alligoat

I picked up this gold shell AK about a year ago for cheap. Circa 1959, had it serviced. I was mainly after the 1530 movement, but I couldn't come to grips w/ cannablizing it. Sometimes I think about updating it with a '72 silver AK dial with gold stick markers and gold stick hands but can't do that it either- so it remains original.

Good choice in watches on Andy's part. I also like the Adventurist from Bernard watch- it also has the 2893-2 movement in it. http://www.bernardwatch.com/Avier/Adventurist-GMT/AVI21

With a 16000 DJ case, you can fit a 2836-2 in there fairly easily. It lines up well with the crown/stem hole. Datewheel overlays can be bought from cubic-works.com for $20 or so. Clarks' sells hands (Tudor) which fit etas for $14 or so. Left is a 16013 franken and right is a 16014 with the white gold fluted bezel. I didn't change out the pinions, the hour hand is inside the markers and the minute hand clears them. The plastic spacers on cheap reps will also work if you can't get ahold of Stilty- he's not always around.

You might be able to improve the look of the end links by squeezing them together a little. That way if you have the little bottom tabs, they will rest on the bottom lugs and keep the top part in place better. Or using another set might help- I have rep 455B's on my 16014 franken and they fit nicely. End links are definitely a hit or miss proposition. You just have to keep trying til you get something that fits well.

Cool tear down, Chi! A couple of things that disappointed me, one, the laser etchings on the case and secondly, I would have liked to see the the flat top three's on the datewheel, can't tell if it's a silver finish color or not. A silver DW like the PT 1665 has would be cool. I prefer the whiter lume on the dial myself, and with a decent T-116 and some aging, it will be a very nice rep. Thanks for sharing this with us.

Nice job, Ben. Welcome to the franken club.

I have a 78350 gen from an Air King, it came with 571 ends for reasons unknown. However they fit beautifully on my two year old DW 6239 case. Rosnik, your 571 ends are correct!

Pretty resourceful Chi, great job!

So I can add a 14270 case to the list of possible donors! Nice job Andy!

There's no doubt S&U's pics leave a lot to be desired!

Good call LH, 4 bids and $637.52!

The red text above the 'GMT Master' in the Japanese book is the depth rating- 50m=165ft. There's a similar pic in Skeet and Urul. Don't know if the S&U pic is the same watch as in the Japanese book.

It looks like a bit of a gamble to me. Stems are no big deal, but the watch will definitely require a service- of course most do- and that's $200-300 in the US. But it is a 726 which is a later model of the 72, but I don't know what improvements were made to the 726. It's too bad he didn't reset the 30 minute and 12 hour counters back to zero for the picture- do they really work? It'll be interesting to see if anyone bids. Nice find PP.

So you're really just bidding on the bezel! The rest of the case went thru a sheetstorm!

Good answer, Teejay!

There's something I love about a 6239- those pushers, the simple dial and that bracelet all look beautiful LH!

Try google and Bing. The 7914 looks like it has a 390 movement- that's good news The 2462 is an older eta movt. may or may not work in an older Tudor sub- Yuki may have built one like that, but it wasn't correct.

Trim those grown guards! The bracelet is beautiful, but it's at least 10 years older than the dial. Aging the hands a little to get them closer to the dial would also help. But this will be a great beater to wear everyday, especially since you don't want to wear your red sub everyday, it's too valuable. Come to think of it, the 9315 bracelet is perfect for your red sub. Get a 93150 w/ 580 ends for this 5513 and you're good to go.

$210! That's the price I saw on a 5513 or 5512 in the late 60's after watching Thunderball! It was at Sweeney's Jewelry Store here in Houston, Texas. I was 14 or maybe 15 and I actually had the money, but I just couldn't do it because I was afraid it would upset my parents. I ended up buying a Tissot instead- $50. I would wear it on the striped straps- red and black, green and blue- similar to the Natos these days, just w/o all the buckles. Forty years later I finally bought a gen Sub- a 1680!

Nice job Andy. Certainly finding a case with drilled lugholes , or doing it yourself is the biggest challenge on a 16800. Omega drilled the holes on my 16800- it's a noob case also. The nice thing about the noob case is the shallower rehaut- it's about the same as a gen 16800 case. The drawback to the noob case is the bezel- it's slightly smaller than a gen bezel so if you fit a gen insert in there, you have to file down the OD of the insert slightly to fit it in there. Instead, I put a watchmaterial pearl in the noob insert, but I may file down a gen insert someday, I've got an old spare one w/ a brown tritium pearl now. Although WM9 or a V3 Euromariner (which has the lugholes) could be used, you're back to the deep rehaut of a 16610. Here's my franken on the right and my gen on the left. I spent two years trying to build the franken and finally went out and bought the gen. A month or two later I ran across the noob case from Omega w/ drilled lugholes and it all came together in a couple of weeks after that.

That's great news and $550 is about par for a Rolex service these days. Like B-T says, don't let them touch the dial (or the hands). With service papers, the value of your watch will be improved by at least twice the cost of the service, possibly more!

Amazing! Great write up and four vey nice watches, M. You've definitely become the expert on the vintage Explorers! Congrats!

Ah, yes, the Aeromatic 1912! That reknown German/Chinese creation!

Jacques Etoile (Klaus Jakob) built a chronograph in 2006 with the Valjoux 72C movement, obviously a very limited edition. He's also built watches with the V23 (decorated, of course) and also has a number of watches with the Venus 175 movement which are fairly current. The Venus 175's are beautiful, don't know if he starts with a ST-19 or not. One of the blurbs indicated he scoured the nooks and crannies of Switzerland for old movements.

Could the first one be a Tag Heuer Carrera- the current model? I'm looking at the TT subdials.