cjjoyce1

Freddy, KBH and JoeyB are right - Clarks crystals are the best bang for your buck out there. Plenty enough clarity and sparkle in my book

A shot of the back of the watch would help too. That way we can see the caseback and the back of the crown guards.

Why replace the whole movement when you can just replace the date wheel overlay. Buying a new movement isn't going to help your situation either because the DG3804's (this is your movement, BTW) from cousins or ofrei won't have an overlay. There are plenty of overlay's for sale on a the other fora if you go take a peek.

+1000 and one reason why I can't fathom why people shun anything that isn't an ETA. I've tried killing mine several times and it won't die.

This is really turning out cool! What about anodizing the tube? (BTW - I hate people like you guys who just throw together the coolest projects out of stuff you just have laying around - oh sure, I'll just whip one of these baby's up) lolz

Nice side by side! With the thinness of the material you are working with, I'm tempted to buy a set of clarks hands and attempt to open up the bottom of these slots by hand and then relume. With patience, I bet it wouldn't be hard. Hmmm I sense a new project coming on. . .

Welcome aboard! All automatic watches with a date and or day function have 3 positions for the stem. The first is the winding position. This is when you just unscrew the crown and it's free from the tube. Pull the crown/stem out to the first click - or second position and you can manually set the date and or day if it has one. Turning the crown clockwise sets the date, counter-clockwise to set the day. All the gizmos that make that happen are on the movement even though the watch may not have a "day" feature. Pull the stem out to the second click - or third position - and you can set the time manually. You can also advance the hands manually past midnight and the date will change too. Now as Nanuq explained as the time approaches midnight - in some movements as early as 9pm - the date change mechanism starts to engage and do it's thing. Technically speaking, the date wheel has teeth on it. Each flick of these teeth advances the date one day. There is a spring which puts a bit of tension on the teeth so a.) it only advances one day at a time, b.) doesn't change freely and c.) puts tension against the mechanism that changes the date at midnight. There is a gear moved by the hour gear called the calendar wheel. It has a foot on it that at midnight will flick the date wheel tooth and change the date. Now imagine a slingshot. As midnight approaches, you start pulling back on the slingshot until at 11:59 you are ready to fire - This is what is happening of sorts with the calendar gear. At midnight that tension is released and the firing of the slingshot changes the date. Unlike a slingshot, though, the calendar gear mechanism is still around the teeth of the date wheel, until about 3am on some movements. So if you try to change the date manually between these times, hopefully you can envision all the tension and mechanisms you are manually overcoming to do it. That's why things can get hurt. Was that clear as mud?

Yay! I get to buy more tools!

@ Alligoat - are the threads the same on all Rolex tubes - 5, 6 and 7 series? I had a buddy at a machine shop do my 5512 case. Never thought about it, but having the tap on hand wouldn't be a bad idea.

I've got the DG3804 in mine and to make it more gen-like, I just set the GMT hand to the time (i.e. at 2am GMT is at 2 on the bezel, at 2pm, it's pointing at 14) and I leave it there and rotate the bezel to UTC.

God, those new Yuki dials are scary awesome. Now if they could just come with correct color lume. . .

I can't specifically answer this question, because I haven't bought one, I can say that it is very apparent lately that Yuki has gotten on the ball about fixing certain issues on popular items. For example, the latest version of the 1675 dial is startling. It's so close to gen, you could fool yourself. A couple of their bracelets have gotten really good. It wouldn't surprise me if they fixed this issue with the case.

Great to see these still being bought and built! Love the new crystal - I have a gen beveled service dome on my 5512 and yours looks identical. If you are going with a gen crown, switch your search to a 702. It'll cost you more, but they have a different profile than the 703 and will help with the stubby guard issue. Also be aware a gen tube will take a bit of work to fit the case.

I'd agree with Mode. Most reps also have poor spacing of the tick marks on either side of the 10. Almost always too close.

The specs: Gen Mk 1 dial from Andrew Shear Gen case set from Yachtmaster here on RWG Gen Insert from VRM Gen C&I rivet off eBay DG3806 powered from Ofrei Hand set from Rafflestime Movement spacer from same Open 6 and 9 flat 3 overlay from Sneed Sweat and blood from Me At Work

Ease? Moderate It's pretty straight forward, BUT it's also easy to mess things up if you're not careful. There can be tricky elements for first time out, like resetting the hands not only so they are right ( like showing 6 o'clock EXACTLY - not 6:01) but also getting the date change at midnight. Another common mishap is messing up the keyless. You can easily mar your dial and/or hands if you aren't careful or have the right tools. The only screwdriver required is a yellow ended 80 for the movement holder screws. You also need a tweezers, something to remove the hands, something to protect the dial, gloves or finger cots so you don't get oils or finger prints on everything, a loupe is helpful, and something to re-set the hands. A dust blower and rodico putty are very helpful too. And patience. Alcohol may seem practical, but only after you are done. There are several tutorials on the forums for how to go about this properly but in a nutshell you will need to: Remove the caseback Remove the movement holder screws and holders Undo the crown and remove the crown and stem remove the movement et al Remove the hands Remove the dial Reverse the process That's very simplified. Very. But it's not far from the truth. The key is to go slow. I - for one - have never used a traditional hand remover, pry bar or presto. I took the small tweezer from a swiss army knife and bent the blades at 90 degrees to one another, then filed them sharp and thin. This way nothing ever touches the dial. But I also protect the dial with a bergeron protector so when I grab the hour hand I don't hurt the dial. I also use a piece of plastic wrap over the hands to protect them as I grab them. This also has the added benefit of preventing hands from going zinging off into oblivion if you really have to pull and they suddenly release. Folks have used everything from proper hand setting tools, to the ink tube from a bic pen, to coffee stir straws to reset the hands. As with any job, you can mickey mouse your way through, but proper tools will not only make the job go more smoothly, but will reduce the chance of harming other things or yourself. I also will set the hour hand at the midnight flip but then will advance the time to 6am and the precisely set the minute hand. Others will set the minute hand directly on top of the hour hand at midnight. Your mileage may vary. I also recheck everything during the re-assembly process as nothing is more frustrating than getting the watch buttoned up to discover the date change is messed up or something.

Thanks freddy - I think your's was actually the inspriation for his. What you've said is basically what I thought too. And I have a gen crown to replace this with. But one thing I can't discern from your pics either is whether or not the subdials have the concentric ring texture or not. It looks like no - am I right?

Right, and his watch has the V75 with the fixed pinion @6. I thought the 3 and 9 subdial spacing was the same.

I get overly anal when comparing things. I drive myself crazy. My son bought himself a 6264 from Andrew that I'm supposed to perfect. It's a panda dial with the red tick marks. The first thing to tackle is the dial and hands. Of course the subdial at 6 is off on Andrew's, but I've got the tutorial on remedying that. So between DW and Ingod, my questions really boils down to does the Ingod dial's subdials have texture to them? You can't tell from the pics. Ingods subdials have a wee bit too much white between them and the black chapter around the dial, but his printing of ROLEX cosmograph is, IMO, much better. I have a gen dial crown to replace either. Since they are basically the same price, there's no advantage there. Thanks guys, I'm off into new territory here and everyone's previous posts, tutorials, and comparing has been very helpful in making some other decisions on which way to go on this.

Thanks big j - But remember, I can't take all the credit - the outsides of the guards were ground in so that they cut inside and under the bezel by you. But I'm happy that you're happy

Basically the same issue, just a different dial and hands on top. I completely agree with JKay's assessment. I own a couple GMT's with the 21J and they have been uber reliable. I just did a dial swap over an Asian. Let me tell you, if you don't get that center gear on right, or the washer doesn't provide enough pressure from the dial - forget it. You have to strip the whole thing down. Save the hassle - go full blown ETA, or save your money in a big way and go 21J

No doubt. For comparison, folks - ZK's on the left, my Gen Mk 1 on the right. I said it one, and I'll say it again - Holy Shitballs, folks!!

Actually - kind of. One of the first reps I had/have was a TT sub that had lug holes in the case and a short, DJ style crown (tube was too). The tube stripped on it, but it was the same kind with the tiny drilled case. A gen crown would screw on it though and the inside of the tube was big enough for the crown. I test fit it in this case and it worked. The tube was just too stripped to firmly screw down the crown. Long story short - if you've got some old junk reps still in your drawer check over what you've got. You may find a happy surprise in there. (BTW, this same old sub of mine's caseback is now living on this guys watch.)

wait. . .that's a Yuki dial!?!?! Not a gen?!? Holy shitballs the printing on that is fantastic! No more flat "S". . .long "E" SCOC printing. . .WOW!

Just finished up some work on a members 1675, one that started out life as the "1:I" cartel with the horrible. . .well everything as we all know. It first went to the pbdad spa who did some great work replacing the original dial with a yuki, reluming the hands to match, and installing a JMB date wheel overlay decal, new correct style case back and drilled out the lug holes. The watch came to me for a dial swap again. This time to a gen late 70's service dial marked tritium but with luminova which doesn't glow either. I re-did the hands to match too. The member asked me if I could do something about the case, so using my gen for comparison, I tried my hand. The 1655 would have been a better starting point, but here goes. Original shape of the guards from the back Work in progress Side view of the guards (note this is not the members case, but another I had. I forgot to snap a pic before I started, but this is the same cartel case.) Checking the work again - crown for reference The difference between the gen and the cartel becomes very apparent in side by side. The 6mm vs. 5.3mm crown really makes a difference in the thickness in the top of the lugs But overall, not too bad considering the starting point. Buttoned up and ready to be sent back to papa Thanks for looking!~