes completely over oiled but most of the times dirty and dry. Without disassembly impossible to tell. You could send the watch back to Josh but I would advice you to have a local repair guy look at it. As it could be a very small issue like mentioned earlier. That doesn't way up to the hassle and cost of shipping a watch back and forth to China. Or if you decide to keep it you could consider combining it with a service. MD or I could help you out depending on where you are in the world. So don't de disappointed in reps because with some extra care they will perform on par with a genuine for a fraction of the cost.

Back from a polish

Don't get me wrong. It's a new watch and very easy to service, parts easily available, manintenance costs are very low for etas, in fact I can have the whole watch new from AD with 25% discount. This means you can use the watch without being concerned that if you damage it it will cost you 1K up. Not caring is another thing, this beauty deserves all the care and attention of the world. I would never use my 1991 16600 in certain situations though, but I would use this 24/7 everywhere...

Thanks for the replies everyone. I think that 20 mm is the way to go. I'm taking delivery of some new English cow hide today and I have just mixed a batch of olive drab dye, I'm really looking forward to seeing the outcome and will check soon for opinions about making it the RWG exclusive!

Made of titanium SS these really are awesome looking! I've been eyeing one up for a long time and just missed one at a good price

Really pleased to see your case back turned up mate, looks really nice mate Be rude not to post up a Tudor pic while I'm here......

Something Orange... Richard

Somehow I missed this too....Typical Cartel 5513, unknown dial (jmb), Clark insert, Ofrei pearl, jmb case back and some softening fautina and a Rick914 relume

Just came in from a hike

I will tell them: "Dear sirs will you please GET THE F@#$$$ TAG HEUER LOGO RIGHT PLEASE!".... Then you'll sell way more TH's. KV

This is going to be a quick Toad Guide...mainly a reference to some gen 1655 pics with details to provide people a starting point of how their rep projects should look...no big details...just pics and specs. Everyone knows in real life Paul Newman wore his 6263 Daytona...but there exists a bit of confusion over the Steve McQueen Rolex given that Tag Heur makes a Monaco based on his character in the 1971 movie Le Mans. What Steve McQueen wore in real life for the most part was a no-date Submariner...but his more famous selection was the Rolex 1655 Explorer II with matte black dial and orange hand, affectionately known as the "Steve McQueen Rolex". There are some excellent 1655 threads on RWG including: Stephane's Info Gathering Thread Lanikai's Upcoming 1655 Project Polexpete's Thread with some great gen pics Toomuchgear's Franken info is in this thread All the pics and details below are taken from the Antiquorum Rolex Revolution Catalogue...with additional observations of mine added in for good measure. CASE SPECS There seems to be some confusion over the proper size for this case. As usual, recorded dimensions vary depending on who is doing the measuring and where they are measuring. But...to the collector, the dimensions as Antiquorum measures them (pretty solid source...given they regularly sell $100,000+ watches...so they better get a simple thing like how to measure things down pat): WIDTH: 39mm THICKENESS: 14mm If anyone is wondering, the THICKNESS of the case is where most of the rep cases fail. The lower end ones are generally built on a Submariner case with 1655 markings which unfortunately measure 1-2 mm's too thin. Whether or not they are same width I'm not sure about...but Antiquorum measures all modern Subs as 40mm x 13mm, with vintages subs in the 70's at 40mm x 14mm. GENERAL OBSERVATIONS One thing I notice when looking at these vintage pieces is that there are so many variances in details like crown guards and dial markings, that whatever you choose will likely only be able to be called out by a VERY FEW number of people. Many people will think they know the differences...but generally only compared with 1-2 variants of the 1655, and NOT the complete history of what is available in the ultra-rare vintage Rolex market. THE GOODS Here we go...ENJOY!! Antiquorum Lot 102 - Straight Hand, Mark I DATE:1970 NOTES: Straight centre seconds hand "T Swiss T" Aged darker yellow tritium baton markers White baton hands with aged darker yellow tritium "thinner" crown guards Smaller, "heavier" bezel font Bezel printing closer to inner bezel edge Long baton markers on bezel Antiquorum Lot 103 - Straight Hand Steve McQueen DATE:1971 NOTES: Straight centre seconds hand "T Swiss T" Aged lighter yellow tritium baton markers White baton hands with aged lighter yellow tritium "thicker" crown guards "lighter" bezel font Bezel printing is centred on bezel Short baton markers on bezel Antiquorum Lot 104 - Ref. 1655 "Steve McQueen" DATE:1979 NOTES: Centre seconds hand with luminous dot "T Swiss < 25 T" Lightly aged light cream tritium baton markers White baton hands tritium "thicker" crown guards "lighter" but wider bezel font Antiquorum Lot 105 - Ref. 1655 "Steve McQueen" DATE:1979 NOTES: Centre seconds hand with luminous dot "T Swiss < 25 T" Lightly aged light cream tritium baton markers White baton hands tritium "thinner" almost pointy crown guards "heavier" but narrow font than Lot 104 above Antiquorum Lot 106 - Tangerine Steve McQueen DATE:1984 NOTES: Centre seconds hand with missing dot "T Swiss < 25 T" Very orange aged tritium baton markers White baton hands with very orange aged tritium "medium" thickness crown guards "taller " bezel font BEZEL FONT VARIANCE [*]Lot 102 and 106 sit close to the edge towards the dial, 103 sits "high" on the bezel [*]Lot 104 and 105 printing is centered within bezel [*]Lot 104 has a narrower font [*]Lot 103 and 106 use a wider font [*]Lot 102 uses a heavier font BEZEL BATON MARKERS AND CROWN GUARDS [*]Lot 102 has long thick baton markers [*]Lot 103 has short "thinner" baton markers [*]Lot 105 has long "thinner" baton markers [*]Lot 102 thinner crown guards [*]Lot 103 has thicker crown guards [*]Lot 105 has thinnest, pointier profiled crown guards (NOTE: I don't have pics of the crown guards from the crown side...so I can't show if they are really pointy) [*]Lot 102 and 105 have serifed feet on the bottom of the flat-topped 4, while Lot 103 has no serifs SECOND HANDS [*]Lot 102 is the straight hand [*]Lot 105 has the lume dot [*]Lot 106 has a missing lume dot [*]Lot 106 lume dot holder sits higher than Lot 105 and well above the coronet T SWISS T NOTE: Lot 102 bezel markings are closer to the dial and a heavier font. Lot 105 also has "pointier" serifs CONCLUSION I hope you guys find this useful...I plan to embark on a project one of these days. What I hope to illustrate are the slight variances in popular things like the font, baton markers, hand length, etc that make vintage Rollies so much fun and confusing. I also hope to highlight how difficult it really is to determine with REAL confidence the "gen" features to shoot for without a complete comparitive timeline of the variance in the watches, and a solid memory to remember which features apply to what! So, if anybody says "that's a fake...look at how heavy that font is on the bezel...it's all wrong"...look at them like you would a small, bad child and say "PLEASE...that only applies to pre-1971 and after 1975...everybody knows that...rookie...now go back to your hole and read up on your facts if you want to play with the big kids."

I've mentioned this in other threads, but will repeat myself here. I took my GST to a local watchmaker after one of the pushers jammed. While he was at it, I also asked him to do an inspection for lubrication and cleanliness. The verdict: he said everything looked fine. Now, he may or may not have done a really close inspection, and maybe the movement will break down in the next year, or two years, or whatever. But in my opinion I was giving him an opportunity to sell me an overhaul, cleaning, tuneup or whatever you want to call it. As it stands, if it needs a new movement or repair in a year or two, then I will gladly (OK, not gladly but readily) pay for a repair or replacement. On this watch it will be worth it. For today, though, I'm not going to pay extra to fix a watch that is not broken.