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Squares have takes a backseat whilst I figure out some dials . tackled the silix BC case, yeah it's a lot of work, but that's part of the enjoyment

A few weeks back, someone purchased the very last stock of MBW watches, because the owners are closing down their shop. I wasn't really planning on building another watch, since I already have too many on my bench, but I figured what the heck, this is your last chance to own a piece of rep history. As chance would have it, around the same time I got my hands on a very nice gen old stock Tropic 127 Top Hat Crystal. These are pretty rare and differ from the current T127 in the sense that they look like a top hat and don't have a beveled edge. Pretty hard to get and expensive for a piece of plastic, but the crystal is really what makes the watch, just like a suit makes a gentlemen. Vintage Rollies will look significantly different with one vs. another crystal. The other part that makes a watch look the part is the dial. To distinguish the 1680 a bit from my DRSD, I wanted this one to look tropical. Through a friend, I managed to get a Tropical brown 1680 Red dial with genuine specs. This was a blessing and a curse, because the rehaut in the MBW 1680 case is really made for 5513 dials, so it's about 0.5mm too narrow, so my dial was a 0.5mm too big, or to put it more accurately, my rehaut was 0.5mm to narrow. Thankfully, I'm not the type to back away from a challenge and I now have the right tools to correct that. To be honest, I got tired of waiting for other people to do such work for me, often to dissatisfying results, so I started accumulating all tools I need to do case reshaping, crown/tube/crystal installation, servicing movements... you name it. It takes a bit of practice, but it's totally rewarding in the end (and this is from someone who makes his money in an entirely different industry! I think we had one set of 15$ screwdrivers from amazon at home before I ventured out and got all this equipment). Having said that, there are still a few select guys here that I trust with my watches and I still send them to these guys for certain specialty mods that I believe they can do a lot better than I can. But I do as much of the work as possible by myself. Case Work:Reducing the dials diameter by 0.5mm would have been a tough challenge without damaging the dial and it would have made the chapter ring too narrow for a 1680, so I had no choice but to make the rehaut bigger. Using a digital caliper, a Dremel Flex Shaft Attachment and a carbide burr, I started carefully opening up the rehaut and additionally carved a little edge into it to hold the dial. To visualize the process, take a look at the schema below. I basically had to cut out the red part to use the gen spec dial: You can probably imagine that this was tedious work, I had to disassemble, carve, sandpaper, polish, measure and assemble the watch at least 20 times over and over to get it right. Personally, I need to hold the case in one hand and the burr on a flex shaft in the other to do this right, which is of course pretty dangerous, so I don't recommend doing this when you are tired! It's possible to use a Vise instead of holding it in your hand, but I felt I got better results using both hands. In the end, it was totally worth it, I adore this dial! I slightly aged the rest of the case + lugs as well without overdoing it. Crown Guards:In addition to the rehaut, I also slightly filed down the crown-guards, not too much, since the 1680 tends to have thicker crown-guards than the 5513 for example, and the CGs are already pretty good on the MBWs. For a lot of other cases (or for other reference numbers), you'll have to trim the CGs from the outside, which is a lot of work. As you can see here, the gen 1680 has thicker crown guards: You also see in the picture above that the gen 1680 has a I__I shape around the backside of the CGs. Most reps don't have this, they are shaped like this: \__/ - which is incorrect for the 1680. Mine is of course shaped like the Gen Bezel:As you can imagine, the black stock bezel insert looked hideous with the tropical dial, so I had to find a way to make it look the part. This was the first bezel I tried to age, so I figured it's probably a wise idea to experiment with the stock bezel and not with an expensive aftermarket. I used a combination of 400/600/800/1200/1500 & 3000 grit sandpaper, UV lamp and a blow-torch to arrive at the tropical brown look you can see below and I'm pretty happy with the result. I may change the insert for a different fat font insert at some point and repeat the procedure, but for now this will do just fine! I sanded and polished the bezel ring a few times and glued the insert in-place with a tiny amount of resin. Crown/Tube:I re-tapped the case with 3 different M3x0.35 taps to accept a gen spec tube from Clark and installed a genuine 703 crown. I created a counter-sunk for the tube using a round carbide burr. Lug Holes:I used a 1.25mm drill to drill the lug-holes for proper 2mm springbars, only to find out that the MBW rep bracelet's center-end-links don't accept 2mm spring-bars (grrrr). So now I need to get a different bracelet or change the last link that connects to the end-links. It's not feasible to drill a bigger hole into the last center link, I tried with various HSS drills and increased their size by 0.05mm increments, but the metal on these links is just too rigid to open up the hole properly. The drills that I use to drill holes into cases for crown/tube aren't gonna cut it with the bracelet's center-end-link. If anyone has an idea about the bracelet (either opening the last center links hole, or changing the last center link to something more suitable), I'd be happy to hear suggestions! As far as I know the hollow link MBW bracelets are the next best thing to a gen bracelet. Considering the time, tools and money I put into the work and the parts I could have probably gotten a genuine 1680, but honestly, it wouldn't looks as pretty as mine. A cheap gen would look like any out-of-the-box rep if you ask me! The pretty and tropical gen specimens go for a 20k and up. Look at the watch before and after, if you ask me there are world between them!

Goldie today

Here is my today's choice.

My just arrived Marlin 127 "OOR" serial. This one has the full Swiss parts treatment.. Stunning piece to look at and wear ! Another amazing piece by Marlin. This is my 6th or maybe 7th by him. An awesome person to deal with ! And his attention to details are next to none.

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You mean the odd looking Rolex that all watch companies try to replicate? Give it up.

Well I agree some back and forth, but mate no matter how many times you start one of these threads it always comes up snake eyes give it up already. You've done this on two boards guys told you the deal they ain't making for various reasons some very valid having nothing to do w/ personal taste you just have to accept it and move on. Plenty of watches out there!

Take it easy there, sailor! I like you too, but... After trying to make a satisfactory hand from pieces, I found the hour hand I finally used at Otto Frei, part number is HAN 7008. $4 per set (includes 14mm hour hand, not suitable for the 6204 or 6542). It still needs some modding. but I looked for several years and could not find the right shaped pencil hour hand. I used 1500 sandpaper and shaped the edges towards the point more. It didn't need much, but some for certain. The Frei hour hand hole is 1.55mm, just a hair too big for ETA. I carefully squeezed the hole smaller to make it fit. At $4 a set, I ordered 3 sets so I could mess up one or two and still be OK. The minute hand is the one from Helenarou for ETA, 13mm. Both hands are silver. It is my opinion, having never seen a genuine 6204 in person and only in pictures, that the hands were not gilt but brass. Brass being used for ocean going tools. I used the 1500 sandpaper to take the hands to bare brass, and let them tarnish a tad. They don't tarnish much at all once in the sealed case. The chapter ring itself on chapter ring dials is 26mm in diameter. The minute hand then must be 13mm to reach the chapter ring, as Rolex did with the 6204 and early 6542, and likely the Turn-O-Graph. They went to the 12mm hand within 2 or 3 years at most, based on pictures I've seen. Somewhere in 1956 or so. The simplicity of the 6204 is captivating. When those long hands reach out across from each other, it is mesmerizing. I wish I could take better pics to show, but you'll have yours soon enough to show us all! Let me know if I can help.

I redid everything again and now it is working!!!

Good luck with that... These are few and far between, but I do see them occasionally up for sale.

Hahaha! Not sure how many are left but here is the thread. https://rwg.cc/topic/182328-vintage-rolex-5513-1680-5512-1665

Buy one of the last of the old stock MBW watches for sale here. Will take a little case modding to use a gen dual, but it's not difficult. Will accept gen parts. Go to the sales forum and look for Rolexfinders ad. I agree that a phong or Yuki case would be the best, bet, however not sure that it would be cheap. The phong case is 1250.00, Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Awesome work my friend! They look excellent. The eagle beak has quickly become one of my favorite cases. So unique, curvy, and beautiful. Well done. Sent from my Z30 using Tapatalk