cjjoyce1

jewelerstools on ebay sometimes has them. Just be patient when he lists them because after a short while he drops the price. You can also try the Make an Offer button too.

Well - not to be a stinker but a critiquer, 30 and 31 have totally different 3's and the spacing between the numbers in all the 20's could use some tweaking. The decal idea is great! Do you use decal set primer on the date disc first?

est now THAT's what I'm talkin' about! A TRUE "where the rubber hits the road" test

26.25mm (I assume you mean the dial inset)

Has anyone gotten a Watchmaterial pearl lately? The reason I ask is that for a while people were getting them with poorly positioned and filled lume dots.

Are you talking about the groove in the case below the crystal retaining ring? It doesn't come with one, but Clark's sells them for 3 bucks. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250799418604 I have to admit I cheated a bit when I installed my Tropic 19. There is a small groove on the outside of the rehaut that just begs a gasket. I put a tiny bead of clear silicone gasket material in it before pushing on the crystal. At least my watch is water resistant.

+1

Well, your first pic is a late model 5513 "Submariner first" dial. The later pics are a 16610 sub. If I understand what you are asking, you want to take a gen dial and sterilize it by removing the Rolex coronet and name? Why would you waste your money doing that?? You'll never find one pre-existing in that condition. Just buy any newb sub - there is a dealer who has a fairly decent one for $48 (not a TD here, but is on another forum). Uncase the movement, set the hands to 6:30, pop off the second hand and carefully with the corner of a cape cod cloth polish off the rolex and coronet - I accidentally did that on a datejust dial in an attempt to remove a scratch on the dial - and put it back together. Don't waste your money sourcing parts on something like this IMO.

Hey miles- cool project! I'm anxious to see more pics of this watch and case. Particularly because the 5517 is a military 5513, but from the pics on Josh's site, it looks like a Sea Dweller case - the thicker case, the bezel profile. . . Also from Josh's pics the case gasket is on the case, not the back which isn't correct. As far as the crowns go - keep in mind the 702's you found are new in unopened blisters. You can find used ones for less than half that. Keep your eye's open around here and you can do even better. The second crown you linked to is a 704. . .if it's even gen. 700, 702, and 703 crowns all have a crimped stainless steel shell over a brass body. This is very evident when you view the crown from the stem side. The bottom edge of all the "teeth" have an indent down the center. The 704 and all rep crowns are machined from a solid piece of SS and look very clean and finished from the stem side. There are big differences in the style of the coronet between vintage crowns and modern ones. FWIW, the dial opening on my 5512 from Josh is 26mm and the recess in the case is 26.25mm

I sized my rivet by gently inserting a razor blade into the center link fold joint - starting at the side, then evenly pried up on the short side until I could just barely squeeze the adjoining link out. I flattened it back with the bracelet on a piece of pine wood and used the rubberized handle of a pliers in a smoothing type stroke to close the link. Took awhile, but you can't tell.

I forgot about the spring bar issue - thanks guys for making mention of that. But I think you'll run into the same issue with the 7836. . .? I saved some $$$ by getting a U.S. C&I bracelet. The links are a bit different dimensionally side link to middle link than the standard Swiss rivet, but the good thing is they're half the price of the Swiss and there are no rep copies.

The Yuki 7206 bracelet is extremely accurate - Most rep rivets have links that are too thick, the end links aren't correct, and the link to link dimensions are off. The Yuki dimensionally is perfect - I compared mine to the chart in the sticky'd guide in this section. It's stampings are excellent. Unfortunately, the quality is very hit or miss. Mine was an extreme foul ball. I suppose some people would have lived with the quality issues, but I sent mine back and got a gen. In talking with others, this is pretty standard - one person ordered a couple at once and only one was good quality. Yuki's customer service, however, is superb - no issues on that side. As far as which is more correct, Rolex offered both styles. The "twist-o-flex" band was very popular back then, and the stretch band was Rolex's answer. Both are the exact same band. One has Z springs in the links to allow the expansion. Both are correct, it's just a matter of getting your wrist hairs pinched or not.

Fantastic! Nice Gen insert. I've seen numerous gen pearls that have turned like that. Blix has (had?) a gen two tone insert that was never mounted but had a pearl like that due to a cracked sapphire. The dial looks amazing, too. I took the plunge on one from Natalie too for my 5512 - tho I'm nervous about your "ugly orange lume" comment. Hope it's not that bad. And yeah, PB is the best!

Modded Cartel 5512 on gen rivet

Here's mine - heavily modded on gen rivet. As you can see, the crown guards really are too stubby. So I went for the whole - over-polished, over-used look.

Not surprising. Up until the mid-1980's and the rise of the Yuppies and Dual-Income families being the norm - the average price of a new car was about that of the national average annual salary. The average home cost was 4 times the annual salary. Today? Well we all know how skewed it is today. . .

Did you get this one too? http://s213.photobucket.com/albums/cc228/RolexEnthusiast/2011%202/?action=view&current=DSC09520.jpg

Still does -

"a rolex movement is awesome and all but whats wrong with a slow beat eta? usually 1/10th the price" Very good advice imho. Or a DG2813 at 1/10 the price of that. yeah, I'm THAT guy

rep

Also dude, from the last pic of the auction - that looks machined and stainless steel through-and-through Sorry

DING! DING! DING! We have a Winner! Everyone worries about if the crown is correct - and the debate rages! Turn it over! There isn't a rep out there made of brass with a crimped stainless steel shell over that. Crimped? Gen! The only exception is the new 704 crown which is machined.

I don't think that's a 5512 dial, it's a 5513. The only 2 line 5512 dials I've seen have an outer minute track, not ticks, and an "exclamation point" 6 marker. It would also just say "SWISS" at the bottom, not Swiss T < 25 . The real difference between 12's and 13's are the 12's are Officially Certified Chronometers, and hence where more expensive than the 5513. Same case, and hardware though.

Some rep hands are crome plated base metal. I tried using a cape cod to polish a scratch off an hour hand once and ended up rubbing off the crome to a degree. So now at certain angles or light, I have a "gilt" hand.