alligoat

Darn, can't log into TZ-UK!

I'm not aware of a tutorial, but you have it right. Place the gasket in place, then position the crystal making sure the cyclops is correctly positioned and press it into place w/ the crystal press. Then position the retaining ring and press it into place Put the flat washer on, get the click spring into place and finally press the bezel on- may be able to do that w/ your thumbs. Give it a spin to make sure everything is OK.

Minor point here, I thought noobfactory was in the Ghangzhou area of China. I remember BK going there 3-4 years ago, I thought!

Thanks for the heads up guys. I'm like Teejay, never ran across the guys!

All you need is a razor blade, or a utility knife blade- tap it under the ring against the case- move it around, you'll probably pop off the crystal too. Try not to touch the inside of the crystal. You can pop the crystal out of the ring w/ your thumbs. Maybe you'll have better luck w/ an aftermarket crystal. They do vary. Or you'll end up w/ a bunch of leftover crystals!

Finding a sub or sea-dweller case on the bay is tough and you'll probably end up paying too much. At that point you'd probably be better off buying a used gen- look for 16800's and early 16610's. I saw a R serial 16610 (1987)go for $2900 earlier this week. Sea Dwellers are typically more- $4K and up, but maybe you could find a 16600 for $3.5K. Rep parts- there's a whole list of suspects- some better than others Clarks Watch supply- nostalgia_2000 on the bay watchmaterial for pearls wholesaleoutlet990/jewelryoutlet555 (careful) yukiwatch NDtradingcorp jewelryandwatch But keep watching the bay- Rolex Submariner is a good search, over and over at least once a week. I just bought a nice tritium bezel insert for $58 for my 16800 gen. Persistence is the key.

Beautiful, RG. Nothing beats a good lume job on a rep.

You've got it. Pop the bezel off and then there is a tension ring that holds the crystal down on the case. The crystal fits down over the inside ring of the case, then you press the tension ring on over the crystal and snap the bezel back on. The bezel has a little 8 sided paper clip like spring that holds the bezel on the tension ring lip. Finding a matching crystal is tough- like you say, the dimensions don't just exist in the wild. I guess that's why everyone likes the MBK's so much- you can fit a T-19, T-39 or a T127 to all of those vintage cases fairly easily. I've got some pages at work of the G&S crystals, CousinsUK has some stuff in their online catalog, but a matching crystal is tough to find. The chinese just build these watches from scratch- at least that's my theory- and they don't follow original dimensions, they just make their own from what I can figure. they've probably sold 5-10,000 of the DRSD, maybe. I read one time long ago that Rolex makes 750,000 watches a year. China makes 7,500,000! Lord knows how many are reps! Edit: OK, I popped the crystal on my DRSD- ID 28.17mm, OD 30.51 Bezel insert OD 36.52, ID 30.63 The insert is close to a 315-5513, which is 36.5 and 30.5 as I recall, I tried an aftermarket 5513 insert on my DRSD, but the ID was too tight- would have to file the inside to make it fit the CN DRSD. Also did a quick check on my CN 5513- OD of the crystal was 30.43, didn't pop it off to check ID. ID of the bezel insert was 30.64- basically the same as the DRSD- like I said earlier, I think the two watches are the same cases essentially. Here's a link to Ofrei's Rolex crystals- Sternkreuz makes a T-19- 30.5 OD, ID 27.9 But the actual ID was just a tad too big- I tried one on my DRSD- it measured 28.3 w/ my calipers, just a little too big on the ID- floats around. But maybe one of these T-19 or T-39 would work for you- they do vary some. http://www.ofrei.com/page419.html

JB, you've got to measure OD and ID for the crystal. Like I say, this is a chinese watch, so Rolex Tropics may or may not fit. I couldn't fit a T-19 or a T-39, ordered both from Ofrei. Couldn't fit a gen bezel insert either- finally got lucky and popped out the pearl and fit the all acrylic pearl from Hong Kong in there- maybe from watchesandparts on ebay. This watch here -from Paul is another of the CN reps- same smaller case, I got it w/ an ETA for $150. Waterproofed it, great beater also. I think it and the DRSD are basically the same cases- just slightly wrong on the dimensions, but same construction as the gens w/ the retaining ring holding the crystal in place. They're just a little too small.

That dial reminds me of Van Gogh! Very interesting.

Isn't SDDS the dyslexic counterpart to DSSD? Sea-Dweller Deep Sea I know of SSD, Super Sea-Dweller from a couple of years ago- the last of the old style Sea-Dwellers. SDS used to stand for Students for a Democratic Society but that was forty years ago! Also, SDS is a type of rotohammer drill bit- nothing to do w/ watches.

Looks good JB. I have basically the same budget DRSD which I bought from Paul in 2005. It came with an eta and cost only $139! Things were cheaper back in those days. It has the same HE valve which is a pretty good copy of the gen, a silver datewheel and it came with a nice 93150 hollow mid link band w/ a 'one off fantasy' clasp w/ the Rolex logo on the side, rather than centered. You can pop out that little metal ringed pearl and glue in one of the small all acrylic pearls from someone like Nostalgia_2000 on ebay. I was thinking we could compare serial numbers, but mine doesn't have one- just says stainless steel at 6 o'clock. Mine has a nicer domed plastic crystal, but you can't change it out for a T-39 because this watch is just slightly smaller than a gen. Now days, I'm just hanging on to mine to recycle the 2836-2!

I found TRC and RWG1 in '05, thanks to Richard Brown. Luckily, before that I never got ripped off. My first rep purchase was from Replica Factory- $420 for an eta sub- not cheap, but a decent watch. After finding RWG1 and TRC, it was on to Paul and a $139 DRSD w/ eta and working HE valve. Now days I'm just hanging on to the watch for the movement! Oh, also got a Red Sub from Red Big Joe, got some mods done, maybe paid too, but someday soon I'll move on to phase 2 w/ that watch. Now days I have a fair stable of gens, quite a few knock-offs, and lots of reps and frankens. I guess the nice thing about this place is that I learn something new here everyday.

Very nice Frank. I especially like the way you trimmed the crown guards, they look great. MBK/MBW cg's are too fat.

http://www.prowatch888.com/product_info.php?cPath=21_56_72&products_id=1811 This 5508 isn't great, but you can't go wrong for the price. If the asian eta craps out, maybe you could put a 2846 in for less than $100. Don't know what you do w/ the bezel insert- maybe beat it up and yank the pearl...

Well said, Freddy! I also agree with JoJo, buy the least expensive, best looking no cg sub you can find, beat it up and wear it as a beater. 99.99% of the people will never know, or care!

Email Eurotimez. They're like $20 each.

One quick thing. W/ the new cases, new crown and tube, you may be able to install a gen crown w/o removing the tube- the gen crown may screw down on the rep tube- I remember a few people doing that. I removed the tube to file down the cg's and trashed it out removing it, so I went back w/ an aftermarket tube. Ironically I like the wholesaleoutlet990 tube better than the Clarks Watch Supply one- but both are soft- I've snapped off three or four now! That's why you need to tap the hole all the way, go slowly and be careful. Also might need to countersink the hole w/ a larger drill bit to seat the tube all the way in the case- just don't countersink too much- it will wallow out the sides of the case.

He definitely took those crown guards right off the case! Is it me, or does the rehaut look kinda 'wok-like'? Of course, we all know you can't post a rep on VFR w/o getting dissed! Needless to say, this watch won't be going to Rolex for service any time soon. The black pearl doesn't do anything for me, but the no cg/no cyclop look is kinda cool.

Preacher, whenever you change out a case tube, it's a good idea to run the 3.0mm x .35 tap thru there- to clean out the glue and just to make sure the threads are correct for the rolex (or aftermarket) case tube. I broke a tap in an older MBK case over a year ago and some of the older MBK cases have smaller than gen holes. If you can run the tap thru w/o too much resistance, you're probably OK. If you are forcing it, it's time to back out the tap and run the 2.65mm drill bit thru there and then tap the hole. On my Euro 16610(MBK) case, all I had to do was tap it, but I believe the crown and tube were the latest batch which are a copy of the Rolex gen. So if you have en older MBK case you might want to be aware of this so you don't break the tap like I did.

I don't know the case size of the MBK 6538. I would think it's in the 37-38mm range. But remember, a gen 1680 dial won't fit in a 1680 MBK case- the gen dial is a little too big. Not worth it to cut down a gen dial, and too hard to turn the case on a lathe or even enlarge it w/ a dremel. So putting a yuki or ndt dial in an MBK- probably not worth it IMO. A lot of this stuff comes down to just how far do you want to go. The MBK 6538 has its drawbacks, but you'll spend over $2K building a 5508 like JoJo's- probably closer to $3K. You could buy an MBK 6538 for $375 plus swiss eta $25 plus s&h, install a yuki 8mm Brevet crown and tube $280, and put a better bezel from Michael Young on for $120 + s&h. And for under $1000 you'd have a pretty nice rep- less than 1/2 what JoJo spent. When I built my 5508, I spent over $2200 and I'm not finished fine tuning- figure another $150-200. So call it a $2500 watch (with a 1520 movt, not a 1530 which is correct). Don't forget, be it a rep or a franken, it's still not a gen. It's just a question of how much money you want to spend.

Cool! Thanks, Rosnik. I posted the 16800 about 1-1/2 years ago here. Since then my computer crashed and I lost the pics. Omega drilled lugholes in a noob case. Took a Ziggy relumed 16800 matte dial, glued it to a 2834-2 w/ old style date wheel, gen crown and tube and put it all together w/ a 93150 and 593 ends. Stephane was my inspiration- he put a gen dial in a noob case first, as I recall.

Good point, Ken, I guess it's kinda like gambling- all or nothing, no guts no glory! The description does say the caseback screws in easliy, tho. But second look at the movement and it is obviously cheese- melted that is! Of course, I'm very happy just to watch from the sidelines!

Interesting. I've got a spare case- might swap out for a no cyclops crystal and build an Explorer I. Eurotimez has the datewheel for the Red Subs, w/ the flat top 3's and open 6's and 9's- correct for the 1500 Date also- $20 plus s&h. Have you tried the cheap plastic spacer rings from the cheap reps- one of those might work. Like Rosnik, I take my stuff to my watchmaker- he's built my two DJ's and my 16800 franken.

Well Arthur, you've pretty much pointed out the other shortcomings. The only other thing is the crystal- just not quite correct as I recall- T-16 is on the gen, but might not fit on the rep case. Brevet crowns are expensive- seems like someone is repping them now- still not cheap. J&W or NDT would be the places to look. Painting the hands would be relatively easy. It's still a rep, but at least better than the CN no CG's, IMO.