alligoat

Are you sure you're not just looking for the black bezel insert? The silver part (the bezel) can be replaced, but I don't think it's necessary. The insert definitely can be replaced and should be if you can find a gen.

Nice job! Quite a nice franken, Congrats!

The pearl isn't that big an issue for me. It's not a gen pearl, it's not probably even an Ofrei pearl in terms of quality, but it's decent. This pearl on my WM 1680 is the original pearl and insert from my gen white 1680 (1978)- it's nothing to get excited about! I've seen lots of these original tritium pearls on old watches- all ugly as caca. My pearl on my GWSD is exactly like geyper man's pearl- thanks for the pics geyper.

I bought this sub from replica factory in 2005 before I found TRC and RWG1 It's a typical CN sub, shallow rehaut, 3x mag, 2836-1 surplus movement. It's still running well, trimmed the cg's, better insert, LV dial and here's how it looks today My next one was a DRSD from Paul for $139- another Swiss eta trimmed the cg's, drilled the lugholes, put a better all acrylic pearl in the insert and stole the hollow mid-link 93150 to use on another Sub.

Thanks B-T. I'm liking it cause it fits my description of a great beater- looks good at a great price.

Running with the GWSD again. A screw fell out of a gear on Monday and $40 later the watchmaker dug it out of the movement and everything is beautiful. BTW, it is a Swiss 2846-2!

Welcome aboard and congratulations on your first purchase. When it comes to Swiss eta vs asian eta clone vs asian 21j, there's no easy answer. The Swiss etas are made in asia, but the quality is better than the asian copies. However, they may still need to be serviced, it's possible they're surplus or used also. But repair parts are available and they can be serviced. Can't say the same about the asian eta clone- yes, they can be serviced, but can be tougher to regulate, parts aren't available and swiss eta parts may or may not work in there. Asain 21j's, well it's cheaper to replace them than service them, they can be dirty and not oiled, and it's pretty much the luck of the draw as to whether or not they'll work well. That being said, I have a number of asian 21j's which are doing fine, one broken clone at this point and most of my reps are swiss etas, which is certainly my preference for dependability and longevity. But some of my friends get good mileage out of their asian 21j's- and that's all they buy. So I guess the choice is yours.

You could buy an MBW 1680 case and a white 1680 dial, $165 + $65 + $20 to ship Swap in the PT 2846-2 movement and DW, use the hollow mid link 93150 and 580 end pieces and the PT bezel insert and for under $500, you'd have a very nice 1680. Putting in a crown and tube would up your costs, some more, but both watches could use a gen crown. With the MBW case, you'd also need to drill the lugholes larger. BTW, my watchmaker confirmed the PT 2846-2 is a 'Swiss' eta. He had to take my movement apart to find the screw that had come off one of the gears and stopped the movement DEAD. $40 later it's up an running again! I personally wouldn't build a Red Sub w/ an MBW dial because the 'Submariner' print is way too large.

I don't use the gasket between the case and the tube, but rather use loc-tite instead. I tried the gasket once, but it got all beat out of shape.

I'm kinda like Shawn, I buy the aftermarket tubes from wholesaleoutlet990 since I'm here in the US (around $18-20 each) and I get the used crowns on ebay for around $25 http://cgi.ebay.com/ROLEX-SUBMARINER-ST-STEEL-WATCH-CROWN-7MM-COMPLETE_W0QQitemZ330409280544QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item4ceded8420 @ rolexmaniac88, sounds like you have a situation you're just going to have to play be ear. What you need is a gen that you take parts off of and then go in and see if he'll sell you something like a bezel assembly. You were climbing out of the boat, hit the dock w/ your watch and the whole frickin assembly popped off. It fell in the water, but what are you going to do- go diving for it? I actually hit my gen 16800 on the desk one day and the bezel popped off. Of course, the only thing I lost was the click spring ($8.00), but I looked for it for 30 minutes! The rest of the parts snapped right back on. I wouldn't be surprised if it doesn't happen all the time. Come to think of it, I might try this ploy myself- I could use the gen bezel assembly on my Euromariner! I just don't know if I can afford it!

I agree, also. Although there's no guarantee you'll actually get a 'swiss' eta, at least it's going to be an eta clone and you can always swap in a true eta fairly easily if you ever need to. The biggest flaw on this watch is that the crystal sits a little too high, but it's proved to be a good beater and typically has good WR. Some people epoxy the HE valve on the inside of the case as an added safety precaution before swimming, etc.

Nice job! It's pretty cool that the Trusty sub would take a T-19. I guess you trimmed the cg's, also. The only other thing I would do is drill the lugholes w/ the #55 cobalt drill bit from Snap-on and put in some 2mm Rolex (or aftermarket) springbars.

Or maybe it is 2.5x and the clark's is 3x. When you install the crystal, you'll get a .5x boost or so because the crystal sits on the top of the case and the dial will be a mm or 2 below the top.

Thanks R and B, too. It's always fun learning something new around here! BTW, Gorilladame, in your last pic, the date mag on the Clark's crystal is slightly larger than the gen.

Interesting RS, I actually thought it was the other way around.

Thanks flex. Unfortunately the end pieces are 580's, not exactly right for a GW, maybe more OK on an early DRSD, but the 580's don't bother me. Didn't someone have rep 585's awhile ago- hope it wasn't WSO990? RS, I don't have anything larger of the pearl. It's an ok pearl, not the greatest- the gen pearl on the 1680 (lumi) is better defined. The PT pearl is slightly lopsided and not as well defined. I guess I could try an Ofrei pearl, but it really doesn't bother me that much. LOL, I'm off to the watchmaker. The watch stopped at the gym this morning, so I opened it up when I got home and noticed that a gear had no screw in it- must be in the movement somewhere! Not something I'm going to tear into!

Go for it! It's certainly a step above plastic. All it does is keep the movement in place- the type of metal is irrelevant.

Good question. The dial that I got from avitt had the eta ring already glued to it and no dial feet. No big deal, remove the other dial and ring and glue the new dial and ring on to the movement. I aligned it with the 6, which was the date on the movement at that point. Most dates appear fine, but a few are a little high- like this 27. I may have gotten the window a hair low, or it may be in the datewheel itself- I've seen that in cubic-works DW's and of course the noob has the 21 which is too close to the left side of the window. I'm going to watch it for the next week or so and see some other dates to check it out. I'll be uncasing the movement to remove some specks of dust on the crystal and on the dial and to trim the cg's some more, so I'll take a look at it then also. JMB did save me on the new retention ring. Don't know if I could have found one anywhere else or not, short of buying an MBW case from ETZ and using that bezel assembly. Thanks coolfire, B-T and gpl for your kind comments.

I would think 24-600-0 crown and 24-6000-0 tube. Of course, a 24-602-0 crown and 24-6020-0 tube would also work. I believe 6030 tubes are 5.3mm, but I always get my 6mm crowns and tubes mixed up.

JMB made me a new tension ring with the correct ID so that I was able to press it on over the T-39. Then the bezel assembly snapped on. I kept the PT insert- the pearl is slightly yellow, but not bad, IMO. This is the first decent 5513 insert we've seen. You can build a good one with the PMWF insert and an Ofrei pearl, but that'll run you $90+. Thanks Chi, I've still got a little work to do, but I'm pleased with the watch, especially at this price. And I didn't have to drill the lugholes, source a correct slower beat 2846 or install a correct datewheel. It's all come together for around $350 and that's what I wanted. I certainly didn't want a franken ($2K-3K), or an MBW for $700-900 (with mods). It's an economical dependable beater- just the kind of watch I love most.

Yes. @ freddy, the hands are slightly whiter, but the MBW dial is sure nice, overall it's a definite improvement over the PT dial and hands- that yellow just doesn't do it for me.

Well, I've finally got my Puretime 1665 GWSD back together. I started with this 6 and 9 markers are too narrow and the cg's need a trim. I got an MBW GWSD dial from avitt, installed an aftermarket tube and gen crown- mainly because I boogered up the case tube trying to get it out so that I could trim the crown guards busted my rat tail file in the process- that tube must have been glued in there well! I also put a new T-39 on- it's a G&S PA462-67A that I had bought from Ofrei 4 years ago. Had a set of white hands laying around so I put it all back her last night Here it is next to my gen 1680 for a comparison shot. I'm going to have to work on the cg's a little, improve the inside angle and possibly try to thin up the outside (yuck). The crystal is a superdome, but it fit the best. I'd struck out trying to get a flat crystal form wholesaleoutlet990- he sent me what I figure is a T-12 which had an OD of 29.12mm- way too small for a 1665 which should be in the 30.3mm -30.5mm range. Three emails later he finally responded that he'll take it back and give me credit- gee, thanks Mr. Slimeball, BTW, quit selling stuff if it's wrong! I'd wanted to use a Sternkruz T-19 since it had a lower profile, but OD on it was slightly larger than the T-39. While looking thru Skeet and Urul today, I noticed that the caseback on this sub is correct for a DRSD but maybe less so for a GWSD, here's a gen caseback from a GWSD... I also noticed that the crystal on the PT 1665 is not too bad for a later model GWSD- here's the same gen w/ a profile shot All in all, I'm very happy with the way this watch turned out. A DRSD is just a little too rich for my blood, so I feel the GWSD is a good compromise. And the MBW dial is a great upgrade. The 2846-2 is keeping good time, and looks gen to me. It's a great mid-range rep for the price.

A Yuki case would be another option. I seem to remember something about also having to dremel a little out around the nine o'clock area, but that may have been on a 1665 MBW case.

The dial looks fine to me also. It's not signed on the back, but wasn't Rolex using three dial makers at that point in time- Singer, Beyeler and Stern? VRF has a good dial section, you might look there. My guess is that the dial that you're holding out for is earlier than the one you first posted, but that's just my guess.

I always love to see a pointer on the balance bridge- what happened to the microstella balance?