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Bond Sub

The Lone Ranger and Tonto were in the desert on Christmas Eve. After they got their tent all set up, both men fell sound asleep. Some hours later, in the stillness before Christmas morn, Tonto woke the Lone Ranger and said, 'Kemo Sabe, look towards sky, what you see? ' 'The Lone Ranger replied, 'I see millions of stars.' 'What that tell you?' asked Tonto. The Lone Ranger pondered for a minute then said, 'Astronomically speaking, it tells me there are millions of galaxies and potentially billions of planets. Astrologically, it tells me that Saturn is in Leo. Time wise, it appears to be approximately a quarter past four in the morning. Theologically, the Lord is all-powerful and has sent his son, born in a manger of a virgin. Meteorologically, it seems we will have a beautiful day for Christmas. What does it tell you, Tonto?' 'You dumber than buffalo chip, Kemo Sabe. It mean someone stole the tent.' MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!

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.

"You are in unicorn territory..." For sure. Used to be these projects could be put together for $2k or less. Not now, because of 'rolex insanity' and the fact that the $250 'go to' David Wong case has been MIA for years...along with DW. Also, V72 movements were put in many 'no name' watches that were selling for $300 to $500 back then. Not now. They have all been scooped up. Something else to consider...at today's prices it would be easy to sink $5k or $6k in a watch with your specs even if you went with an aftmkt dial. Imho that is a lot of $$ for a watch that anyone other than us (RWG etc guys) would not pay much more than $1000 for just to get the movement. I learned this with 1570/1520 powered 5512/13 Frankensteins. There are exceptions of course. If I wanted to 'scratch the itch' for a while, I would buy a cartel '6263' with a Seagull ST19 from 'Mary' or someone and wear it while I searched out the options and prices of putting one together. I recommended 'Mary' because my last purchase was a few 'foldoyster' bracelets...easy and trouble free. The other TDs are good too but I have not purchased anything from them in a while. Another option is to keep a lookout for one with V72 etc in the Trading Zone. Good luck!

From Phong, but it will cost you several thousand Dollars if you can find a dial, that might cost you into five figures alone, another two thousand for a movement. You are in unicorn territory and will likely spend a long time and a great deal of money acquiring parts

Here is what my Black Lung looks like. If you look carefully you can see the shadow and reflection of the underside of the seconds hand reflected in the glossy dial. Where it reflects off the orange surface is not as pronounced, and where it reflects from the black logo it is much more visible. The difference in reflection from those two colored surfaces shows you how glossy it is.