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...or are the genuine Rolex forum posters getting nuttier? I have been reading mainstream Rolex forums since back when 'dial-up' AOL was all we had and Amazon sold only books. There were two or maybe three good forums back then and everyone was 'calm, cool, and collected,' but now it seems every other post is an "Is it real?" post. Even when the watches have been purchased from trusted dealers or secondhand watches from an AD, they are still suspicious. It seems that no one trusts anyone anymore and aftermarket parts are a no-no, even if many OEM parts are no longer available. Something else: On most vintage Rolex forums now, anything not 'OEM' is either Taboo!, Fake!, or Dangerous! to the health of the watch in question. Clark crystals for instance, I have used quite a few with no problems and this also goes for crystals from GS, ST and a few others. Not to mention using anything as 'dangerous' as an aftmkt mainspring, even if it is made by the same company that supplied mainsprings to Rolex for years. I have used maybe 50 or 60 with no problems at all. I've also read where posters choose to send a steel 1960s manual wind no date Oyster type watch (for example) to Rolex Service in Geneva just so they can be assured of getting 'genuine' parts because USA Authorized Service Centers will not work on it...a watch that might sell for $2500 after the very high $$ service. Is this 'hobby' going crazy or what?

I think your observation is spot-on & I blame the recent crop of 'clone' movements & reps. Back when AOL was dial-up, any serious collector or watchmaker could easily ID a rep or franken. But, today, as I have discovered myself, it is often VERY difficult for all but a sainted few elder collectors to declare, with any confidence, the authenticity of a gen watch without complete disassembly. & even then..........

As more & more former of the 'Mechanical watches are for old white men!' youngsters began to amass huge mechanical gen collections & the nouveau riche began to convert their fiat investments into tangible assets like high end watches, the big 3 brands quickly became unrealistically pricey &/or unobtainium. Because of this, many of the gen forums have become literal ghost towns. At the same time, for a variety of reasons, there has been a reshuffling of traffic to rep forums, which left sites like ours in the same boat as the empty gen forums. From what I have seen, RWI is probably the most traffic'd rep forum today. At least that is where I 1st discovered the incredible current crop of modern 116xxx Daytonas with cloned 413x movements (see my review/frankening threads for details). Vintagerolexforum still seems to be fairly active, but mostly with regulars since few others can still afford the price of (vintage Rolex) admission.

"I just found a brand new 1570 balance with a broken hair spring in my old box of goodies! any thoughts on it working in a 1530 which is missing the balance?" The 1570 has a different beat rate (19800) vs a 1530 (18000) so I doubt it will work. "Will my 1520 auto assembly fit on a 1530? " Yes.

Rep 5517 Gen 5517

The part number is 6953 if you are referring to the two tiny screws that hold the crown wheel cap down. You might find a similar screw in other brands of Swiss movements, but it may need to be shortened and/or polished. Here is one but going by the price, they are very proud of it: Rolex 1030 6953 Crown Wheel Screw Genuine Watch Part (1 Screw) | eBay Here is another one for $10USD but they will stab you with shipping charges etc. Rolex® 1030 Crown Wheel Screw (jewelerssupplies.com)

Swiss and etaclone 2824 movements have hands mounted close to the dial making the minute and sometimes the sweep second hand hit the hour markers. The fix is a 'hand height kit'... HAND HEIGHT KIT FOR MOVEMENT ETA 2824-2: HH1, HH2, HH3, HH4, HH5, HH6 | eBay Sometimes there is a catch hidden in this fix because on some watches, the sweep second hand will rub a flat sapphire crystal. The fix for this is to use a taller crystal gasket made for a 16610 submariner...on 36mm DJ cases. Rolex 16610 and 162xx DJ use the same crystal, only the gasket is different. I am not familiar with oversize DJ 41 etc.

(this forum) "...is the best one for people and knowledge." I agree. (for me) The problem seems to be there is hardly anything new being posted on the forum, most of the traffic is probably made up of people looking at past articles or posting pictures. Not many technical or 'how to' articles are being posted now. Maybe much of this is caused by the arrival of the 'perfect replica' because now buyers can just order what they want and not have to source parts or ask questions about how to put a watch together. This pertains mostly to modern watches because vintage (Rolex) ready-to-wear replicas are not much better now than they were 15 or 20 years ago (except maybe for dial quality), and many may end up being projects. Imho. One big problem with the current crop of 'perfect replicas' (Rolex, Omega, AP etc.) is there are not many movement parts available, and very few people willing to work on them. My guess is there may be quite a few 'perfect replicas' being repaired with a Swiss ETA , Asian etaclone, Miyota etc. sooner or later so the forum may get busier. Imho again.