MacDad22

Rob- Thanks for tastefully posting this issue again. I was one of the people on RWG1 who came to RBJ's defense early on. Of course my experiences with him were excellent. A have a close friend I refered to him to repair an PAM that he has had over a year. I can no longer in good faith support RBJ when so many people have had issues. I hope he returns to his original self and recovers from whatever issues that have created poor communication, poor work quality, etc.. In fact today I received an MBW 16610 modern sub that I bought from someone on a different forum that was modded by RBJ that is spectacular. It is without a doubt the best sub I have seen ( granted I'm only semi-proficient and not in the league as most of you. It is unfortunate that state of all of this and I also now the a year and a half ago there was someone else with questionable practices that was modding watches from the southwest. I am also sick about the person's watch you posted. That person have a bunch of money in that watch and it's near useless. Good luck and post pics when your done with it ( if the owner will let you ) as it would be interesting to see how it turns out. Mac

My MBW 1680 Red Sub received some my mods by me last night. After re-assembly I did not set the time but had noticed while I had it unassembled that the second hand and movement would run a little bit while I was working on it and I had not experienced this on any modern subs I have worked on. This morning I put on the watch. The short story is that I can wind the wathc the crown, set the date no problem. The crown will move into the position where it normally hacks and allows time to set, but it doesnt hack nor will it allow me to set the time on the watch. I've searched here, RWG1, and TRC looking for research and it appears plently of people have pressed the release pin too far from usins too small of tool ( less than 1.2mm ) and screwed up the keyless mechanism, but I haven't been able to find a set of instruction on what to do. What do I do now to fix this? Or can I without sending off the watch? As always I appreciate the help of everyone. Mac

This post is meant to serve as a log of my experience when attempting to mod my first MBW, however I have modded other reps and had been practicing up for this for the past couple of weeks. Background About 2 weeks I ordered an WM / MBW RED 1680. This was after seeing Ubi's, Edge's, and SHerrington and other phenomonal watches after they had done various upgrades to their watches. As soon as the order was complete I had already devised a plan on what I wanted to do the watch. The mods included: An OEM 5513 bezel insert. Finally ordered one from a guy in HK for $125. Still waiting for arrival. A riveted rolex bracelet. Got one off of ebay from a known UK dealer. An OEM Tropic crystal. Got one off Ebay ( in house and installed ). OEM springbars and lug holes. modified CG's to look more like an OEM case. OEM Crown and Tube.. Refinish anything necessary So all in I was looking about $900 for the above and various other tools I had to procure. Kind of sick IMO to spend this much on a rep but it was project that would be a challenge. I received the watch yesterday on Oct 2. I had been practicing on other Sub reps ( EL, PT, CN case ) taking them apart, popping and pressing the crystals, removing the crown tube, shaving CG's with handfiles and a dremel attachment, refinishing bracelets and cases.. all kinds of stuff. Needless to say I was excited about my first MBW watch after 2 years of being involved in the rep world and about 20 reps later :> Well when I opened the parcel the watch came in last night I was in awe of the watch. I will tell you right now that the money spent on this watch is probably some of the best money I've ever spent on a watch. The case, bezel, dial, and bracelet were amazing. The watch looked like a jewel and from inspecting it a whole new appreciation for a replica was born. FYI I had been over the Sub obsession for over a year and had been working on VC, Cartier, and Pan's. The mod attempt So this evening on my way home I dropped by my local home depot and picked up the drilling bits necessary for the lugs ( 1.2mm ) and bracelet ( 2.0 mm ) and some 3 in 1 oil. The crystal and springbars had already been delivered. I'm waiting on the rivetted bracelet, OEM crown/tube, and OEM bezel insert. I had decided to do the CG's, drop in the new crystal, and drill the lugs and oyster bracelet tonight. Well getting the bezel off and the case back was easy. Removing the crown was a little trickier than other reps due to when pushing lightly down on the crown release pin you have to move the crown further out before releasing the pin, but in the end it was not that challenging. Next I removed the movement fastener's, basically 2 screws that keeps two bars in place. My first odd item was the screw closest to the crown has a small piece of s datewheel underneath it. It was the letters "Thur". After removing the movement ring I thought the movement and dial would drop out easily like all the other rep Subs I had practiced on, but nope the dial wouldn't budge a millimeter. After 20 minutes of trying to see if there was some other type of fasterner I decided maybe the crystal had something to do with the dial/movement not coming out. I decided to switch gears and remove the crystal. On an MBW 1680 there is a crystal ring that has to be removed. From other "Master Mod's" reviewed and logged I knew that a box cutter blade was the best tool to accomplish the job. Well I got the ring up about half way up the crystal. This was a real [censored]. Took about 20 minutes and I nicked the side of the case a couple of times. Well after all this time I had the ring about half way up on the crystal but it appeared to be stuck. Well being the resourceful half ass that I am I decided that the non OEM crystal was worthless and pulled out some needlenose pliers to assist in this task. Well on my second attempt the whole crystal came out with the ring still on crystal. By this time I was perplexed and now had a slight fear that I was in way over my head and headed down a patch that would ruin my beautiful watch and waste all the money and time I had into this project. Being the optimist that I am I decided now with the dial exposed it was a good time to get the movement/dial out of the case so that it can be protected from dust and other pesky airborne items. Well I found out quickly the crystal had not impacted the dial/movement and that it appeared that the original watchsmith had put sometype of adhesive on the dial because it still wouldn't budge. Things are not looking to bright for me at this point. I cant get the movement out and the crystal ring is stuck on the crystal that came with the watch. I then made the command decision that I was not going to drill the lugs or bracelet tonight, because I was guaranteed to break a bit off in the case based on my luck so far. I then put the case with dial/movement exposed into a tupperware tub to protect it and went to work on the crystal ring. The needlenose pliers were used again. I wrecked the original crystal, but I did get the ring off in 2 minutes flat. I opened the rolex bag, aligned it and put onto the new case. I then popped out my fairly new Ofrei crystal press to install the crystal. The first thing I noted was the date mag was like perfect as it magnified exactly the datewheel. Success and I was pleased, at least for a brief moment. At this point if I had used my head I would have put vaseline on the new crystal, but I didnt. So I put the crystal ring back on and of course it stuck about half way down. I thought this was a good time to take a break on the ring and think it thru so I then put back together the rest of items that I had taken off so that the case would be back intact completely. After doing this I still had not figured out what to do about the ring and being impatient I decided to use the needlenose pliers again with some foam/sticky tape padding to minimiza case and ring scratches. This did work and the ring is almost back to exact same spot but I think it might be slightly ( very slightly ) raised. I did scrach the case back a little and the ring, but after the bezel is reattached no one will see the ring. All in all things were better, but not great. Lastly, I was going to hand file the CG's and did so. I have more work to do on the CG's, but it will wait until the new crown and tube are in, but the look better that they did originally. Also I need to buy a tube remover tool as I dont want to scratch the tube threads as I have done so on other reps with the needlenose pliers ( :> you seeing a trend here yet? ). So I put the crown back in and the bracelet on. Fired the movement back up and admired the watch again. Dammit this watch is like a fine woman. This analogy relates to visualization and not physical interaction :> Have any of you experienced trials and tribulations with your MBW's? All my other rep mod's have gone smoothly, but granted I've only done a handful of watches. I will post pics after the insert and other items come in to show my work. I hope it will be somewhere in the same league as others, but I've got a ways to go. Lastly in summary. Put some vaseline or other non abrasive lube for a tropic crystal before removing or installing the crystal ring. Also be patient. MacDad

One my last two trips to Shenzen and HK I wore my modded up LV and RXW MM20.. no problems no where at all.. Of course I'm 6'2" and look like a serious bidness man.. I wouldnt worry about what you wear anywhere, just be smart. MacDad

SO I've been practicing modding one of my watches.. It was an old watch ( EL LV 2 years old ) that I wore as a beater to the lake etc.. Great watch.. Anyway a week ago when I popped the bezel off I lost the spring and piston looking device that makes the bezel click and move in one direction. Does anyone have this combo they are willing to part with? I'm in the US and would be happy to pay for it. I've also been practicing milling down inserts so they fit onto a rep ( what a pain in the ass but oh well :> ). I'm on my second insert. The first I finally got sanding down, but not without scractching the front of it. Thanks, Mac

First of.. congratulations :> excellent looking watch and you did awesome job with the mods. :> Enjoy Can you tell me about the sanding and polishing part? I've bought a dremel and some various sand paper but I haven't been able to bring back the finish you see on the side of the case ( which looks almost like chrome ). Maybe I'm not sanding long enough? I've got 60, 120, and 400 grit material.. I've used a dremel with polish pad and red / orange polish... also used brasso.. I'm trying to perfect this process and have yet to on a couple of older watches.. I've got a couple of MBW's coming that I want to make look as good as yours and others I have seen.. TY, MacDad

So the back of the dial says "Singer" on it so I'm guessing it's MBW dial instead of a genuine. Who knows? MacDad

Does anyone know how hard or if it's even possible to put a genuine OEM dial into an MBW 1680 Red Sub? I found one for a little under $200 but I'm worried that with the different movements that it would now work. The genuine dial has been refinished but still is aged. Here is a pic of the dial being offered. ALso if anycan confirm if they notice this might not be an genuine dial Thanks, MacDad

thought u might find this interesting http://petemillar.com/rolex/rolex.htm MacDad

So I have about 14 watches... I rotate a watch every 1-3 days. If I going to be out boating on the lake I wear an old beater modded LV Sub that's been thru hell but still works great.. The only watches I dont wear much are a Breitling Bentley watch I bought a year ago one night when I was drunk.. it's actually not a bad rep, but unless I'm going to a hip hop club ( which I dont usually go to ) it kind of stands out. I also dont wear my gennies too often anymore as they are mostly older man styles. My rotation usually goes VC, Cartier, Omega, Rolex, Tag. Also I haven't sold any watches, but I have given a couple away to friends who begged me. Most of them I turned on to RWG or RWG2. I've just now gotten into doing my own mods. We will see how this turns out. MacDad

Well- These are the small hand file set from Home Depot in the US. They cost ~ $12 US. I used the two flat files mostly. If you are not in the US I can buy them and ship them to you if need be. Chris

Like so many I've wanted an accurate LV for a long time. I have an EL w/ RBJ mods that I like, but I think the insert color is too light and the bracelet not accurate. A few months ago I got PT's ultimate LV, which is great but the damn crystal was slightly misaligned and the date window was off. Well after I practiced an older rep and got comfortable with it I opened the case, popped out the movement, and the crystal, with nothing other than simple home tools. Polished up the case, bezel, and bracelet with a dremel and put it back together. Here are a couple of pics. I think the watch is just awesome now. There a couple of minor issues ( the CG's are a little off, the rehaut could be slightly deeper, and the dial has a couple of minor issues ). MacDad

So for the past couple of years I added reps as a significant hobby. Since I was about 8 years old I've had a love for watches so when a close friend introduced me to quality reps, well let's just say that I've only bought one more genuine since then. Over the past couple of year I've bought a lot of watches of various types and of various qualities ( from the low end Asian TTK stuff to high end MBW vintage reps ). I will have to say that some of the latest Panerai, VC, and Cartier are probably the closest to authentic there are IMO. As most people I started out with Subs. About a year and half ago I got TT Serti sub from Joshua. Last night I decided it was time to pop open my first watch and mill down the CG's. This watch had an issue with the crown screwing down. After taking the watch apart I say that the problem was a small round washer from the crown stem had floated up and was blocking it. It took me about 3 hours to file down the CG's with hand files. Then I used a dremel to polish them back up ( this was also my first time using a dremel ). After pics Also I already know about the dial issue on the serti.. The LV is PT's Ultimate. I religned the crystal on it last night for the date window to be closer to accurate. MacDad

I just got Joshua's new Santos 100 today.. August 15 and the dial does not have waves on it.. it's dope, but I do have a faulty watchband, but I bet Joshua fixes it... Chris

You might find something you will like at Orchard Towers on Orchard Road.. MacDad

You also purchase these pins for your MM20 or 1950 from this guy on this site http://www.network54.com/Forum/thread?foru...geid=1119301781 MacDaddy

I just got from New Orleans today and the watch was in the mail "Ultimate LV from PT".... I have an EL LV with mods by RBJ from early last year.. frankly there is no comparison.. The PT watch looks almost as good as genuine.. in fact if it was for the cyclops / data mag being slightly off center and not level it would be perfect.. I was even suprised to see the crown when unscrewed looked very much like the geniune.. the SELS on the bracelet are the tightest I've seen... Man on man you gotta love reps... MacDad