w0lf

Depends, sometimes you can get lucky and snap one up with a strap for ~$200. It's money well spent.

You need an OEM "C" series type deployant, it's buttonless and is flatter and thinner. This is what it looks like:

Not a bad effort from David, I will preface by saying that will possibly be getting either a complete watch or the dial/hands/caseback for a budget 63 build based on Noob PAM29 + Noob 111 bezel. Some quick observations, mainly concerning the dial because that's what everyone is probably interested in: -All arabic cardinal markers are slightly off, the tails of 6 & 9 start curving too soon, the bottom kink of 2 is too rounded. -Baton chapter markers are too wide. -The print "LUMINOR/GMT" above the center pinion is too low beneath the bottom 11-1 o'clock batons level -The letters GM in GMT are of a different font style. -The letters RAI in PANERAI are a hair taller then the rest (signature DSN since 2009 PR dials). -"Automatic" print kerning is off, it's too compressed. -The 24hr font track font is also off, specifically the zeroes, the twos, the threes and the fours. -There's still a hash missing @ 6 o'clock, how long has this been the case? -The seconds hand bubble position is too high up the hand; the bottom of the bubble must be touching the tops of the 24hr track hashes. -The GMT and Minutes hands have a thinner skeleton in their triangle and pentagon shaped pointers so this tells me they were copied from a Noob 29M. I'm not a fan of the case, it's his Mid-2011 face lift model, and I wrote on this matter separately in other threads so I won't repeat myself. Also, while I love David's NB crown, it's not a very good choice for this model. The crown is too wide for early automatics and does not have enough bevel on the knurling; the good news is, it but can be corrected with some creative reprofiling, eg slight milling of the rim and re-bevelling. The caseback fonts & fishy are a tad off as well, the CG is not a homerun either but it can also be worked on.

I'm just wondering what shops like Causemann Zifferblatter, F. Perelli, Donze Cadrans and other professional refinishers use when they have to restore a T dial. I think it's almost a guarantee they can work with tritium if you're paying.

I'm with Freddy on this one. I do a lot of Panerai casework so I have an eye for geometry differences as well as tactile and "tooling" feels of a watch case. Plainly speaking, J&W cases use better quality steel. In addition looking at the lug profile, the arc of Phong lug is a 1:1 match for Rolex with a pointier lug due to a longer gentler top curve; whereas the MBW has a more abrupt curve that starts closer to the lug hole. Lastly, the inside corners of lugs, lug and underside satination, lug chamfers on J&W are all executed to a much higher standard. To me it's not even a contest, while MBW is a nice budget case it's not even in the same ballpark for a serious build.

I've done this on ETA2846 (same DW position as 2836) with a silver DW from the new PT/PC China 1680. The datewheel is too flush to the left, though all dates are legible it doesn't look very good off center.

-MBW 1665 base -Genuine T39 Superdome -Genuine Tube & Crown -Datewheel overlay by Ubi -Low beat Tissot ETA2846 -Lume, lugs, CG shaping by The Zigmeister - Ofrei lumi pearl -Cartel hollow link 93150 w/ 580 ELs & MBW fliplock clasp

Beautiful projects Here's my MBW 1665 before I stepped up to Ubi's 1665

Connie's still alive and well; she's my go to dealer. Eddie retired Paul, not sure?

Hmmmm... I wonder if the 1665 has a working hev

You upgraded your camera and you put a bracelet on 6241?

All PAMs are reps.

http://www.1-pc8838....8c-p-12095.html http://www.1-pc8838....8b-p-12094.html http://www.1-pc8838....8a-p-12093.html http://www.1-pc8838....38-p-12092.html

I'd rock it.

You have to take off metal, essentially you rework the whole area between the lugs. The key is to take off just the right amount as you must be wary of cutting into the caseback lip area and the gasket groove, you can see in the caseback shots there's plenty of sidewall left. You also have to observe the ever so slightly curved geometry of this section so it doesn't look off, similar to the main curve of the midcase. When you take off metal you must maintain the continuity of arcs, a signature OP case element, which is the hardest part for me personally since there's so little extra metal to work with. I've done this more than a few times, it's tedious but the results are worth it.

Here's the whole thread with a lot more pics.

Ohh yeah, that's what I'm talking about, spring has been generous to the NYC Not sure what those climate change folks are bumping their gums about.. btw, all noob cases have a strap notch, on the 111J, which is what was used in your build, the strap notch is actually a strap lip and is quite hideous: Since the gen has no strap notch, I also remove it from the case in addition to many other things; this is what the case looks like with that beautiful strap removed: Compare to the genuine case from the famous Chatel service photos:

Wear this one well, my friend! What happened to the wrist shot? Make sure to pick a nice background for it

Great job on the beveled Incabloc setting gap! I personally do not think the balance wheel looks too small, the OPXI movement has what looks to me as a similarly sized balance. Any plans to polish the barrel gear bevel or find a longer swans neck regulator screw?

326 is the awaited Ti model but it's been pushed back a couple months by the factory.

A lot of things but the worst of it is that it's been discontinued for about 5 years already.

Top notch work as usual I for one really appreciate the work that goes into this, it's all about the finer details.

Never going to happen. Reason is - simple ROI. Cutting and finishing megaton stamped AISI316L is not the same as deflash/deburr/polish finishing a 304L case from a matrix. You need machines with higher tolerances, more rigidity and you will need more and better cutters and specialized clamping. You basically need better equipment and tooling, not to mention the expendables of high quality, e.g. cutters, cutting and finishing abrasives, satination tools but most importantly, the know how to do proper finishing on watches like Rolex. Even without the sizable R&D and marketing costs, if the factories implemented a full production cycle of a top tier Swiss case maker the ammortized cost would skyrocket and they would be selling 100s of reps to anoraks like us instead of selling 10s of thousands to everyone and their dog.

Kello iPhone app.