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Good morning, After searching for a very long time, I have finally found my birth year grail watch. I have literally been checking multiple sites multiple times a day searching for an excellent example. Will not bore you with a overly long story, but he is the quick version. Started with Rolex in 1987 as a young man, for most of the last 30 years I would buy a new one every few years and trade in the old one. I found the rep forums while doing research for a 116610. I was still still stuck in the 5 digit models and was not sure about the 6 digits. Did not care for the new cases. Anyways I joined here to try a ceramic Sub and got a BK and tried a bunch of modern Rolex reps/frankens. I found that I did not care for the new cases or the new models in general. I stuck around and fell in love with vintage Rolex and being part of the watch collecting communities. I was always a 'watch guy" but not really WIS until I found this place. Did a bunch of really cool franken builds, but in the end went back to gens, but 4 and 5 digit models. All of this activity on the various forums really inspired me to find a birth year gilt piece. I was born in 1966 which is a transitional year so both gilt and matte Subs and GMT's from that year. In the end the 5513 Gilt Bart reference became the holy grail for me. Gilt dials just do something for me that other references do not. I have been close a couple of times to buying one, but it just did not work out. These are really hard to come by and rarely are for sale. It seems the collectors are hoarding these. So this week I was doing my usual search of sites and found a 66 Bart in excellent condition from a well known vintage dealer. I bought the head only, as I had a mint 1966 7206 bracelet just waiting for this piece. Watch will be here tomorrow, but I am like a little kid and wanted to share this experience with my watch collecting brothers. Pics from the seller. I will do some follow up photos in the next few days.

Hello from paradise! Not afraid to Dive deep with this one. Salt water should add some nice patina to the outside of the brass bezel.

Yes Mbw case will take a Gen 703 crown with existing tube, well at least mine have so far

I present to you... New insert and new triangle. Note to self... Brushing the ceramic tio much and son you will have a broken insert

Stunning. What a lovely build.

Enough of The jokes !! And help The man out i been on The Hunt The past hours and pretty sure i found who A is looking for ( dramatic drum Roll please

Your desires my commands:

"I wonder if spring bars for Rolex datejust 16014 will fit into the stock case?" Yes they will work. They are .9mm at the tips and the tube is 1.8mm in diameter. One tip has a 1.25mm shoulder and the other end does not, it's .9mm all the way. The shoulder should rest against the inside of the lug but if the lug holes are a little bit oversize, the shoulder may go into the lug and cause the tip of the spring bar to stick out of the lug and you will need to trim it. Submariner spring bars have 1.2mm tips and 2.0mm tubes so I usually drill lug holes out to 1.3mm to make a little extra 'wiggle room' because many (if not most) hood/bracelet combinations are not made to exact spec...1.2mm is too tight, 1.25 will work if everything lines up but 1.3mm makes it easier to r/r bracelets. You can also slightly taper the lug holes on the insides of the lugs when using submariner spring bars to help guide the tips into the lugs but do not taper them when using DJ spring bars. Do not cut any taper at all on the outside holes in the lugs and polish any burrs left on the outsides from drilling by sanding the sides of the lugs with 600-1000-2000 etc wet or dry sandpaper under running water with the sandpaper folded over or glued to a flat, rigid sanding stick. Also be careful not to sand into the bevels on the lug tops. A small flat aluminum bar about 10 or 12mm wide, 5 or 6mm thick, and 100 mm long +/- makes a good sanding stick as it is flat and rigid. You can usually find aluminum bar stock at Home Depot, hardware stores etc. Do not use steel as it will really put a gash in a case if you slip. All my MBK cases needed to be drilled and if you drill the lugs out, make sure none of the holes are too close to the bottom or top of the lugs. MBK cases are really good about being centered but it is always something to look for. I have seen a lot of cases ruined by enlarging lug holes that were already too close to an edge.

First of all, I doubt the last batch of MBWs had the correct lughole size- they never have before. I'd certainly give the DJ springbars a try- they're cheap from Clark's. Also, someone else mentioned the Marathon springbars https://www.topspecus.com/shop/genuine-replacement-marathon-stainless-steel-spring-bars/

Would The Real slim shady please stand up please stand up haha

BP Fifty Fathoms RG on gen BP Sailcloth