highoeyazmuhudee

and there it is. simply amazing! you went the full nine yards! except for the V serial not having a rehaut engraving i doubt anyone could ever figure out the mid case and caseback were bogus. id call this gen, not factory gen but still. big question ; is it water tight?

wheres he goin?

they are indeed good, probably as close to perfect as youre gonna get for non gen hands, (havnt seen TCs hands in person) a couple reasons i didnt include them initially. 1. theyre for a modern 16610, the gens i have are for 5513 2. theyre not available anymore so its almost pointless in comparing them against currently available hands but anyways...

i thought id post a comparison of two popular aftermarket hand choices... why? because i could while these pictures provide some insight its still far from seeing them in 3-D space for a more accurate comparison im comparing a set of Clarks : Gen : Yuki hands the clarks and yukis are for ETA and are a popular choice for replacement aftermarket hands, these gen hands here are tritium and for a 5513 -1520 calibre. im keeping them under glass since the lume appears brittle and i dont want it potentially crumbling today. that being said; the sizes in the picture are slightly larger than if they were on an equal plane with the gen hands, the aftermarket hands are maybe sitting 0.5mm above the gen hands in 3D space the clarks hour hand is almost perfect except for the little notch between the cannon ring and the rectangle bridge lume. Clarks is the only aftermarket hour hand able to get the size of the round merceds part correct with gen. now if only they fixed that metal notch. Yukis: the mercedes part is too small a circle and the pointer part of it is too long. Winner: it s a toss up between which of these two hands to use. Clarks: while i like the correct width of the minute hand on the clarks, the extra length towards the bottom of the hand really hurts its chances of me using it. it breaks from traditional shape of a rolex minute hand IMO. Yuki's minute hand has the most correct shape of the two, but the width of the minute hand is slightly more narrow than the gen. Winner: i would go with yukis hand in this situation, while it is more narrow thats harder to spot in a set with narrow hands compared with Clarks Clarks second hand is *almost* perfect, its only flaw is that it is ~1mm too long, very simple solution, snip it with scissors. DONE, its prefect. Yukis second hand is not only too long, but its luminous dot on the end is not where it should be at all, even installed on a watch not being next to a gen second hand it always looked odd to me. and now you can see why. Winner: Clarks with a very simple mod, its perfect. CONCLUSION: so there you have it, you might have to buy a couple sets of aftermarket hands and combine them to make a halfway decent set of hands depending what rep hands you have lying around and how they measure up. Clarks can easily win this with a couple of changes. So Gary if youre listening, make two changes and youve got the best set of aftermarket hands out there What set would i use? I Would probably do a combination of the Yuki hour hand and minute hand with a Clarks modded second hand. if you use a clarks hour hand and pair it with a yuki minute it might look disporportionate because of the variance in width between the two (clarks being gen width, yukis not) but yukis second hand is definetly the weakest point of the set and should not be used, clarks to the rescue. *If anyone else has a pair of hands worth sharing let me know, ive tried a few others like WSO, and watchbandman, they are more or less the same as Yukis with the incorrect width and pointy 'arrow', but i do look forward to explanding this article with other hands worth comparing.

i estimate your 1680 franken would cost $3800-$4200 not including a servicing for the movement and a gen white dial instead of red. add a red dial and you might as well just buy a gen 1680 white with the same amount. but this is average price and best case scenario on the white dial price.

looks like one that chronoshop would have for sale (different ebay id) http://www.chrono-shop.net/en/case-and-caseback/848-rolex-submariner-1680-caseback-vintage-and-original.html but im not gonna search through 10+ pages to find it

just the inside on this particular case, i have done the outside on a couple of cases tho the crowns just sitting in there with no tube:

how well does your bezel turn on that one? looks like they put on the wrong endlinks (wrong being slightly larger rubbing against the bezel ring)

a lot of older ones are like this as well. some are worn away from polishing, some are just different shapes to begin. ive done some MBK cases this way

but then you'd incriminate yourself

also wise to buy the compression ring and bezel ring from the same place unless both existing pieces are already gen. there most likely will be some fitting issues regardless of how much the tc is touted as gen 1:1

thats because its in Shenzhen

you definitely should. it also acts as a point of wear instead of rotating on the bare mid case metal

youd be surprised what a yuki case actually costs ok so i ll tell you $34 BUT there is a minimum order quantity of 500 pieces thats $17,000 to get that price, not including export import logistics. i doubt yuki maintains an inventory from this factory which means they pay a lot more than that and has to wait 35 days to have it made when an order comes in.

yes and no. a 16800 will fit but the teeth might not be as deep as newer factory replacement 16800 parts for the 16610

the point of the washer is to occupy space and add resistance to the bezel, you dont want a bezel that can turn with out you first pushing down on it and turning. its a safety feature for divers. you should bend the washer slightly so it doesnt sit flat, then it will push against the compression ring and the bezel ring when installed and you wont be able to turn it easily (which is a good thing) with out first pushing down on the bezel ring compressing the bend and allowing for space to turn the ring. releasing the bezel ring will allow the friction washer to release the energy and apply resistance against the two pieces locking it in place and it should be harder to turn by accident when diving. its called a "friction" washer or "tension spring" for a reason, and even in the rolex owners literature they make reference on using it in this exact manner. the rolex "auto lock" revolving bezel

i dont think the 93250 SEL spring bars and the lose end link bracelet springbars on the 93150 match up in the same place, thats not to say it couldnt be done but it may be not so perfect

looks good to me

you can find yuki on ioffer as well, where you can openly negotiate the published asking price, or have him throw in extras like free engraving and eta adapter rings, FYI

thought shipping was included on yuki stuff.

yeah dealing with the man from MBK (seeing as how his name was deleted i wont mention it) is always an interesting part of any day, he is a paranoid, xenophobic, untrustworthy person, if you buy anything from there, i have a check list of quality control points worth always referencing, because he couldnt care less really about what he sells you, youd be surprised how many of these MBK watches have seagul movements in them for example, but there are worse points of contention. if any ones going hit me up for the low down, i ll share some quality control issues from my experience you should always look for first before plopping down any Thai Baht. things you other wise would not have noticed without coming across a few hundred cases and seeing first hand these variations and failures (and im just talking about buying case sets here).

the insides around the crown are a little thick and the left and right look to be asymmetrical when looking at the crown insignia straight on (right looks more thin) maybe its the angle

looks good to me, except for those p.iss yellow hour markers.

it looks like a service lumi, but the numbers also look too thin..hmmm

thats good to know! 10bar SWEET!