alligoat

You're going to pay more for Rolex parts, the question is how much is tolerable. 60 euros is high, but it isn't outrageous. It just depends on how badly you need them. If you have a gen Rolex, it might be worth it. I bought the rep 580 ends fr. Wholesaleoutlet because they were for a rep watch.

I read somewhere that Rolex sells them for either $35 or $50 per pair. So if your watchmaker has a Rolex parts account... BTW, wholesaleoutlet990 sells a decent rep pair for $15-25 w/ s & h.

Can someone tell me what 316F steel is? We've all heard of 316L, but this is a new one!

Marc, it possibly might help if you told us which country you're in. what you're looking for is a watchmaker/collector with a stash of old Rolex parts http://www.scotchwatch.com/ comes to mind but he carries old Valjoux parts, don't know about Rolex parts. After msn Bing and google, your next step is asking watchmakers in your area. Some of the watch forums might work for you- VRF, Vintage Rolex Forum, maybe Timezone, Watchnet... Worst case scenario would be buying a donor movement, but that would be expensive- saw a 1030 go for $1300 on ebay last week. they just don't make these old movements or parts anymore.

Yeh, you might give some serious consideration to upgrading. It doesn't make much sense to do 50 pounds worth of work to a cheap watch. Or just go buy another 33 pound watch and hope it lasts another year. By the time you get a dial, and a 4813 and put it all together and realize it may or may not work..., you could have just ponied up and got a new watch.

Thanks for the heads up.

1. Buy a cheap $50-60 DJ rep and use that dial- it'll have an asian 21j movt and same dial feet. 2. Buy a gen dial, cut off the dial feet and glue it to the movt ring or use dial dots- this might require a longer pinion- could be tough. 3. Buy a watch from a dealer and see if he'll sell you the DJ dial you want. 4. Just buy the DJ you want from Ruby. Ruby will source/make any DJ you want- you might have to go to RWI to find Ruby. Get the 4813 while you're at it. swapping to a 4813- might require the taller pinion. You could check w/ Chris at Eurotimez, maybe he could help you. In the long run, now that I think of it, it will probably be quicker and easier to just buy the watch you want from a dealer.

Don't forget to trim the crown guards before you install the new tube! Also, a www.watchmaterial.com pearl at $10 is an easy swap and well worth it, IMO. After that, a $70 93150 bracelet from Eurotimez w/ the 501B end pieces and you'd basically be there. That's as close as we can get at this point with what's available.

Yes it's more rare than a Paul Newman. I'd figure this one at over $100K- if it were available. Interesting that it doesn't say "Daytona" over the twelve hour subdial.

Yep, I see what you mean JMB- I re-read it again. Knowing the quality of the noob sub date dial, I guess I was dreaming.

Very nice. I like the way the color of the pearl matches the color of the hands and markers on the dial. All it needs now is a little bit of age.

I agree with you on all of the above, Chris. One thing though, I didn't realize that the noob factory made a no date dial- I'd be interested in seeing just what it looks like. Here's a COSC, new from Bernard Watch- lugholes, 93150 bracelet, looks like sans serif printing on the dial to me: http://www.bernardwatch.com/watch/RLX4126

Welcome back Tribal, hope you had a nice vacation! I'm afraid you're kinda missing the point here. We all realize the size variations on the 14060- it was discussed in another recent topic where Eurotimez is trying to come out w/ a better 14060- not perfect but better. This is just a watch that jmb is playing with, did a nice job drilling the lugholes, put a no date 14060 dial in there, different crystal, a work in progress. It ain't perfect, but it is better.

JoJo is correct- gen insert w/ luminous, not the old tritium. Also correct on the rest of the mods! Good luck.

Interesting! Since it was added today, maybe it's an MBW/MBK w/ the asian 2836. Might be worth a try. It has the typical MBW pearl on the bezel insert. Maybe the chinese copied the MBW. Josh and Andrew started selling MBW's (or knock-offs) a year or so ago. And of course, we've seen w/ Cats MBW red sub that quality has fallen off or someone's slipping knock-off MBW's into the mix. Chris @ Eurotimez did say that MBW cases come from Taiwan (similar to the TW Best...)

The band you have now is a SEL. This is the modern band which came out around 2000 and is numbered 93250. Prior to that the 93150 was used like on a Submariner 16610 and it had detachable end links (501B's for the 16610). The 14060 still uses the old style 93150 (I believe w/ 501B end pieces). Here's a sub w/ the old style band: http://cgi.ebay.com/ROLEX-Submariner-DATE-S-Steel-Genuine-Rolex_W0QQitemZ110435397226QQcategoryZ31387QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp3907.m263QQ_trkparmsZalgo%3DSIC%26itu%3DUCI%252BUA%252BP%252BFICS%252BUFI%252BIIUM%252BDDSIC%26otn%3D12%26po%3DLVI%26ps%3D54 Earlier subs also used this band- 16800's, 1680's 5513, etc. Don't put a vintage dial on this sub- it would be all wrong with the sapphire crystal. Vintage subs had the plastic crystals

The lugholes look good, now you just have to polish the sides to be correct. Definitely need a 2mm crystal and a 93150 with 501B end pieces from Chris at Eurotimez would be correct for the bracelet- I don't think even the new 14060M COSC has SEL's. Trimming the cg's would help, but your crown (and tube) might be the older rep variety- a few years ago noobs had a similar notoriously big crown. Best fix was a gen crown and gen (or aftermarket) tube at the time. Now days MBK's, Euromariners and WM9's have a decent copy crown and tube which will even interchange w/ the gen parts. Newer noobs even have these copy crown parts these days. You might be able to switch out a smaller rep crown which is a fairly easy swap- crowns just unscrew from the stem- maybe a little heat if it's glued or tough to unscrew. Heck, with a little more work, you could beat Eurotimez to the punch w/ a decent 14060!

Dial feet will tell you which model your dial is for. Feet at 6 and 11:30 are for the 1600 series of DJ's with the 1575 movement- till around 79-80. Feet at 7:30 and 2:30 fit the 16000 series and 16200 series. Singer dials are fairly early. I have a DJ dial w/ Beyeler on the back, it's for a 16000 DJ. Of course, dials for 16000 and 16200 are interchangeable.

Those are some great pics and for $128, the watch is a good deal also. Now all you have to do is add 30 years of 'age' to it! I also like the jubilee on it. Thanks for sharing.

I think this is a very good formula for a 14060, Chris. With a superlumed dial and hands it would be great. I think using a Euro V3 case is fine because aftermarket and gen parts are much more readily available for the 16610 than the 14060 and I doubt anyone can really tell the difference between the case sizes w/o a pair of calipers. Look forward to hearing more about this project.

Ditto on the modern. The early 24-703-0 crown had a taller crown emblem. I guess those would run from the early 80's up til around 1990 maybe.

Interesting and informative write-up. Although I own a number of reps w/ asian 21j movements, I always consider them somewhat of a gamble- how long will they continue to function? I still consider the noob as a better entry level sub than the VIPmariner. This one from Paul w/ the asian 2836-2 would be another possibility: http://www.pam111.com/product_info.php?products_id=1165&osCsid=22b19b413f6c19613c01fac59f526fea This watch has the updated crown and tube, the new rehaut engraving and maybe a better pearl. CG's look decent and a WM pearl for $10 is an easy swap. The asian 2836-2 is still a gamble, but if worse came to worse, maybe you could find a true Swiss eta and swap it in there- the only tricky part might be moving the datewheel overlay over to the swiss movt. I guess with any Rolex sub rep, you'll always know it's a fake, but sometimes it's better to beat up a fake than to tear up a gen. I always try to avoid wearing a gen when the work gets ugly! That's when I enjoy my reps most- when the going gets tough!

Beautiful watch, JoJo. That gold case looks fantastic, and everything else is pristine, too.

If you want to buy a gen Datejust, first you have to decide what you want and how much you want to spend. Ermitage Jewelers looks OK, but it's a typical retail establishment- prices are probably 25% higher than what you'd pay on ebay. Ebay is really pretty much a wholesale marketplace, but as Freddy says, you have to know the seller. Look for lots of sales, excellent feedback and good pics on the site. DJ prices run from around $1250 for a 1601 (c.60's-70's) up to over $10K for gold and diamonds. I would think you could find a nice used one for $2-3000. New from one of the grey market resellers- maybe $3500-6000. On older watches you may have to add in the cost of a service- $200-300. If anything looks funny, you need to walk away. Beckertime in Dallas sells alot of Rolex, DeMesy's, Bernard Watch in Austin, DJ's are the most popular watch in the Rolex line, so there's lots to choose from- esp. now.

COOL!