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If you ever decide to let that Noob TT go ... my wrist is ready for her. Guys !!! The more I read your posts and the more I'm sorry for not having joined this forum earlier. I joined November 2016, almost an "old man" already and quickly jumped into the build game (the first "watch" I bought was a 6538 case from Silix). It feels like the game was more "have fun" than "show off" some years earlier, with all those cheap reps far from perfect but highly upgradable (is it an english word ? "upgradable" ?). That's why I'm more in 5 digits and earlier, beyond the fact that these models were much more elegant ... I love reworking cases and drilling lugs, engraving, designing and building dials almost "from scratch". You're welcome and WOW !!! I love that caseback ... already uploaded the pic to use it as a template for engravings cause that 3646 could be one of my future build

Fwiw I have two basic types of older '16610' cases: F520117 'Noobmariner' D320840 'Not Noob'. The D320840 cases show up on a lot of different models, some not as 'wokky' as others. Here are some specs on the cases: The F520117 Noob dial window diameter is 27.0mm and the dial seat OD inside the case is 28.5mm. The reflector aka 'rehaut' is fairly shallow. The D320840 Not Noob dial window diameter is 27.1mm and the dial seat OD is 29.4mm. The reflector aka 'rehaut' is 'wokky' but quite a bit taller and thicker so the dial window can be enlarged a little if needed to unmask a larger dial. I have enlarged a few by cutting the reflector/rehaut straight up at the same angle as the case sides with no taper. This enlarges the dial window and reduces the 'wok effect' at the same time. The break with the reflector/rehaut angle will not be noticed as long as the exposed surface is sanded to match the existing grain on the reflector/rehaut. With a quality dial they look very good and the wok effect basically disappears. All my F520117 dials have the 9mm+/- date offset like genuine. Some of the D320840 dials have the date offset 10mm+/- to ETA 28xx specs and some are 9mm+/- like genuine. The F520117 Noob dials are 28.4mm, a close fit in the case. The D320840 dial is a little bit bigger, 28.7mm or so. As stated above, all my F520117 dials have 9mm+/- offset but some of the D320840 cases have 10mm+/- offset and some have 9mm+/- offset so the dials and DW can be different. The D320840 cases will take most of the 16610 replica dials because of the larger dial seat but the 27.1mm dial window may be too close to the minute markers on larger dials with the minute marks printed closer to the outer edge. I guess it all boils down to try to get the correct dial the first time around.

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It looks like a vintage tall crown, but not in very good shape with those holes- too bad. Don't know if that's wear or someone poked it with a pin or something.

Some documents about Staybrite and Stainless Steel https://hempel-metals.com/UserFiles/File/The Metallurgical Evolution of Staybrite.pdf https://hempel-metals.com/UserFiles/File/75_Years.pdf EDIT : sorry ... the links dont work ... will try to upload elsewhere EDIT 2 : links OK

ahah... so true. Palp helped me twice. I guess that at some point I produced some autocad drawings to guide modifications on a 6152 jackson case (sources were scarce back in 2006). Lots of shaving, resizing and reshaping. I do not remember if it was Palp himself or a metallurgist fellow but the result is such that i still keep the case with later updates (decent caseback and double shield bezel as in gen specs). I got the reshaped case back with the note: too much metal out. Finepics helped with dial reluming on a pioneer McSherry layered dial. Later on came the VDBroucke 3646 prototype 3 piece case with brass ring... few were produced from a block of Staybrite... same material used in the 40s...

Haha Palpatine. I had forgotten about him. He lived in Germany and modded our shitty reps. He did good job but the Subs were fundamentally wrong and no amount of mods would change that. I bought a few watches from him too... one MBW 1680. When WM9 came it was HUGE. That was amazing and changed the standards of reps... and it still is. I have my gen 16610 and WM9 v2 with gen bezel and crown and I can't tell them apart unless I look REALLY close.

16610

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Who remembers Paul's "CARZY SALE" (sic)? They were all $100. Then there was Kingwatch, Eddie Lee and River (who got the "better" TW stuff). And of course Neil (RIP).

I stopped buying reps this year after 6 years in this game ! Then i decided to go gen...like this one below 😉

Well, I did some stupid moves in this hobby like putting 2K of parts in a franken that doesn't even had that much gen parts. Money wise, it's insanity and I would never do it again neither buy a rep over 200 if I had still some decent income. But I had a great time here with some of you guys building these great watches. I owned gen, for example 1680 or 16800 and had reps build of the exact same models: I would go for the reps I sold here rather than the gens at the prices they are now. I paid my 1680 (White, full box, paper, service history...silver date wheel, 9315....) less that 4 k (€). They go for 10k to 15k now....ridiculous. My rep 1680 which is the last one I sold costed me around 1,700 and in my humble opinion was as good/nice as my gen was. Gen vintage is too high now anyway! If I ever want and can afford a 1680, I would buy mine back (if the buyer would sell it of course) 😂 In the end I wonder why I went for gens, wasn't it to feel superior, better than, show off ? For sure, what attracts me in a watch is the design, not the "in house movement" rather than a cheap Chinese one. For the record, a friend of mine from RWG offered me what he calls a cheap Chinese Rolex recently. It's running within COSC standards and it has the design even with the various tells for your expert eyes! And guess what: two persons came to me to tell me I had a great vintage Rolex (which never happened with my gens by the way). One of them even told me "It's a 1978 one I think, you shouldn't have it polished" Go figure 🤣 Bottom line: out of the box rep, 2-300€ is fine, more is ridiculous. Photos of My 1680 and 16800 and 16610 and so on

I had to machine a movement ring to keep the movement center as the hole is slightly too big and also lift the gen 3185 "away" from the crystal just a bit. That lined the stem up correctly. There is a slight gap but I used black acetal so you barely notice it.