alligoat

With gold plate, you have to be careful. Best thing is for occasional wear only, avoid sweating, certainly stay out of salt water. Best for light usage, like dress occasions. As I recall, Allergy Doc has had good results with his FG Rolex rep. Also, gold does tarnish, but polishing gold plate is also a no-no. But I did just buy a FG Yacht-Master with the white dial and black markers- I just had to have some BLING! Some of the dealers used to offer full gold reps, maybe in the $3-4K range. Paul, and Josh come to mind. But heck, that's kinda like Russian Roulette- spend that kinda money and have it get confiscated by Customs- ouch. Another thought, buy the FG rep and maybe replace the bracelet when it shows the wear. I'm figuring the bracelet will take 95% of the wear and tear.

Building a franken is tough because the gen dial won't fit in the rep case- the dial is too small or the case is too big- take your pick. Rep dials are wrong- they say "Oyster Perpetual Date". The example you show looks very nice, maybe it's time to consider a gen!

Or, buy it for the dial and then get a noob Explorer II and mix and match. I don't know which movement this watcheden has, but I'm thinking Asian 21j.

Certainly a very nice set of watches. I particularly like the 16014 and the 16013TT with the leather strap- I have a similar pair like that myself. I just prefer the dials with the stick markers- so clean and understated.

Great write-up, Rob. These are always a pleasure to read and very informative. Thanks.

It used to be that most people around here were building Datejusts from gen cases and dials. You could pick up a case and dial from roling on ebay for a couple of hundred dollars, add an eta movement, crown, set of hands, maybe a datewheel, and a bracelet and have a pretty nice franken for around $400-500. But I haven't seen those cases around recently. WM9 puts out a nice product, but everyone's buying the subs and YMs. Eddie Lee is retired from the business. Datejust reps aren't bad for the most part- generally they vary slightly in size from the gen- not noticeable, but you can't always swap out for gen parts. So you can spend $100+ for a good one with a CN movement, $200-300 for one w/ an eta or copy eta, or $500 for one from WM9. It all boils down to how much you want to spend, but I would think that you can do OK buying a $200-300 DJ rep from Josh or Andrew- hopefully it would be a real eta, but that's probably getting scarcer all the time.

Pretty cool avitt. Obviously this stuff doesn't react with stainless steel. Francisco, my Spanish dictionary refers to the Spanish word as 'alumbre'

The noobmariner is a good watch, but it has been superceded in terms of accuracy by the Euromariner and the WM9v.2. Keep looking and see if WM9 or Eurotimez has the SubLV- it's a little more expensive but more accurate.

It's not 1:1- those crown guards suck, and crown position has to be wrong if it's a 2836-2 movement. The dial is the flat 'S'- same a WM9/PT. You'd have to see the bezel assembly to see if it's 1:1- could be a decent copy like the Euro and WM9. Sean at ETA Swiss may have a 1:1 copy, but I don't know that anyone around here's bought one. bklm is getting the closest w/ his WM9 Yacht-Master w/ the 2824-2 movement- at that point, he's able to get the correct crown position.

Yes, my 1680 and three 16800 dials are all a nice white white- no grey. 16610 is the same- actually the same dial is used for the 16800 and the 16610- dial feet are in the same place, date window, etc. Bezel assembly and insert are also the same for 16800 and 16610. Rolex quit using tritium in around 1999 and switched to luminova in 2000 for about one year- denoted by Swiss at the bottom of the dial. Since then they've used super luminove, denoted by 'Swiss Made' on the dial.

Boy, if Chris could come up with the white dial Exp II with the black surrounds it would be out of sight- he could sell a gazillion of them. Unfortunately, the black dialed Explorer II does nothing for me.

Well, like you say JJ, Rolex has released the 116619- blue dial and blue ceramic bezel, case in white gold and yes, the price I saw in the Rolex book was like $27,900 plus tax! The salesman said 4 weeks- they could order it. I think the rep of this is around- there was some discussion a month or so ago. It's kinda ironic- a $200-300 rep of a $30,000 watch. But the new case is coming- this year the TT's are supposed to hit the market and in 2010 the 116610 is supposed to arrive. Like B-T says, I'll miss the old 16610- but it's been around for over 20 years. I guess things gotta change.

Beautiful, Freddy! That dial is incredible.

Removing the bezel on my Euro (MBK) was always a bitch, also. I'd take a razor and put it in there between the bezel and the case and pound on it. The retention ring, the crystal and bezel would all pop off. Then you have to press the crystal back on, then the retention ring, don't loose the click spring- and install it, flat washer on top and finally snap the bezel on. Tolerances on these copy pieces isn't the greatest. You can try taking yours apart- check the flat friction washer for flatness, check the click spring. You may or may not be able to fix it. Those are the breaks Swapping out for a gen assembly would be another option, but finding the parts is tough- stay away from whoesaleoutlet990 down in Sugar Land, Texas- his aftermarket parts aren't that good. As FM says, these problems aren't uncommon. the good news is, you're the only one playing with your bezel I wonder if BKLM could maybe help you out???

White

I've seen the early white dialed Explorer II's with silver/gunmetal surrounds. These would be from the early 80's and the dial would still say 'Swiss- T<25'. These are the same dials that turned the cream color and are so expensive these days because they are such a collectors item.

Tell us which PT sub you have. Like the WM9 v1.5 with the copy bezel assembly like the gen Sub, or one of the others.

Is a crown reamer a readily available tool?

Amazing! That's pretty cool information- the anatomy of a crown. Muchas Gracias, Freddy!

Clark's Watch Supply on ebay, aka nostalgia2000 is a good place. You'll have to buy the whole handset- but it's only like $15.00 or so. Sometimes referred to as Tudor hands which use ETA movements. A watchmaker might have a spare, size is 25 or 26- that's .25mm...

You might keep looking around- read, read, read. A couple of hints though, Noobmariner TT and an MBW TT- might try the search feature on those. Also, might check and see if WM9 has a TT sub. Try looking for ByTor's review on Sub TT's, also.

Congratulations Marty. That's a beaut, and like the guys said, it looks to be in great shape for it's age.

It sure would be cool if these were the Vietnamese cases that Phong and Natalie sell. You could build a 5513 with a 1520 movement for $1500-2000. Pics of the dials weren't too good, though.

I agree with Freddy about the Brevet crown- it's way too expensive- so I'd just stick with what you've got. An insert from Michael Young at Classic Watch Parts would be a good start: http://www.classicwatchparts.com/catpart/c...php?cPath=34_56 From the looks of it, the 6536, 6538, 5508 and 5510 all take the same size insert. And since the 5508 takes the same size as the 5513, you could even buy the insert on PMWF and put an Ofrei pearl in there for another $20- but the font on the numbers wouldn't be the old round font. Freddy brought up a good point about the case being thicker and I'm not sure which crystal would fit- a gen would take the T-18 (or is it a T-16?), both are very scarce. Maybe a T-19 would work. I'm not sure how faithful the 6538 MBK is to the original- does it have the eta 2836-2 movement which would explain why the case is thicker? Drill the lugholes, beat up and polish the case- simulated age. Also, like Dizzy said, aging the dial would help. We haven't seen many of these MBK 6538's. They look like a cool watch. Keep us posted on what mods you do make

Hard to say why the 7750 is above the 727- but it is definitely a V72 or variant thereof- not a 7750. Typical deal, bad pics, high price and from Hungary- something to stay away from, IMO.