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Tell ya what... send me $35,000 and I'll send you a spectacular plexi Daytona. Absolutely indistinguishable from the naked eye, with the caveat you don't get to open it. It will be gen, or it will be a great Franken. But it will look, act and feel like a gen in every way. I'll invest the difference from what it cost me (if there's any left over) and you enjoy the watch. After 5 years if it doesn't scratch the itch any more, send it back, I'll resell it for 20% more than I paid for it, and refund your money. I'll make out like a bandit and you'll have no way of knowing if it's real or not. It's a gamble, and it's NOT a gamble at the same time. (an illustration about intangibles and our unreasonable hearts)

Ask a local jeweler. Most have the equipment/experience to perform engravings on watches (a popular option for gift-givers). However, if the Rolex is not gen, for obvious reasons, I would limit the search to jewelers who are not Rolex dealers. Good luck.

On the RWG homepage, scroll down to Repair/Modification Services, and look for Neckyzips Orologeria. Send him a message and he'll tell you where to ship the watch and how much it will cost. His work is great.

Fine looking watches! Never had a manual wind Daytona, missed one in the mid 1990s for about $1500. Same guy had a steel V72 Wittnauer 'Professional', I snagged it. When you snooze, you lose. Had quite a few V72 in other brands and they are all gone except for one nos mainspring in my parts stash. All I have now is some swisseta 7750/7753 powered stuff...Hamilton Khaki, Victorinox Air Boss, and a 7750 Invicta diver about the size of a 5 pound barbell weight. "In my experience, a well-crafted franken, where all of the user-accessible components are gen, will have the same feel as the gen." I agree. My rolex powered Frankensteins are not much different from genuine except for the case, dial, hands, and bracelet being replicas. The 'feel' of the watch is the same...and the cases are not beat up/rotted out like many true vintages. As far as that goes...a replacement '444' case from rolex service is not original either so a J$W com, Ruby, Yuki etc case is just as good for every day wear and a hell-of-a-lot cheaper. Imho. Matter of fact, you could probably take a J$W com case with a 444 serial number, correct case back stamping, genuine dial, crown etc and never get called out if it was opened up. Probably/maybe. 'Case' in point...I have a DW '1680' case with a rolex 1570, original date wheel, white Lemrich dial, genuine crown etc and a few 'quasi-experts' have closely eyeballed it and the only thing they said jumped out at them was the bezel insert was not genuine. About half of them wanted to buy it. Rolex 1680 Submariner Fantastic Lemrich Dial Circa 1977 - Rolex Passion Market