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The amount of fake aged bezel inserts, fake blueberry inserts, fake small GMT hands is really annoying! I've been collecting vintage Rolex sports models since approximately 1990 and I've NEVER seen a blueberry GMT, nor did anyone ever talk about it whatsoever. Perhaps there were a few genuine ones but in all honesty, zero of them were out in the wild. FAKE! Well, more like 99.9999999999% fake!!! And those all red GMT hands? Hummmmm, yeah right. Maybe a couple dozen TOPS were OEM! Remember folks, they made a ton of GMT-1's and it had a very long run-time as well. My rant is more directed towards the fakesters and swindlers who have messed with the pricing of parts and watches. They have created false value, and ruined the pricing on OEM vintage parts forever.

So, here is what is done better explained with a quick sketch of the mod performed. Skecth is just for illustration, it is not a working drawing... The top of the case is shaved slanted: looking at the drawing you will understand why I believe it is the best option. Shaving it flat can't work as we can't modify the inner part of the case on a budget as that would imply very expensive works that would exceed the price of a Vietnam made case. And the point here is to stay around 1/2 the price... Therefore, you can all get now why the retaining ring has to be modified too to sit properly on the case. Here is a case un-mounted, so you can see the shape of the parts. Once it is assembled you can't see at all that slope. That's the trick !!!! Now you know. Enjoy the pics.

XF factory... I am impressed!!! As a big Rollie fan, I guess it was just a matter of time Tudor would chime more into my collection. I bought this piece from Trustytime as I do for over 12 years by now. You can't go wrong with Andrew guys. Fast communication and shipping as well. I recently heard he was waiting for stocks to come in regarding this new Destro. I actually never owned a destro before. It wears suprisingly well due to the crown which does not presses into your hand constantly while working. Here some specs from Trusty to start of with: http://www.ttw-138.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=228&products_id=17066 XF Factory Tudor Pelagos LHD Destro Diver Made with a Genuine Pelagos LHD Destro Diver 1:1 ONLY one in Market to be made with a Genuine!! **Free Rubber Strap will be included with every purchase! MOVEMENT: Nickel Plated Asia Eta 2824-2 Automatic Movement, 25J, 28800bph CASE DIAMETER: 42mm THICKNESS: 13.5mm DIAL COLOR: Black Dial with Lumed Box Markers and "PELAGOS" in Red Font, Patina colored markers CASE MATERIAL: Solid Brushed Titanium Case Kit (Like Genuine) BRACELET: Solid Brushed Titanium bracelet with Special Deployant buckle FRONT GLASS: Sapphire Crystal with Colorless Double AR Coating (Swiss Grade) CASE BACK: Solid case back with random limited serial engraving BEZEL: Uni-directional Diver Bezel, Anti-Clockwise (With Lume on Bezel) HACK MOVEMENT: Yes CLASP TYPE: Deployant Buckle DATE INDICATOR: At 3:00 position (Adjusted via the crown) **Roulette Style Datewheel - Even Number is Red Font, Odd Number is Black Font OTHER REMARKS: Waterproofed to 30m direct from Factory -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The case: The watch measures 42mm in diameter and (how cool!) it is made of real titanium. The case has a really good looking nice matte/satin finish to it which comes with beautifull beveled edges. The nicely decorated crown is protected by the typical Tudor 'pointed' crown guards. The matte finish of the case and bracelet seems to hide scratches really well also. On the rightside of the case you will find the smooth looking decorated helium release valve. The caseback has a nicely brushed effect on it, just like the clasp etc. VERY crisp engravings btw, XF did a great job with that! Compared to the many subs I own, it seems this Tudor wears a little bit bigger but I don't mind that at all. The Dial: I have to admit It is difficult to look at this watch without comparing it to Rolex, I had to teach myself this is NOT a rolex but a brand on his own with a wink to Rolex, but they are family as we all know. The Pelagos has square hour markers placed in what people call "slots". The minute indicators are based on the higher locationed rehaut. The rehaut also has the cut outs in it for the earlier mentioned hour indicators. I really like the effect of this dial build up. The dial seems (at first sight) to have the same structure compared to the rehaut but, in fact it has a matte finish which I find to be just pure watch porn. I always like matte finished dials especially when sunlight hits the dial (see pics below). The dial printing is (just like all the engravings) very crisp... kudos! The lume on this black boy is incredibly strong and tinted bright blue. Personally I also like the missing magnifier on the date, it makes the watch looks more clean but perhaps also a bit bigger. The datewheel: Nice feature is the black vs. red datewheel, even numers red, uneven black... I love that! The Bezel: One of the first things I noticed is the firm grip you have on the bezel, completely different compared to Rolex. No fingers sliding over the bezel trying to turn it, the small groves/cut outs give you a perfect strong grip. Like the SubC's, I believe this Bezel is also made of ceramic. But in the case of the Tudor it seems it is a matte ceramic. Luminous material is (I believe) injected directly into the ceramic for hashing. Tudor does not work with a pearl because they simply say it will fall off as many Rollie owners can confirm . The bezel rotates smooth with very firm loud and crisp clicks with, absolutely no wiggling or whatsoever. The Bracelet and clasp: The bracelet really looks bada$$, again probably mostly due to the matte satin finish. It wears smooth and very very comfortable (I gave it an oil bath also). The design of the clasp on this bracelet makes it even more special. It opens and closes very slick and firm. The clasp has 3 standard positions you can adjust the normal wearing size with, this you can do by sliding the clasp (a bit like how the rolex SubC clasp works). But, also it has the "stretch out / spring adjusted" function which allows the bracelet to adjust with the wearer's motion. It was designed for divers whose wrists expands and contracts based on the pressure change while diving. On top of that there is the common known folding out 'divers extension'... so many options to choose! A nice bonus from the XF factory is the free Rubber strap. I haven't put it on yet as I prefer wearing the bracelet but many guys around here probably do like the rubber option. Perhaps I will try it later on, it does feel smooth and feels like top quality. My conclussion: To be honnest XF made a great quality watch and I really feel like... if you own this watch why go GEN? The quality is simply amazing and besides Rollex I found myself another brand I am starting to fall in love with. Enjoy the pics and have a great day! Verzonden vanaf mijn iPhone met Tapatalk

....maybe I'm blind or not looking in the right place, but where can I change my signature? Thanks in advance

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I put this fat fonts insert in my Frosty Flake just because it matches the dial so well... I take it swimming and biking and climbing, and now I have to rethink that. As valuable as the insert alone is getting, the watch will wind up losing its "beater" status!

Very interesting post and great pictures, thanks mate !!!

That's a great post, thank you for putting it together

Absolutely agree! Your mentioning of parts bins brought up some neat memories from 30 years ago... Lotsa discussions with Rolex Beverly Hills Service Center, etc. The parts bins were real for sure. All in all it's a fun sport but it has changed significantly in the last few years due to the pranksters and fakesters. Buyer beware. And folks, pick up a vintage sports model before they really get ridiculous pricewise.

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Hallelujah brother! The flippers and make-an-extra-buck'ers have removed all the genuine interest and turned every broken down, completely wrecked watch part into "if I call it vintage and it has a Rolex-logo, hey, I could make 500€"

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Still on my wrist... I've been downsizing after many years of Panerai... there was a time when I thought this was too small to wear, but I'm so glad I kept it :-)

"Reminds me of the last Gen I had with a Swiss 7750 in it that nobody would touch for $300 because apparently the brand name on the dial meant the Swiss 7750 was junk (or so people act like if the brand name starts with I and you guys know which brand I mean)" Yep. I have one...a 'Reserve' 45mm diver with blue dial and bezel insert. No one will give it the time of day because of the brand name. I have examined a few watches up close (probably a few thousand) and this Invicta has very good casework, dial etc. It is a good watch imho but the brand name kills it mainly because of the $79 junk all over eBay, cable TV sales networks etc plus know-it-alls running their mouth (keyboard?) on the internet. The exact same watch with Hamilton, Oris etc on the dial would make them whizz down their leg. Around 15 years ago the stainless steel black dial Invicta 8926 diver with 8215 Miyota was the TZ Darling. Now the 8926 has an NH35A automatic and is supposedly better than the original.

Joe did them. His work is so tidy, I don't need to get to do it myself !

I'm beginning to see a trend with my decisions to take on franken builds. Not quite sure whether this is a good thing, or a bad thing. My wrist likes it, but my wallet ... not so much. I like to call this trend "The Happy Accident." "The Happy Accident" seems to be occurring a lot. It starts with me just reading the various message boards and minding my own business, and I happen to see a post advertising a part (often rare) for sale. Most of the time, I haven't even considered a build of the particular watch the part comes from, but somehow it managed to catch my eye either because it's a great deal, or just a rare part I don't see come available very often. It all started during my 16014 DateJust build. The first 16014 case I bought did not come with a bezel, so I initially bought an engine turned bezel for it. Unfortunately, I was underwhelmed when it arrived. It also wasn't correct for the model number of the case, so I figured it would just be a placeholder until I found the correct white gold fluted bezel. The timing of this was terrible, as while I was searching the price of gold spiked, and gen bezels were commanding insane money (most were in the $300 range ... ouch!). One day on eBay, I happened upon a complete 16014 case with a perfect gen WG bezel, crown, tube and crystal at a $299 BIN price, so I bit the bullet and picked it up. Happy Accident. Of course, the leftover case then needed to be used for something. My initial thought was to just build another DateJust. I already had a spare linen dial (which had been sent to the sidelines when I found my silver roman dial) and the engine turned bezel, so another DateJust would have been easy. Although KBH would say you can never have too many DateJusts, one was certainly enough for me, so I likely would have just sold it off at some point. So what to do instead? Well, shortly thereafter I read LHOOQ's 1016 thread suggesting the 16014 case would be good alternative for a 1016 Explorer build, so that became project #2. You can read about that one here. While I was gathering parts for the 1016, I ran into a couple of challenges which delayed things. Finding a dial, and dealing with the MD2020 debacle (he still had the 2846 I intended to use ... and my money!) had things on hold for a bit. Of course during this time, I was still minding my own business and reading the various boards ... when the perfect storm hit. More Happy Accident(s). During my leisure time on the boards, I had been following Whoopy's dial project, and also HH's vintage Rolex case project. I love how some of our members take on these product development projects for our benefit. I have neither the time, nor the knowledge to do it myself, so I'm amazed at their dedication and effort. I had already made the decision to buy one of Whoopy's 1016 dials and was waiting to get that order done. I was disappointed when it looked like HH's case project was dead and the few cases he managed to get completed were gone. Then another member posted that HH might still have a case or two left, and I got lucky enough to pick up one of his last. Since Whoopy also happened to be making 5514 dials in his run, after a quick additional purchase, another project was born! I've always said, "when the perfect storm hits, just ride the wave." Collecting the rest of the parts for this one was fairly easy. Denimhead had an old MBK 91350 hollow link bracelet for sale, and Omega had a gen 5513 insert. I found a gen Tropic 19 on eBay at a great price, and went back to another eBay seller I had bought from previously to score a donor watch with an ETA 2846. After initially finding a gen 703 crown/tube, I changed directions and got Athaya's 702 crown/tube combination which fit the HH case without retapping and was a bit more period correct. Based on a couple of reviews I had seen, I decided to try out a couple of new people for the labor on this one. Droptopman had highly recommended Cwazy over at RWI for vintage Rolex lume, so Whoopy's dial and TC's 16610 hands went that direction. Misiekped was recommended for servicing the movement, so after the dial came back all the parts went to him for the service and final assembly. Naively, I thought this was going to be an easy build, based on all the research I had done during the parts gathering process. But, of course, several small glitches occurred during the build. Appears the HH bezel washer can be a bit "finicky" during assembly. Thanks to Akira and Dbane883 for the guidance there. Once again, it's great to have forum members that are willing to help when you get stuck on something. I love that part of this hobby. Misiekped also reported that the Whoopy dial needed to be sanded down from 27.55mm to 27.34mm to fit the case, that there was a little bit of stray lume on the edge of one of the hands that needed to be cleaned up, and the movement ring that came with the case ended up not working out well with the 2846. I also sent the wrong endlinks with the 93150, so there was a slight delay in sorting that out. Best laid plans ... what can I say? Thankfully, Misiekped was great in working through everything that came up, and he also did a great job of refinishing the bracelet. So now I present Happy Accident #2, aka my Rolex 5514. The final build looked like this. HH 5514 case Athaya 702 Crown / Tube Gen Tropic 19 Gen 5513 Insert Gen caseback gasket MBW Hollow Midlink 93150 Bracelet WSO 580 endlinks Whoopy 5514 Dial TC 16610 Hands Swiss ETA 2846-2 movement from donor watch Star-Time RP23-1675SW Springbars Thanks again to all that helped. HH, Whoopy, Athaya for the custom parts, Akira and Dbane for the knowledge on the bezel, Netniet, Lionsandtigers, Dbane and Ubi for their inspirational builds, and Droptopman for pointing me to Cwazy. I've probably missed someone, so thank you too ... More pictures will be forthcoming, but for now, here are a few from Misiekped that were taken during the build. And yes, there was a Happy Accident #3 already in the pipeline, a Daytona 6265 was next up, but another Happy Accident changed those plans. More on that one later ....