alligoat

Heck, I'd wear it- for light duty that is! Cocktail parties and other more gentlemanly pursuits. No dishes, swimming, yard work, or construction projects around the house.

The bezel insert looks fine, it is a later lumi service insert. A vintage tritium insert would be more appropriate, but it's a minor deal. Also, a tritium insert would have probably turned brown by now- the pearl that is. I'm fine with the dial myself, looks good to me.

LOL, certainly there are some good deals on matte dials these days. I paid too much for this one but that was 2 years ago. Now days you can pick them up for around $3500 if you know what you're doing.

If you're talking about the PT1680, you could install a gen insert, and a gen crown. I wouldn't spend the money on a gen dial and a gen DW won't work- it goes in the opposite direction. As Al12 says, you could get a retention ring from jmb and install a gen crystal, but that would be another $150 or so. A gen dial won't fit in an MBW case. It will take a gen insert and T-127. If you go to a Yuki case, well, as vlydog says, he sent it back, so forget about gen parts, I guess. NDT and J&W are other expensive options. At some point you just buy a gen

I doubt the HEV is that dark. Typically it's just a shade darker. I think these are just modified SSD's- super sea-dwellers. You could check out another dealer- this pic isn't much better- but it isn't black! http://ptswiss88.com/product_info.php?cPath=50&products_id=219 You could also try writing watcheden and asking about the HEV. other dealers also have this watch, check around.

+1 http://www.puretimewatch.com/product/vinatage-red-submariner-1680-200m660ft/ This is a great starter watch, IMO. Or you could opt for the white dial. Both have a lot of great features slow beat 2846-2 correct date wheel correct 93150 bracelet and end pieces (580's) nice 2mm spring bars If you put a smaller gen crown on and trim the crown guards, you're off to the races. MBW's are hard to find right now and require a lot more work, but they are a better case and will take a gen T-127 typically. But you start at around $400 and need $200-300 worth of mods to get to an acceptable point. And you could easily spend $1000 all told. Yukis are the whole next level up from there and you're looking at $1000-2000, possibly more if you build a franken w/ a 1575 movt.

A couple of months ago I saw this watch or a similar one for around $60-70 from a seller in HK. Since it has a 2813 movt, why not just buy a rep from one of the dealers- if you want the black dial, go with a noob from BK. If you're looking to swap in a white dial, good luck! Let us know how you make out. Good white dialed Explorer II's are virtually non existent. Watcheden sells the white dial rep with the correct black surround markers, but it's only so-so, IMO.

Thanks, B-T. That watch has become my go to beater. With the sapphire crystal it's a little more durable than the 1680. And the quickset date feature is also a plus. Looks like you took some of the red out of the pic. I need to keep working on my photo skills, just need to make the time and do it!

Don't know if it's a typo or not, but it's not a 1680. Yes it sounds like a 16800 with the later dial- not the early matte dial. 3035 movement is correct, and it came with the sapphire crystal. 16610 and 16800 dials are interchangeable- same size, dial feet, etc. 8 million SN dates to around 1983 or so. These run $3000 to $5000 depending on condition. Here's an 8.1 mill with a later tritium dial This later tritium dial still glows fairly well, I figure it for a 98-99 replacement- not as valuable as the original matte dial, but nice that it glows!

I remember seeing a discussion on VRF, Mulholland said flat top 3's. But then I checked my bracelets and one of my 16800's had a round 3- it's the one that had been serviced in 98-99 and had a new clasp (with lines thru the safety clasp). Then Mark Greenberg put up a bracelet for sale w/ the round 3 shortly thereafter and no one said a thing. Who knows!!

What about a set of Rolex aftermarket hands for 1570 movt from Clark's Watch supply? I got an eta set w/ very good lume recently from them. A luminova GWSD dial- $500-1000 if you can find one. Maybe more, I figure they're rare as hen's teeth these days. With guys like us around, I figure Rolex is keeping pretty close tabs on stuff like that. Everest Watch Works would be a whole lot more economical on a relume.

The dial aside, I still don't understand what the point of not including the bracelet in the auction is. Certainly the fees can't be that big a deal, can they?

I agree with flex, the 'ROLEX' in that dial is way too fat. I'd figure it for a redial.

+1 on what Nanuq says, beautiful dial and certainly need to get that discoloration looked at. But then again, that watch is past the beater catagory, so no showering, swimming or diving allowed. Only light dishwashing duty and maybe a 50 yard dash in the rain (with a raincoat on)!

Beautiful job, Geyper! You've certainly got the formula down for building some great 1680's!

The dial and hands look very nice. Insert looks like a later lumi replacement to me and I don't know if you can Poly-Watch the crystal or if you just have to replace it. Looks like the bracelet took most of the beating. With a little bit of cleaning up, it ought to be a very nice watch. Congrats!

great job Freddy, amazing!

Check Silix-Prime http://www.silix-prime.com/rols012-p-1477.html Hopefully they are still avaiable. With seconds at nine, if you service the a7750, you should have a pretty reliable watch.

FWIW, I'm certainly partial to the 16800 matte dial sub. And I especially love good lume on a rep or franken. And kbh, if you have an MBK case with lugholes, all the better! Some of my favorite watches are the ones I have the least amount of money in! Like my MKII 'Exploder' An old Silix 6694 w/ a T-12 crystal,MKII dial and hands and a Swiss eta- I paid $130 for the 6694 4-5 years ago!

The 2824 and the 3135 are also very close in stem position. WM9/BK uses the 2824 in the YM, 16610LV and the V3 sub.

When I look at my gen 1680, 5.8 mil SN, and compare the lugs, the 3.4 mil has much thicker lugs. Then when I compare the side profiles, the 3.4 mil is still much thicker, the case has a greater depth than my gen, and very straight looking sides- no rounding over of the sides as in a 35 year old watch case.

Reminds me of Stilty's 1680, luminova dial and hands, etc. Shoot, Jared says it still needs a service.

+1

The problem with these vintage 1680 and 1665's is that they aren't a copy of the gen construction like you say. As JoJo says, maybe you could bend the flat washer that sits in there slightly and tighten up the bezel a little. On my PT1665, I tried to put an aftermarket T-39 on it and then there was no room for the nylon gasket. So then I went to jmb and had him turn a retaining ring. At that point I was back to something that's pretty close to the gen construction. retaining ring holding crystal in place flat washer on top of that bezel snapping down over retaining ring and flat washer the insert is same size as the gen insert, so it snaps/glues into the bezel.

Red, it looks to me like the 'GMT-Master' is smaller on the MKI dial, possibly the 'ROLEX' also. Dial archive at VRF is a good place to look, but they don't use MKI, MKII terminology.