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The '57 was gone for a while, but Zig straightened it out and now it's back:

ti cali mille metri today!

There's a guy that drinks in my local who knows everything about everything. You all know the type. Basically, he regards himself as a watch collector because he buys one every time he goes on holiday. A while back he said, "I must have over a hundred watches, but I don't have any Rolexes, although I do have a few expensive ones that cost me about £200." You get the picture. Quite often he'll comment on the watch I'm wearing and ask what it is. He hasn't heard of Panerai, Ebel or Chopard, but, "Patek Philippe, yeah I've heard of them, they're French aren't they!" Anyway, he was in the local last night and asked me what the time was. I saw he was wearing one of his extensive collection, so I asked if his watch had stopped. "No, it's a self-winding one and it loses about 5 minutes every hour, because I don't move my arm about very much. I'm going to go and get the next bus and just wanted to check what the correct time was." I told him what the time was.

I finally received the last part that I need to complete my 6542 build. I procrastinated for some time getting a GMT drive wheel for the movement I used in my 6542 build. I can finally introduce my build and an interesting one it is! I've been following the great 6542 builds of JoeyB and freddy333 and decided to use a modern movement...a 2893-2. Sure the beat is wrong, but parts are plentiful...and no...I would not attempt to use a Zodiac 75B for this GMT build. Now the interesting part of the build. Nice and thin case...no not a silix...not even Nathalie or Phong...It is an aftermarket Tudor 7924 case. This case was completely wrong for a 7924 build, but perfect for a 6542 build! I did use a gen crown...so is it considered as a franken build? The 116 crystal is aftermarket and I really like the sloped edge of the crystal and fit the profile of the bezel perfectly, creating a single sloped line. I sourced my bezel assembly and insert (sorry Joey) from Nathalie. I had to modify the case a bit to get a perfect fit for the bezel. And the completed watch with a Yuki 7206 bracelet Unfortunately I don't have a 747 Pan Am model available, so I had to use an airline with similar colors. Since I fly with them a lot...

Elias, all i would say to you is this. Before you jump off the deep end of the pier, you need to check the water depth and sharks!!! Ming is a shark! He can smell a noob a mile away. I would stay away from his stuff until you are comfortable telling the really good stuff from the junk. You need to do a lot of reading, research and more reading. You don!'t want to end up paying 3K for a 500 dollar watch, which is very possible when you deal with some of those aftermarket sellers who tell you it has and aftermarket case but everything else is gen, but,but,but. I would take the advice of the guys here who have built beautiful frankens, and not have to take out a second mortgage on their house to do it. Start small, do your research and work your way up to the really super reps.

I've already got it on my TC now. So it's not a problem if you want it.

This explains all the holes in my '63 Land Rover.

Looks like to me that all you get that's original is the insert and the movement- everything else is rep! And I agree, 1530 parts are getting scarce. I think you'd be better off building a rep with a 2846-2 movement and some good quality rep parts. Depending on how resourceful you are, you could do it for $500+ and it certainly beats spending $2K for a Minh Quy rep.

And here you have the final result

I always ask myself a few questions... The questions might be: How much $$ is it going to cost? How much is it really worth? How much $$ would it cost to have one just like it made by a trustworthy modder (or do it myself)? Is a genuine rolex movement important or would an Eta suffice? (Rolex 1530 escapement parts are getting hard to find) Rules of thumb: Eta = half price. 3-6-9 dials scream Fake! Alternatives: Make one just like it with first class dial and a lower cost case with Eta movement. Helenarou has one with all but the crown and dial for about $550US...but it has a sapphire crystal. Buy one ready made from a TD and have it modified. Buy a genuine 5513 etc.

Ok so he's lying about the hands, they are not original, they are aftermarket. The dial is his, it's ok but not great. The movement is right. It's not a Franken just because it has a gen movement and a 1680 insert.. His cases do accept gen parts but a t17 needs slight shaving to fit. If you can get it cheep enough it may be worth it as a base to make a real Franken but I know he prob wants a lot so stay away, build your own based on his case or phong's

Guys, forget about that term "refinished dial". NDT, Minh etc. sell "refinished" dials, but they are simple fakes. Is it really that hard to fake the Singer, Beyeler or Stern stampings, no not really. And even if it was a genuine dial in the first place, if the old paint was removed and it's reprinted, what is left? Just a silly piece of genuine (Rolex/Singer/Stern)brass. just my 2 cents

Oh, when Minh says it's all genuine but the case I trust his words ... NOT Edith: to be more clear... he claims in his mail, that everything is genuine BUT the case, then he says refinished dial (which is just another term for: fake dial) ... So the Rolex movement is gen, no doubt, but what else? BTW: What d'you want? A nice Franken 5510 or a cheap genuine one?

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PROS ABOUT BP: Correct AR on cyclops Gen like construction Super luminova Thick font on DWO VERY nice pearl Tight rotating bezel case has a nice shape Great SEL CONS: Spacing between "officially certified" is not good Glide lock clasp is very poor tends to slip Is not water-tight out of the box Date seems to commonly misalign date mag too strong Crown guards are a little fat for noob factory sub: PROS: Great bracelet Dial is more correct Nice crown guards Water tight most of the time CONS: Cheap feel on bezel rotation Bezel is to thick date font is too thin date mag a little low poor SEL Luminova is not consistent and is a little purple Case shape is a little awkward stamped 18k?

Just finished housing one of my Glasshute 100 year old movements into its new home for another 100! The hands and the crown are solid Rose Gold and apart from its size and choice of fitted strap today, looks very understated and elegant IMHO. Regards AJ

Looks great bk, thanks for putting the effort in and sharing with us. Ry

When fully wound (a day with reasonable amount of arm movement), a properly functioning A7750 should have around the same amount of "power reserve" as the gen Valjoux 7750...which is around 44 hours...give or take a bit. Most of mine run this amount...but if you read various posts on RWG and elsewhere, you will see some people have PRs that last only a little bit...maybe 24-36 hours. I have one that lasts only around 30 hours. This low PR should be fixed when it heads to The Zigmeister for a servicing. The problems with a LOW power reserve (i.e. <40) might be due to various things. You can check out these posts for more info: A7750 Power Reserve and Rotor Spinning Problems A7750 Spinning Rotor...is it a problem? Care and Feeding of Automatic and Manual Watches Care and Feeding of A7750s Like Cornerstone said, you might be used to a quartz battery powered watch which runs until the battery dies....which is years. With autos (aka mechanicals), they have to keep moving to keep running. Inconvenient? Yes...but that mechanical marvel is the "soul" of our hobby. You may find the watch loses or gains more time than a quartz based watch too...this is normal. Yup...you paid a chunk of money for a watch that needs more "hand-holding" only to produce less accuracy than your $25 Timex. Hah hah...sucker. But at least you didn't pay $4000 for the genunine...which has EXACTLY the same issues.