alligoat

2483 is correct for an early 7016- 25 j/18000 bph. Late 60's like 67 or so. With a better crown and insert, it would be a beautiful watch.

Nice find! Can't read the movement # below the balance- 248x maybe- but it looks like an old ETA to me. There are reps of the Tudors out there, but this one looks good to me. Pearl on the bezel insert looks suspect, but it could be the lighting. The crystal should go over the case, but should have a retaining ring which also holds the bezel assembly, I believe. For $275 it's not a mistake and could be a very nice score.

Wow! Sure hope you're able to overhaul it Freddy, that's one heck of a find!

Shoot Stephane, you know the formula, a noob case from Omega with the drilled lugholes, a silver datewheel from like an MBW 1680 red sub- open 6's and 9's, round top 3's, my datewheel is white in my franken and in my gen, but the open 6's and 9's are the key gen crown and tube WM pearl in a noob insert, or file down a gen insert, or a WM pearl in a jewelryoutlet insert- file it down also 593 end pieces and a 93150- maybe MBW again Hardest part is the 16800 matte dial- they've been going for $600 on the bay lately. Or you could pick up an older tritium dial w/ white gold surrounds- but not as nice as the matte dial 16800's A relume of dial and hands by Ziggy would be a nice final touch. The killer at this point is the matte dial- they've become so expensive- I got mine two years ago for $100 and paid Ziggy $50 to relume it!

Great write up Stephane and a beautiful watch- certainly the matte dial 16800 is my favorite watch at this point in time gen on the left and franken on the right. The franken gets the most wrist time because I worry less about tearing it up. Actually Eourtimez is working on this already. But it may take a while.

Didn't it use to be that you had to do a little grinding opposite of the crown (at the 9 o'clock position) on the inside of the case?

You know Tribal, I just don't think it gets any better than this. A 'perfect' sub for 1/10th the cost of a gen! If it passes the WR test, what more could you ask for? You can beat this watch to death, and it still only costs $500-700. Who cares, sure beats the heck out of wasting a gen! I love it.

My experience has been that a gen dial is 1mm smaller than the rep dials and very probably won't fit in the rep case- it will slide past the rehaut ring and hit the crystal! But all you can do is try it yourself. Some people have said that they were able to fit a gen dial in a rep case. Of course, you have to cut the dial feet and glue the dial to the movement ring, or use dial dots to hold it in place.

I guess at this point George may have run out of the 2005 models and he sent you a free upgrade to the 2007- z series ($155 value). At the same time, I would guess that the 2007 z series is running low and the 2008 M series case is next. Maybe he'll update his website. With the 2007 z series, swapping out a gen bezel insert and trimming the cg's would yield a very nice watch for not much extra money. I wonder if the 2836 is a Swiss or the asian copy movement- I've heard that a few of his watches have the copy eta.

Good point JoJo, but I guess the seller is saying it's in the second batch of 150 with WG surrounds. Hate to think what a matte dial 16660 would go for!

What a price tag! I think this one from Shear-time would be more suited to my budget! http://cgi.ebay.com/1985-Vintage-Rolex-Sea...id=p3286.c0.m14 200K for a watch, a Rolex like this one, is just too much for me. And with the market crashing, maybe you can pick it up for 100K next month!

Wow! That's pretty cheap- 32 pounds delivered- maybe $64US. One of my scuba friends might enjoy it- I keep getting her Invictas and last time I ran across a Wittnauer TT Ladies scuba watch in quartz a la Rolex with a jubilee band. She liked that one also. Certainly it's a CN movement. Wonder if it's any good....

Congratulations Stephane. It's always nice to have a gen and you certainly picked one with a cool little bit of historical significance. The great thing about hanging around here is that you learn something new every day. I like that transition from tritium, to luminova to SL and you've helped me see how it happened. I'm somewhat partial to the 93150's w/ the 501B end pieces for a bracelet- SEL's just don't do much for me. And an 'A' serial is bound to become a collector's item- you're just ahead of the curve as we say here in the U.S. Wear it well!

Interesting. You'd think Rolex would have some sort of system for denoting these oversized case tubes. The markings on Freddy's package are fairly standard- the only one in question is the one at the bottom- X03. I put a gen tube in my 16800 a couple of months ago, but I threw the package away. It fit fine, although somewhat tight, as is usually the case on these babies. I guess at this point, Freddy, you're only option is to get another case tube- maybe a Clark's, or Helfand's or another gen and see what happens.

pahapete, If you were to remove the bracelet, and read the serial # at 6 o'clock between the lugs, we could tell you what the case is (probably). Here's a bezel insert from Shear-time, but the pearl is probably tritium and a little too old for what you are looking for. http://cgi.ebay.com/Rare-Rolex-Submariner-...id=p3911.c0.m14 I got one a month ago that was very nice for a little over $60. You just have to watch patiently, eventually you'll get a good deal.

3055 and 3135 are the same as the ETA, 1570 and 3035 are opposite. Don't ask me why the 3035 and 3055 are different!

After a certain number of transactions, Paypal will no longer let you use your credit card, except as a back-up source of funds. I opened up a separate account at my bank for Paypal only use and typically only keep $100-200 in there. If I make a larger purchase, I transfer funds from my main checking account. Luckily my bank doesn't charge me for this account. I'm not particularly fond of Paypal either, but I've never had any problems with them. You just need to make sure you never put something stupid on a transaction like 'fake replica Rolex watch' when sending money to a dealer. Follow the dealers instructions and you'll be OK. BTW, they can take funds from your bank account, all they can do is freeze funds you've sent to someone else.

I agree with you, freddy. China has become the watchmaking capitol of the world.

Actually highoey, the noob case is 40mm. The problem lies in that the bezel is slightly smaller, meaning that you have to sand/file down a gen insert to make it fit- maybe .2mm. That's why everyone is so excited about PT's, Eurotimez and WM9's new subs- the bezel assembly is a copy of the gen, making mods a whole lot easier.

Beautiful watch, Chief! The list of parts alone is superb. This is the ultimate Franken, IMO. The 2892-A2 makes for a great workhorse inside, and everything else almost is gen Rolex. It's interesting to note that the dial has no lume markers, so therefore the no lume hands. Great job.

The 2824 is the 'date only' movement- 4.6mm tall. The 2836 is 'day/date' and about 5.2mm tall. Of the two, the 2836 is most commonly used in reps, for reasons I must admit, I don't know. Like Logan says, alot of times the 2836 will only have the date feature utilized. Both units are the same diameter- around 25.6mm, and are very similar in design. Originally when the Breitling Steelfish Super Ocean came out, the rep makers used the 2824-2. But since then, they've started using the 2836-2. This requires a modified case since the crown positions vary on the two movements- the 2824 crown sits slightly higher. Other movements which can be used are the 2846-2- date with a 21600 bph and the 2834-2- day date also with day around the top of the dial- similar to the rolex Day-Date. Ironically, when I ordered a Rolex Day-Date rep, it had a modified 2836-2 movement and not a 2834-2. BTW, when the 2824, etc. came out in the early 80's, it was just a plain 2824. Then it was replaced by the 2824-1 and finally the 2824-2. This all happened within a period of a few years in the early 80's, so the 2824-2 has been around for 25 years or so.

They're practically the same- maybe a 7733 and a 7734? You can see the R symbol under the first balance wheel- for Valjoux. And maybe just a part of it (the R) under the second one.

The price is fair if you get the watch in the pictures. I think it's a modified v72- the Japanese won't be the ones to copy the v72- the Chinese or Vietnamese might, but we haven't seen it yet. By the time you put all of the Rolex bridges on a v72, gather up all of the other parts and assemble it, you're bound to spend $2500-3000. But like Freddy says, will Honpo sell to you? Especially in Italy- it's not exactly easy to get things through Customs there is it?

Very interesting! I love the bezel. But the crystal is a little too tall for my tastes. When you say pencil hands, that puts you in the realm of the 6200, 6204, 6205 and the early 6538. The first Submariners- early to mid 50's. The Brevet crown is also very nice. A very interesting watch indeed- nice job!

Beautiful watch Bruce. I think it's definitely worth holding on to- maybe you could put the SD on the payment plan and have two gens. But I love my reps- they're beaters, and I try not to wear my gens when I'm out playing 'rough'- which lately has been most every day!