alligoat

Here's another guy w/ vintage pearls http://cgi.ebay.com/Sea-Dweller-Submariner...A1%7C240%3A1318

Hey Nanuq, have you ever thought of putting a pearl in that insert? Like this one from watchesandparts: http://cgi.ebay.com/NOS-Vintage-Rolex-Subm...%3A1%7C294%3A50 I don't know if that's copesetic for a vintage like yours or not.

Yep, everyone refers to these Subs as 40mm. I just measured my gen 16800 case with my Chinese calipers- 39mm between 2 and 8 and 10 and 4 and 39.8mm at the bezel. As I recall, my gen 1680 is 38.5mm on the case.

Cases on the 5513/2, and 1680 are around 38mm, but the bezel protrudes, making the whole assembly around 40mm. Likewise, I'm looking at my 16800 gen and I'm thinking the case is around 39mm, but with the bezel overhang you have 40mm. Probably the same on the 16610- but i don't have a gen of that, only a noobmariner and a Euromariner

Actually the 16800 was the first Sub with the unidirectional bezel. 14060 came out in the late 80's after production of the old 5513 stopped- around the time of the 16610's arrival.

Thank you, Francisco. This is a very nice write up. I'm disappointed you didn't find the extra jewels in there, but not all that surprised. And I so wanted to buy an IWC 3714 Portuguese- but I may have to reconsider at this point. I sure wish they'd get these movements right!

There's no guarantees this watch even has a retaining ring! So first, you need to pry off the bezel, but do it carefully so no small parts go flying off onto the carpet! If there is a retaining ring around the crystal, then you can try to remove it. But some of the watches just have the crystal glued to the case. At that point, fitting another gen or aftermarket crystal probably won't work. I've run into this on some of the inexpensive Silix subs. Good luck.

The noobmariner can be a good watch- Lord knows, I've bought 4 of them- 5 if you count the case for my 16800 franken. And if you were to have BK mod it it would be nice, but I think the WM9 is the way to go these days- it's the latest and best out of the box. Granted it's not cheap, but it has some great features like the superlume. Modding my own watches, I know I can't build a watch as nice as the WM9 V2 for what they're selling it for. You pay a little more, but what you get is worth it.

I certainly see automatico's point about the case ref number being 5700. I'm not sure if the current 1500 caseback # is a problem or if it's just one of those things Rolex didn't worry about 30 years ago- kinda like the 5513/5512 casebacks on Subs- no big deal. The cases for the 5700 and the 1500 are the same AFAIK. The 1500 Date had the chronometer rated 1570/5 movt, The Air King Date had the 1520/5. No 'Superlative Chronometer, Officially Certified' on the Air King. The price seems pretty good if the case is a 5700. Whether or not you then need to find a 5700 caseback, I don't know...

The $1400 one I saw was a 26j model, but I would agree that the 1500 Date with the 1575 movt can still be found for around $850 to $1000 and is a better deal, esp. for the movement. But if you're building a 5513, the 1520 would be ok if it's in decent shape- but that can be a big 'IF' since it's likely 30+ years old. But Rolex did keep making the 1520 up into the late 80's- like in the 5513.

You don't say what movements the two Subs have. If they're ETA's, that would be cool. Second sub- you could get a Watchmaterial pearl and install it- www.watchmaterial.com- around $10 plus a little s&h. Trim the crown guards and it would be a little better looking beater. Like bluesphere says, you might consider a BK WM9 V2 sub- it's not cheap, but it's the best deal out there. The Euromariner requires a lot of work and unless you know how to do the mods, it isn't worth it- you'll spend way more on it than the BK WM9 V2 and you still won't have the superlume. BTW, your wife's is a fantasy model- but still neat.

Thanks, Freddy. That bezel makes it worth the price, IMO!

I saw a similar watch on the bay last month. It went for around $1400, had the same 1520 movt, c. 1970, same oyster perpetual. Like Freddy said, this is a good deal on a movement if it's working well.

One question, Freddy. Is the bezel of ROLS176 really notched like it looks like in the picture, or is it the standard Sub type bezel?

3mm x .35. This is the thread tap size for 6mm and 7mm Rolex tubes.

If you read a little more of the discussion on watchuseek, the guy from Prometheus Watch Co says you may or may not get COSC standards by regulating the movement. But certainly the quality of these chinese movements is improving. But by the time you service and regulate a movement like this, it's not cheap, but if you like the watch it's in, it's probably the best way to go in the long run.

Very nice. Both the pics and the watch. I took one look at the dial and said WM9. But this is a perfect beater in my mind- a great combination of rep and gen parts that you should be proud to wear out in public. And if you scratch it up a little, who cares- you didn't spend $5K on it! Congratulations.

Looks like a cool project, Freddy. I'm liking that bezel that you're starting with, it's very nice. I'm headed over to www.watchsilix.com- the economy site to check their cases. I like the ROLS176 case, I'm just not excited about 2836-2- my guess is it's a copy. I just don't need the copy movt., and I don't like the price.

It's certainly always nice if the hands and dial match, but not necessary. A slight variation is not unusual. But if the variation is much more, as Freddy says, it is reason for concern. But when a watch is 30, 40 or more years old, having the original set of hands becomes more and more unlikely.

Nice job on the white dial watch in a sub case. You're certainly quite a few steps ahead of the typical noob. Modding reps ought to be a piece of cake for you. Welcome aboard.

Like KBH's pic and Shundi says- there is a screw securing the rotor to the bridge below. I've had to rescrew the rotor on an eta copy movt twice in the last couple of weeks. One more time and I'm gluing the screw in! Even the copy movts have the screw- look at these Seagull and Hangzhou copies from this watchuseek article- this is an excellent article, BTW. http://forums.watchuseek.com/showthread.php?p=1547711 Either it's not an ETA, or you lost the screw. In my case the screw couldn't go anywhere because the case back kept the whole rotor assembly basically in place- but it sure made a wicked noise- kinda clanking around. Bring the watch to the GTG, Bob, I'd like to look at it.

www.timesshop.net is Mark at Watchmark- he's a dealer here.

I guess we could use a little more info to answer your question intelligently. But getting parts is a problem- they're just not readily available. Dealers don't sell parts typically, but a modder might be able to fix your bezel problem with parts he has on hand. Or maybe you could buy a new Sub- even one with an asian 21j movement which would be cheap and swap out your swiss movt. You're right, you're not a new arrival, and it looks like you make somewhere around 6-10 posts a year, maybe. At least your wife/gf/partner will never accuse you of being a watch junky!

Sizes vary, but I measured one from a Sub case- it was about 33mm diameter- thickness, maybe .75mm- that's just a guess. Here's some gaskets from Ofrei's: http://www.ofrei.com/page_106.html Maybe an assortment would be a good idea.

I thought TTK was the one who coined the term 'noobmariner'. Of course, he was the first to come out with it, but it wasn't long before the other dealers had it also. And there's the noobfactory- famous for the Subs, Yacht Masters, SSD's and even GMT II's.