alligoat

Ah, yes, WO990! But I have found his case tubes (24-7030-0)to be quite good. Hope his stuff works out ok for you!

Yes, LH, I went with the MKII hands and dial to get the whole nice lume combination. They glow well at nite! I'm not keen on the minute and seconds hands, but since it's not a Rolex, it doesn't matter. Haven't seen MKII selling parts on his site lately. I've found the 'Tudor' eta hands from Clark's also have good lume and they're reasonably priced.

One quick note, the Silix case also takes a 19mm bracelet/strap. Those DJ cases on the bay sure are expensive these days! I long for the good old days when you could pick up a nice 16200 case from roling for $200- complete w/ crystal, bezel, and dial!

My Silix case measures 34.9mm. The case back is a copy of the 6694 case back, which is different from the other Rolex casebacks. The Silix did take a T-12 crystal very nicely and the 28mm MKII dial. But in my mind it's comparable to a 5500 Explorer. I have a 70's AK case an it measures 34.3mm.

The first thing you need to do is go to the bay and type in 'rolex day date'. Then look at all 17 pages of DD's. At that point you'll have a good idea of what a DD 18038 is worth- $6K+. You can buy from a reputable seller on the bay, or go to vintage rolex forum and look there. The same holds for the 16520 Daytona. Timezone ia another place to look. People bad mouth ebay, but if you know what you're doing, it's a very efficient marketplace and as close to wholesale pricing as you'll find.

Here you go, buy a gen for $2595! http://cgi.ebay.com/Rolex-Explorer-II-Stainless-Steel-w-Rolex-Papers-/200499119454?cmd=ViewItem&pt=Wristwatches&hash=item2eaeadc55e I've bought a couple of gens from this seller. My only gripe is that she removes the bracelets and sells them separately! A '97 tritium dial should still glow well at nite.

I agree with Freddy in that Ingod44 basically sells new aftermarket dials. But this one is interesting. This is a 'frog' dial- the Rolex crown looks like a frog's foot! I've never seen that on a rep dial. But I would figure that Ingod has access to some computer technology and is capable of copying these dials fairly accurately. BTW, dial feet are at 6 and 11:30, so they're correct for the 1570 movt.

I have to agree with Dizzy on this. We all know BT doesn't like the SSD, but it's only a rep! It has it's flaws as he has aptly pointed out, but it's the only game in town at this point! And with a few mods, it can be a very dependable beater. Also, it's important to keep the price in perspective- an SSD w/ eta will run $200-300. If the WM9 SD ever shows up, it will run $600.

Nice watch, Marty! You just can't beat a WM9, especially with a few gen parts.

The SSD has been out for 3-4 years. Super Sea-Dweller. I believe Josh even carries a SSD Lite w/ the asian 21j movt. These come out of the noob factory and are decent reps, not perfect, but decent. Use the search function, lots been written on them.

The cyclops is fine. It's a little unusual, but it works!

It's fairly common for the end links to be slightly recessed like on your GWSD. You can pry them apart a little, that might help.

The only thing I would add is you could always do the MBW 5512- decent white no lume dial and maybe Narikaa could source it for you on one of his trips to the east. It would be cool if you could get a 2846-2 motor in there also. Of course, then the mods begin, bezel insert, trim the cg's, drill the lugholes, gen crown and tube, gen T-19, and maybe a better bracelet depending on what you get with the watch- shame they can't put the good 93150 w/ 580 end pieces on there to begin with.

Yeh, 'Swiss Made' is correct, the 'Swiss' would be too early for a WM9. Around 2000 the 16610 still had lugholes, but the SEL bracelet may have debuted at that point. To mount the dial, cut the dial feet and glue it to the top movement ring. DW should line up just fine. If there is a clearance problem with the DW, you may have to use some dial dots- the 2824-2 doesn't have the clearance the 2836-2 has.

Is it luminova or super luminova? luminova- out for about a year c. 2000, denoted by 'Swiss' at the bottom SL- after that on to present, denoted by 'Swiss Made' at the bottom Good tritium dials-pre 2000, run $160 up on the bay.

Good inside angle on the guards, maybe could be filed down a little bit more. you could also round over the tops of the cg's, i.e. shorten them a little. You're going for the 'wide crown' look, IMO. Here's a 16800 gen to compare w/ they can be a little tricky, but go slowly! i've got 3-4 reps that still could use some more filing- a couple where the outsides need to be filed! Yech!

After 30-40 reps, 10 or so knock-offs and 15-20 gens, I finally bought a Seiko a few months ago. I got it from Harold over in HK for $140 shipped. I think everyone should have a good beater and this certainly is one. Invictas aren't bad either- I like the ones with the Miyota 8215 automatic movement in them. I got this sub-like Diver for $104 I took off the black bezel insert and glued in a stainless steel YM insert for a slightly different look. I bought a beginner YM from Trusty for $100 or so, white dial w/ black markers, asian 21j movement- another good beater. I would think you could get your watch fixed for less than $186- looking around for a local watchsmith is always a good idea. I would figure your movement is either a swiss eta or the asian eta clone. You could buy a $50 Octo on the bay and have a watchmaker swap it in your Explorer I for another $50 max- make sure you buy one with the eta 2846-2 movement. And like Ronin says, if the rotor came off, it might be as simple as screwing it back on- just don't let the screw get into the movement!

That's my question too, Andy! Will it take an eta? That and a decent red sub dial and maybe I could build a decent red sub. With ETZ missing in action, this may be a reasonable alternate case to the MBW and it'll take a 26.5mm dial- gen or aftermarket.

freddy had or has one- it was an early one, I don't think the gen springbars originally fit, but maybe Yuli corrected the problem. I see on his site they're not currently available. But they're the only game in town, unless you go gen, no one else has them that I know of

That's an aftermarket case for sure, the pearl looks suspect and I can't tell about the dial. The pics aren't great. 4.0mill is earlier than '77. The movement looks to be a 1570, but the guy doesn't know squat. 26 feedback is too low, so I say it's all typical of a scam!

This ain't a wristy, and it's not a Rolex, but it's what I'm wearing today, an O&W Mirage III

I guess the noob case is the best one for making a 16800. But you have to get the lugholes drilled. Omega drilled the holes in my case a few years back. I've tried it myself and I know it's not a task for the weekend hobbyist. After that, the rest is fairly simple, trim the cg's, install a gen crown and tube, install a better pearl, maybe even go to the trouble of filing down a gen insert to fit in the noob bezel (which is slightly smaller than the gen). I just installed a watchmaterial pearl because I didn't feel like 'wasting' a gen insert. The gen matte dial was relumed by Ziggy and I used a 2834-2 which had an older DW with open 6's and 9's and it worked fine. It's basically the same as the 2836-2. The watch on the right is the franken, the one on the left is a gen. The franken is WR and cost me around $500 to build with gen 593 end pieces and a good 93150 rep bracelet. Other cases are possibilities, but are tough to find these days- the old TW Best w/ lughole works, but has deep rehaut. The Eurotimez V3 w/ lugholes would also be fine, but has the same deep rehaut. The Euro V3 will take more gen parts, something the noob case will not do. I did see a gen 3035 rolex movement fitted in a noobmariner case one time.

I think you've got it backwards, Al. A gen or 26.5mm rep dial won't fit in an MBW case. An MBW red sub dial is 26.2mm and should fit in a PT case, as would a gen/aftermarket dial, I would think, but i haven't tried it. measure your PT dial w/ calipers, if it's 26.5mm, you're good to go.

Hey JoJo, you might want to read Mark Lerman's post on VRF from yesterday. He goes into all the red subs and what you call a Mark III, he's now referring to as a Mark IV. He now has three different meters first dials before the feet first dials.

LOL, the more that I look at the pic I posted, the more I wonder if it's not a Yuki rep also! It was in my Photobucket album so that's all I know! Here's a 7924 which is gen As panerai pointed out, these should have the 390 movement and gold hands would be appropriate if original, as freddy said. Still it's a nice rep.