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I haven’t been here in a very long time. A little over ten years ago, I built my last rep project as a gift for my father. It has been such a long time since then, I can’t recall everything I did to this watch. I can remember it has a WM9 case, an ETA movement, Rolex dial, bezel and insert, tube, and crown. This was the last of my “builds”, actually put together by The Zigmeister. Almost two years ago, while in the process of cleaning out my father’s home, deciding what gets thrown out, and what gets divided up between my sisters and I, I came across the watch. It appeared that my dad never wore it much, and it cleaned up easily. Now I wear it pretty regularly, mostly in memory of my father, but also in memory of the time of learning here on RWG, and the friends I made here.

Done

I am not fussy as I wouldn’t say no to a Rolex as a gift - even a non working one! But anyone who would insist on offering, then I would not let them down and immediately these are my three on my list, submariner nipple dial in gold, my blue dial railway track and Presidential,and the pre explorer 6098

Looks great!

No a parts seller on instagram (whos name escapes me - I think tick tok watches ) posted this dial for sale and stated that it was refinished. It does look accurate but seeing the dial itself the "burn marks" look pretty obviously done with an air brush. in two strokes... by the time I contacted him about it it was sold I told him to reach out if he "finds more" Further thoughts on the Albino.: There seems to be an abundance of 6610 albinos popping up recently. real , fake , franken..who knows..but realistically speaking I can see the 6610 albino existing but I think every 1016 is a fake. why? because if rolex was in the product development stages to see if this dial color would work as an option to the product line. they made a few , tested them , tested the pad printer....and then didn't proceed why? too hard to read? white dial and white lume with silver hands. Wearing my aged albino with contrasting lume markers. its still tricky to read under certain light conditions so if the consensus was that it was not functional and dropped it. why would they revisit the idea in the 1016? its not like anything changed . So I think the 6610s were potentially a genuine attempt at creating another dial option but the 1016 was a pad print test only. damn dude...pizza stain tell me how you really feel about it LMAO So that was 5 months or so ago and as time passed I felt that I went a bit overboard on the ageing. , on the wrist it looked good however when you get it close it just didn't have the believable look that I Was after So I pulled it apart and removed the radium burns using some iso propel and foolishly didn't dilute it and it removed some of the print on the dial . D"UH!! At first I was [censored] because the print on these dials is soo crisp and clean that it was a shame to damage it. but how it did end up damage does look like legit wear and age. Not all is lost I aged the white dial to an attractive ivory tone with some dry detail brushes from tamiya and this is what you get. a prototype build that looks old and worn but not abused. The story of the albino explorers is that blank dials were used to test the print pad and then were meant to be destroyed but somehow a few missed the bin and ended up in the world and now fetch a premium. The appearance I settled on was one of a dial that had a poor pad print and then was kicking around a watchmakers parts bins for a few decades until it was dug up and used. I got the urge to mess with it the other day , thinking that I would put it back together and sell it on but damn...I really like this thing right now....so its not for sale yet...but perhaps one day