alligoat

Nice spot biffa! Looks like a brevet and a coin edge bezel to me. Sure would like to see a better pearl and maybe a slow beat 2846-2, but it looks like an improvement over the old Silix/cartel offerings, with a few mods it could look pretty good- that and a good dose of judicious aging. Nice 6538, Aeromatic- I assume it has a 1030 beating inside.

Interesting, but I'd figure them as CN copies of the gen crown. These copies have been out for at least 1-1/2 years now. That yuki crown is a bit pricey to boot, I've been buying used gen crowns for $20-30 on the bay. But didn't I notice Yuki having a 24-7030-0 tube for $11? May have to try that one out. Also, a pic of the inside of the crown would be cool. Even though the gen crown is a 'wrap'- metal inside wrapped with an ss cover, the walls are very thin. Rep crowns typically aren't as thin. But it's good to see the rep crowns copying the gens finally! Thanks for posting, Luna.

Nice job, JB! It's always cool to see how a 'pro' does it!

I would think the bezel would hold up fairly well- it doesn't get that much use. My Euromariner is similar- MBW/MBK case, close to gen bezel construction. I can't remember if it says Orig Polex Design between the lugs on mine. Mine is the V3 w/ lugholes and an A S/N.

Looks like an MBW/MBK to me. Just out of curiosity, what is the serial number?

Congrats! Nice looking pair of watches. I especially like the reluming- part of the fun of a vintage rep, IMO. The PMWF insert and Ofrei pearl is also a nice touch, and the 1680 is my idea of a great beater rep- not too expensive, but great looking. Good job.

Hewlio, I think it's time for you to enjoy your new watch. Maybe you keep you eyes open for a vintage tritium insert. Don't worry about the crown, it works. And leave the hands for now, I've seen lots of vintage Rolex watches where the hands were a different color. I bought a matte dial 16800 a few years ago and it was by no means in the greatest of condition. But I had it serviced and found a better tritium insert and now I'm just enjoying it. Mine has an aftermarket crystal in it, and I guess I should get a gen crystal, but I'm not going to worry about it right now. My hands are original, but they show the typical corrosion the early 16800 hands were prone to. Sometimes 'original' isn't that pretty. BTW, my 16800 only sees light duty these days, I'm trying not to tear it up. A lot of people figure these matte dials are only going to go up in value. Luckily, I have a franken for when the going gets tough If I tear it up, I can always build another one! You could do it w/ the gen, but it would be a whole lot more expensive!

I have a 1680 re-dial, it measures 26.51mm, it's a red sub dial that was in my gen 1680 for a while 'til I went back to the white dial. I didn't measure the white dial. I also measured an MBW dial, 26.20mm- they are smaller than the gens, of course. These measurements were made w/ my chinese calipers, so the measurements could be off a little. Nice job on the Ranger dial, Slarti.

+1, Especially the aging part, looks great.

Beautiful Freddy. A great watch to wear when you're painting the town!

IMO, you just have to get a vintage tritium insert, a better set of tritium hands and an old 703 crown. I bought a good old tritium insert from sheartime- Andrew Shear on the bay- $60-70. Check VRF for old hands- guys have the old tritium ones from time to time. Hands for the 16800 and 16610 are the same sizes and as long as they're tritium, you're fine. The old 703 crown has a taller crown emblem on the side- newer ones are more squat. Rolex would change out those parts in the course of servicing anyway, maybe your bezel is new also.

I disagree with the 'L' always being centered under the coronet- a number of the 70's vintage Rolex dials had the 'L' left of center But I don't like the narrow 6 and 9 markers and the yellow lume isn't to my liking either on the PT Gw 1665 dial. I put the MBW GW dial on my PT sub, and it turned out OK, with one exception, the PT DW sits slightly inside the MBW date window. The problem is, both watches have their faults, but the PT does correct some of the faults and is quite a bit more reasonably priced. The PT GWSD has a better insert, better DW, a 2846-2, and a good 93150 bracelet, albeit w/ 580 ends and not 585's (minimally acceptable- some early DRSD's came w/ 580 ends). I installed a gen crown and tube on mine- rep crown was too big, and I still need to trim the crown guards some more. The important thing to remember is, 'a rep is always a rep'. Even if you buy an MBW and spend another $300-400 fixing it up, it's still just a rep. You could build a franken for $2000-3000 and it's still just a franken. So you just have to decide how much do you really want to spend. For the $350 I spent on mt PT GWSD, it's not bad, but it's never going to be perfect, but I also don't want to spend $10K on a gen!

ewatchparts is the same as wholesaleoutlet990/jewelryoutlet555. Also watchbandman50 is in the same group as far as freddy and I can tell. It's ok if you want to gamble on $10-20, maybe even $50 parts. But on a 14kt bracelet, I'd keep looking.

try google or bing, they're your friend. here's one from the bay- early w/ butterfly rotor: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270494042657 1560/5 came out in the late fifties along with the 1530, 18,000 bph, followed by the 1520/1570 around 1965, 19800bph.

Contact bklm1234 about a WM V3 dial or send your noob dial to Kent Parks for a relume.

I'm seeing a pic of the movement on the ebay auction. It is a V72 w/ Wittnauer on the bridge. With the thinner caseback, it would look better. It's a nice franken, worth $2500-3000, or whatever anyone is willing to pay for it. Probably nicer than a J&W franken if it's been serviced and running well.

A white gold bezel and ss body is a 16014- definitely need a white DW I also saw a 1601TT w/ black dial- white DW- maybe at Becker's up in Dallas, on the bay of course, last week.

Plastic crystals vary some, but the dimensions of your case and retaining ring sound fine. At the most, you might have to sand the inside of your retaining ring. Look at all the various T-19 crystals Ofrei stocks. So you can figure having to play around w/ 2 or 3 to find one to fit is not unusual. http://www.ofrei.com/page419.html

ETZ used to be the source for the correct DW's- flat top 3's, open 6's and 9's on a silver background. Not knowing what's happened to him, my next thought would be trying to get one thru one of the other dealers who deals w/ MBW's- PT and Paso come to mind. These new DW's which we see on the PT 1665 (and maybe the new Josh 1665 and 1680) sit slightly inboard of the MBW date window, so keep that in mind.

Anything's possible. ETA used to have a factory over in China, maybe around the Hong Kong area. These watch movements are still available, they're just not as readily available as they once were with ETA's new policies of limiting sales to non-ETA companies.

5513/5512's all go on the 1520/1530/1560/1570 Rolex movements, same size (gens) same case (different markings). Dial feet at 6 and 11:30. Yuki, NDt and J&W all copy the gen. MBW is where you can run into problems, but not maybe as much as w/ the 1680. Other dials won't fit in a MBW 1680 case, but I'm not sure about a 5512/5513 dial in an MBW case- ubi did it w/ a 5517 into an MBW case for JAG as I recall.

Certainly not a bad looking watch (the 1680) for the price, trim the cg's and maybe install a gen crown. Like highoey says, be careful with the crystal- it looks OK to me anyway, but trying to swap to gen could mean a new retention ring similar to what I had to do on the PT 1665. If you don't like the yellow lume markers, maybe a Kent Parks relume would be an option. I certainly wouldn't switch back to an MBW dial in this case- you'd end up w/ DW alignment issues and who needs the bad MBW red sub dial anyway. It's interesting to note the 2846 is 'reconditioned'. ETA hasn't made those in quite a few years. Wonder where the chinese come up with a supply of those anyway

What is a sheet of real meteorite? It's interesting, yes it is a real Rolex Sub, but certainly around 10 years old with the 93150 bracelet and 501B end pieces and lugholes in the case. I saw a similar watch on the bay last week with a silver dial and silver insert- same older Sub type of deal which had been modified- only this dial said 'Swiss- T<25'. http://cgi.ebay.com/Rolex-Mens-Steel-Submariner-Silver-Dial-Bezel-16610_W0QQitemZ260573743319QQcmdZViewItemQQptZWristwatches?hash=item3cab67c8d7

I agree with Chi, servicing is going to run $200-300, and you might pick up a movement (in a watch) for as little as $300 on ebay. I've toyed with the idea of trying to build a Type XX chronograph and a 7734 is one of the movements you can use.

Looking thru ebay, there's lots of TT DJ's w/ white DW's Also, roling is back! http://cgi.ebay.com/Genuine-Rolex-DATEJUST-ss-case-ref-16013-YG-bezel_W0QQitemZ330416236007QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item4cee57a5e7