alligoat

Welcome aboard. now there's quite a bit of reading for you to get up to speed. But the SEARCH button is your friend, although it can be finicky or downright difficult to operate from time to time. MBK Mall in BK, you need to get there and then you can find the right stall- I thought it was on the 1st floor. But keep searching. Don't know if MBK carries an Explorer I. Eurotimez is in the BK area, you could contact him by email, don't be shy, he's a very nice guy and helpful. Don't know if he has an ExpI or not. Shipping to Austrailia, I haven't heard of it being a problem. The EU is sometimes, but other than that, most places aren't a problem. Some of the dealers guarantee you will get your watch or your money back. If I had to guess, 90% plus of the reps come out of Ghangzhou. It's just up the road from Hong Kong 60-70 miles. Here's an example: http://www.jpc8118.com/rlex10002-explorer-...8242-p-405.html Ohter dealers also carry this watch. If you donate some money to this forum, it will give you access to the dealers here- then you can search around till you find what you're looking for. But be careful, this habit is like drugs, it can be addictive and get expensive.

Even though it's been serviced, waterproofed and the edges smoothed, I would figure you'd be lucky to get the original $550 out of it. Someone can go buy the WM9- V2 from BK for $530 plus some shipping and have a little better watch. Draw backs to the V3 are the lugholes need to be enlarged, pearl ain't much, crown guards need to be trimmed and the lume is only so-so. Taking all of that into consideration, maybe $450-500 would be more realistic! FWIW, I own a V3 and really like it. I drilled the lugholes, put a gen insert on it, gen crown and aftermarket tube, trimmed the cg's, and added a rep 93150 with gen clasp, 501B end pieces and Rolex sprinbars. After all that, I still figure it's only worth $500-600. Unfortunately, these watches are not worth the sum of their parts and mods!

When you only want to spend a hundred dollars, it's pretty much a crap shoot. The first one from timeshop might be OK, but it's hard to tell from the pics and I'm not familiar with the case serial #- F432091. The second one from watcheden is a fantasy model- not really available from Rolex yet- maybe in 2010. The third one is so-so, once again, hard to tell from the pics. The most recognized Rolex sub is the noobmariner: http://www.jpc8118.com/rlss10009-black-beg...ing-p-2303.html But it too is dated- sub reps have improved a lot in the 3 years since the noob came out, but in it''s day it was referred to as the best sub rep out of the box. But now we have the WM9 V2, unfortunately, it's not in your budget.

You're welcome. I hope I can make it to the GTG, I see that the date has been changed to the 9th of May.

Here's Josh: http://www.jpc8118.com/rlyms10018-beginyac...ing-p-4228.html DG 2813, and free shipping to boot. Last time I bought from him I used a credit card- pretty simple.

Have you checked with bklm1234 lately? He used to do a lot of noob factory stuff, but lately has been concentrating on WM9 Subs and YM's- definitley a step up in price (and quality). But he is in CONUS. Others that come to mind are Eurotimez, and Andrew, and possibly Josh. Look for the F520117 on the case.

Stephane, You don't say which Explorer I rep you're looking for- vintage or modern? Of course, all I would consider myself is vintage, like this one from Narikaa: http://img.villagephotos.com/imageview.aspx?i=24511371 This looks like a 1016, Swiss- T<25 dial, lugholes, aged lume. It looks good to me, but I'm not an expert on Explorers. Silix has a similar watch as does Trusty. The good thing about Narikaa is that he's in UK, so it would be easy for you, I would think. Heck, I ordered a mini-sub from him for a girlfriend here in the states and it was easy for me- great service and fast. I'd hesitated ordering from UK dealers in the past, but it was smooth as silk.

That certainly is a beaut, JoJo. I really like those open 6's on the 660ft, the 9315 and the 702 crown and tube. It's a beautiful watch. Congrats on your find.

Why not? Actually I've had good results with all 3, but I'm not sure what the deal with Silix is currently. Paul did get me an extra dial a few years ago when I was ordering a watch and shipped me a replacement dial when a stick marker fell off of one watch in shipping. I've had good results w/ him.

I agree with Freddy. Also, you could try googling Rolex repair in UK and see what comes up. Like the USA, I would figure there a quite a few watchmakers over there doing Rolex servicing, if that's all you need and maybe for a little less. My neighbor here in the states was a little upset when it cost over $500 to service his Rolex at Tourneau (an AD). I just had one of my 16800's serviced by my watchmaker for $300 and that included two parts, the hack spring and the datewheel gear. I'm realizing the datewheel gear is one of the weak links in the 3035 design.

They shouldn't need to mess with the dial or the bezel insert. They could insist on changing the hands and if the bezel itself is in rough shape they might want to change it out. If the lume on the dial is in rough shape or the paint, they might insist on changing the dial or refuse to service it. they don't want stuff flaking off and getting in the movement. People like Bob Ridley in Ft.Worth do a good job of servicing vintage Rolexes- better than the RSC in that respect.

I don't think that will work. Besides, a gen 93150 w/o end links is worth $300-500, maybe more. You'd be better off sticking with the 93250 rep bracelet on your WM9, IMO.

Anything's possible with Rolex and the key point like you say, Scone, is that even Rolex probably doesn't know. And remember, a matte dial will fit even a 16610- the dial feet are the same for the 3035 and 3135 movements.

I didn't realize that Freddy was having problems getting the Silix case. I did kind of skim the old post of his and note that the case measure 39.5mm. That's the same as Paul's 5508. Heck, they could come from the same factory, but the silix one had a very nice bezel- but that could be changing. Like you say, the one from Paul isn't too bad and properly aged, hardly anyone's going to know- there just aren't that many WIS running around.

You can leave the Day disc in place, but are you going to glue on a datewheel overlay disc for Rolex or not? If not, you're set to go.

The 93150 has the detachable end links- like 501B's that were used on the early 16610's thru the late 90's. At that point Rolex came out with the 93250 w/ SEL's, but the 16610 still had lugholes until around 2004/5. So with a WM9 and no lugholes, the 93250 is really the correct bracelet. The 93150's run from the late 70's thru til 98-99, maybe 2000. 1680- used 580 end pieces 16800 used 593 end pieces 168000 " " " " 16610 used 501B's

I would stick with the 2836, don't try the 2824 because of the stem alignment issue. The movement you linked to may be an ETA, but I'm not so sure it's Swiss. These guys are in China and they don't say Swiss- just ETA. Of course, it may work out just fine, just remove the day disk. But you might want to look around for a rep friendly watchmaker. If he could fix your movement for $30-50 you'd still be ahead. You don't say what kind of hands you have, but Clarks probably carries them.

Without going to NDTradingcorp.com and paying a lot of money and essentially building a franken, I don't know what you can do. Here's a case from Silix: http://www.silix-prime.com/product.asp?id=1886 But the dial and crystal are wrong. Then maybe you could swap out a dial from Paul: http://www.pam111.com/product_info.php?cPa...roducts_id=1811 Find a decent plastic crystal and bezel insert and you're good to go- assuming you can do the mods. The Silix case is the one Freddy has done wonders with constructing a 6542 GMT (no cg's). Or maybe you just buy the watch from Paul and go on down the road- it ain't great, but with a little aging, it might look ok. there's just not much out there 'out of the box', so to speak.

Although servicing an asian 21j is probably more expensive than swapping a new 21j in there, at that point it should be good to go for the next 3+ years. If you swap movements, you could have the same problem in a month or so. Or you could get lucky and be fine for a few years. But with a service, at least you know you have a clean and properly oiled movement.

Here's By-Tors review of the white dialed ExpII: http://www.rwg.cc/members/Review-ROLEX-Explorer-t61210.html Like dluddy says, it's the old Explorer II case from the noob factory. The newer cases are too big for the gen dial, as I recall. Really a shame, I'd love to have a white dial with the correct black surrounds and an eta wrong handstack.

Congratulations. It's always nice when a gen dial will fit in the rep case. Sure makes things easier.

AFAIK, bk has no case with lugholes. You need to order a 1680 from someone like Eurotimez- the MBK/MBW one and get it with the white dial. The 1680 has a plastic crystal, dial says 200m=660ft. It's the first date model sub that ran from the late 60's until around 1980 when it was reoplaced by the 16800- the first model with the sapphire crystal and quick set date feature. Here's one that looks very good: http://www.rwg.cc/members/1680-Franken-Ziggy-t94807.html Maybe this will help you.

Wow! I'm sorry, but you seem to be way off base. There is absolutely no correlation between a 1680 and a V3 case- two different beasts and bk sells WM9 16610's, not V3's. A 16223 is a Datejust. So maybe you want some 1680 parts and are willing to trade a DJ. I would suggest you spend a little more time reading and studying because everyone here is having a hard time figuring out just what it is that you are trying to accomplish. Sorry I couldn't be of more help. Good luck

It amazes me how the Chinese have quit drilling lugholes- especially on vintage watches. Otherwise, it's a very nice watch. Sure wish we had someone around here who could drill lugholes like Omegs does over in the EU!

That flat S dial is certainly interesting. And the way the dial has aged is unique. I don't think there are any matte dial 168000's. Those ended around 8 million plus on the 16800's. Around 1984 or so. The interesting thing about your watch is the R serial. The 16800, 168000 and 16610 were all produced around the same time with the R serial number. It's a very nice watch and appears to me to be all original. Congratulations.