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Yuki's gold 5513 hands won't fit an eta movement- they're made for the 1500 series of Rolex movements, 1520, 1530, 1560 and 1570. You could buy a set of gilt eta (Tudor) hands from Clark's, but then you'd need to age them. The meatball seconds hand will be hard to find. Eta hand sizes are 90/150/25. Ubi is the only person that I know of who can take a set of silver (white) hands and turn them to satin gilt. It's like his own secret recipe! Gilt dials with silver hands are acceptable, but just not as nice as the gilt hands.

Get a hold of BK, the TW best has been out a while- don't know if he's too backed up with orders. But it would be a better deal than the PTv1.5 and will probably cost a few dollars more also.

I'm partial to the PT v1.5 because it's has the more gen construction features like the bezel, insert and crystal. It's a better case by far than the noobmariner (I've had 5 noobs, btw). With a gen insert, and gen/better crown and a little trimming of the cg's, you've got a great beater. If you're in conus, you could buy the PT V1.5 and send it to BK for the mods- it would still take a few months, but it would still be better than a noob, IMO. The noob was great in 2006, but it's really out dated these days, or should I say, it's been surpassed!

320 or 400 wet dry is good to start with. Then you follow up with 600 and 1000 and maybe some polish after that to finish. Micro files also work, especially if you're pulling the tube and putting a new one in there.

Nice job E! The cool thing about this watch is hardly anyone's going to know what it is! 6542, what is that? You could age the case and crystal a little to keep up with the dial and insert.

Like the 727, I would figure the 726 for a higher beat rate- 21,600 vs the 18,000 for the older V72's. It would be more correct in the 6263, but going to the trouble of swapping it out is up to you.

The best place to find a fat font insert is on VRM- Vintage Rolex Market. But expect to pay over $100 and easily $200, maybe w/o a pearl.

Beautiful job and kudos to Ronin. It looks like a well aged 30 year old watch! The only thing that throws me is the 7 million number case- that seems awfully late for a 1675, more like a 16750 SN.

Oops! So much for thinking you were in the UK. At this point, I don't know any modders in Asia, so you're faced with either sending it to the EU or the US. I don't know any modders in Australia either. JMB has helped me on three or so projects- very good and reasonable. Pbdad over at repgeek comes to mind also, but RG has been down for a couple of weeks now, so I don't know how to reach him until the forum comes back up. There's also a group over in the EU, Domi and Francisco come to mind but I've never used them since I'm in the USA and prefer not to mess with Customs if I don't have to.

Certainly Angus- PureTime- was first out with this latest line of vintages (1665, 1680), but Josh has also come out with them since then, although not exactly the same in some cases. The idea of enlarging the date window is a cool idea- looks good mil-sub. If you need a crystal retaining ring, jmb is the man. He did mine on my PT 1665 and it worked out beautifully- watch is WR. These make excellent beaters- perfect reps, IMO.

If you're in the UK, you should look up Brightlight (may find him over at RWI).

I've bought 5 of my 6 gen Rollies on ebay. The 6th came from VRM- Vintage Rolex Market. I agree with what lgking says- the US second hand market is the best pricewise. Just make sure you know your seller. With patience, I would think you could pick up an older 16610 for $3,000-3,500. But figure in $250 or so for a service- some 16610's are 10-22 years old- the model's had a good run- almost as good as the 5513.

I've been using the aftermarket tubes from Mr. Slimeball and had good results. But like JMB, I run the 3.0mm x .35 tap thru there first. Picking up used 24-703 gen crowns has worked well for me- $25-40 each on the bay. There are rep crowns out there these days which will also work just fine.

I broke the file removing a tube from my PT 1665 Next time I'm using Joey's suggestion and buying some EZ-out screw extractors

As I found out building my 6238/9, all Valjoux 72 bridges (and movements)are not the same size. The V72 from my Heuer wouldn't even fit in my DW case. Luckily I had a Wittnauer V72 which was smaller and fit right in. Also, maybe DW's bridge is off slightly- chinese manufacturing tolerances....

Fat font (FF) inserts do command a premium.

Well LH, I haven't relegated my Explorer to beater class yet but it did pass the WR test at the watchmaker's. So I'm wearing the 16800 franken- it's still an excellent beater And the sapphire crystal takes a lot of abuse- much more than a plastic crystal. I'm off to paint this morning and fish this afternoon.

hey red, don't die on us now! How about the answer....

If Ziggy will service your Daytona, that's the best you can do. Is it worth it? That's for you to decide. But if you've been wearing it for a couple of years and enjoyed it, it seems like a worthwhile expense to me. Of course by now I'm sure you realize the shortcomings of the seconds at 6 Daytona, so I won't go into all that. An Explorer I is typically a good rep, but you could still be faced with servicing the movement- that's something that is inherent in ALL of the reps which we buy- just the nature of our hobby. But servicing an Explorer I would only run $70-100. Good luck.

Oh boy, I'm thinking a Comex caseback for my 16610!

LOL, I've been wearing my avatar for 4 days now, but it's time to change to a beater as I go into battle today! Maybe I'll try the no-cg big crown GMT

Yuki would be more than DW and slightly less than Natalie. I've only used DW cases, but I'd figure Yuki in the $500-700 range- saw 6263/5 cases on his website, whereas DW has the 6239 cases also. I don't know if Yuki's stuff is any better.

Looks nice Marty, thanks for sharing.

Bear in mind that certain days of the month will always appear smaller- 20,& 22-30 particularly. Single digits are the biggest, and teens also appear fairly large. My '83 16800 came with a Rolex replacement DW and the fonts were slightly smaller. I replaced it with a NOS DW and the mag improved- it wasn't the cyclops, it was the DW. I don't think Rolex worries about it as much as we do!

Those cgs are short and stubby like Josh's new $98 special. He says the SN is inside the caseback, but doesn't give us a shot of it. I thought Comex watches had a registration number on the outside of the caseback- 198, 2236, etc. Bezel is pretty thick and crown position is low. No mention of any paperwork either.