Leaderboard

After about three years' time, I can call this one "done". The case looks to be hand made, from maybe the 70s, likely from Vietnam. It's nearly perfect, though a little too rounded on the sides. Inside the case back is the curly Rolex logo from the era, stamped deeply. The serial numbers are age appropriate and it has BREVET+ between the 12:00 lugs. I put a Brevet+ crown on it, and the dial is correctly dished, but chipped around the edges because the case maker didn't provide a good way to anchor the movement inside. The hands it came with were horrible, made from bits of different hands soldered together. The hours hand looked like card stock and the seconds was 2mm short. Over about a year I put together the parts, including a Tonny Watch negative relief gloss gilt dial (magnificent) and a perfect set of hands I found on eBay. We went back and forth and decided to use the original chipped dial because it has the patina and it's correctly dished. I went with a low beat ETA because a reliable A260 movement doesn't exist. And now here it is, and dang it, sitting here on the desk beside me it looks exactly like my 62 year old gen 6536/1. It looks absolutely genuine. I wish I could upload high quality photos to do it justice.

New in from @SSTEEL a nice franken. Gen dial, bezel and bracelet.

WOW! That is a beauty! And I like the fact that you used a low beat eta- now you care wear it carefully on a more regular basis.

"Look at that caseback stamping. Whoever built this case had a serious eye for detail." Nuq's 6204 is really, really good. I remember way back when I would see a genuine 6204 for $1000 or so and everyone (including me) passed over them because they did not have crown guards. Live and learn. There are some real good replica cases out there from 20 years ago with case back stamping like the 6204 above and some are now being sold as genuine. I have a couple replica bubblebacks that I bought on Yahoo auctions 20 years back with the same stamping. The cases are very good and mine came with ratty ETA 2789 movements. They have reference number 5015 with serial number 545383 and I have seen them for sale as genuine with BB movements and dials. Main tells...they have smooth bezels and most of the genuine 5015 have engine turned bezels and the replica dials have SCOC where the genuine has OCC below center. Here is a replica BB exactly like mine (from gumtree.com)...

I had to take the back off for a minor adjustment. Look at that caseback stamping. Whoever built this case had a serious eye for detail.

Tonight I tried it on a Yuki band. Hooooooly smokes, I thought it looked good on a leather strap!