alligoat

A noob case won't work. A 26mm Tudor dial is too small. The noob dial is 28+mm. One of the inexpensive 5513 reps would work like this one above: Paul, Silix and Andrew all carry it. It's a smaller case- like 38mm and I just recently put a gen (aftermarket Vietnamese?) dial in it- worked fine. Heck, with a Tudor dial, the dial feet might even work. On the Rolex dial you have to cut the feet and glue the dial to the top movement ring.

It just depends. If the watch stops because it's just dirty, a cleaning and servicing will get it up and running again typically. But if parts are worn out or damaged, they probably will have to be replaced. On an asian 21j, it's not cost effective and parts aren't available so you put a new movement in there. With an ETA, you can get parts so you can repair it. If you have an ETA and you wear it alot, it might not be a bad investment to service it (around $100) if you want to keep wearing it for 3-5 years. But I still just service mine when they stop- ETA or asian. I did have Ziggy service a asian 7750 rep that I really like- $200! But now I should be good for 3-5 years with that watch.

In addition to the yucky crown position and bottom of the case on the MBW, it looks like the inside of the bezel insert's been shaved to fit the crystal.

Yep, Pussy was wearing a GMT in the film- the 'pilot's watch'. Don't know if it was a 6542 or a 1675 which came out in the early 60's- about the time of Goldfinger (1963, I believe). Can't tell from the pic.

I just got the same message- says I haven't made a post in 180 days! Must be a system error.

Thanks Mike. That's a cool way to test for not a whole lot of money. I already have an air compressor, so I don't need a bike pump. 85 psi looks like a good stopping point- plenty of test for swimming/snorkling.

Stilty, aren't you thinking of the 5.3mm case tube which goes with the latest 6mm crown- the 24-603-0? Case size for a 6541- maybe 38mm. OD of a T-16 is 30mm or so, and the bezel and insert- forget the OD of the insert but it's basically the same as the 5513- maybe 36.5mm.

Interesing! Most of the old 5508's that I see on the bay- or at least alot of them- don't even have a pearl in them. Lost long ago, I suspect. Kinda like the old story about the people who used to do the dial painting with radium- they'd lick their paint brush with their tongue to get a fine point- needless to say- they are long dead and gone.

Yes But you could also use a 24-602 crown and tube- don't know how hard the early crown and tube are to find these days. T-16's are scarce and getting expensive- quite often $200-300.

Might want to check out the Euromariner- Chris w/ Eurotimez is coming out with it- there was a post here a few days ago. MBW case with slightly less datemag. Supposed to be less than an MBW

usual suspects: Michael Young- classicwatchparts.com in Hong Kong ndtradingcorp.com- Natalie, don't know if she'll sell an insert separately jewelryandwatch.com- don't know if Phong has this part And you'll have to see if they are the correct insert- we noticed yesterday that NDTrading was selling a 5508 insert which had a little metal ring around the pearl- whereas the correct 5508 insert would be an all acrylic pearl.

Just keep reminding yourself that you got five great watches. You couldn't even buy one gen Pam for $2200.

I went to NDTrading's site and the bezel insert they're showing on the 5508 now has a small metal ring around the pearl. The one that I got from them 3-4 months ago was just an acrylic pearl- no metal surround. This is also a NDT 5508 with a 1520 movement, 6mm Rolex crown, and gilt hands not quite yet 'aged' to match the dial lume- it's still a work in progress. Also, I still need to age the pearl which will just be a little staining to darken it- easier than messing with the hands which entails pulling the movement and taking off the hands.

I used a credit card for a purchase from Josh. I had to call the cc company to find out why it was declined. They said it was because I didn't have a history of making those kinda purchases (from China). I told him it was OK and it went thru ($200-300). Ironically, a couple of weeks later I bought a Sinn watch from Watchbuys for $1500 and it went thru- no problem. Of course, Watchbuys is here in the US. Moral is: Call your credit card company and tell them to do it!

I got the Sinn 303 with the Silver dial- really off-white. WR to 200m, it's the most accurate of any of my watches- keep it on a winder when I'm not wearing it and haven't had to adjust it in I don't know how long. It's a damn well fine tuned 7750! I'd have to agree, you can't go wrong w/ Sinn.

Is that a TT or gold DJ? I'm thinking an ss DJ would have been under $200, I guess.

That's a beautiful watch, Uncle Jay! The color of the hands and the dial lume matches perfectly. Are these gold or silver hands? I can't tell from the pic.

I remember looking at a 5513 in a jewelry store window around 1965- the time of Thunderball- $210. Ironically, as a kid, I had the money but I couldn't justify the cost. Bought a Tissot for around $50 instead. At that time a TT Datejust would have run around $160, a gold one probably $400.

Looks good, quiet elegance- I especially like the gold case w/ the white dial. Hirsch strap based on the buckle?

I kinda like the date mag on the noob. But I like the rehaut on the Euromariner, also. The Euro could use a trimming of the cg's, but that's no big deal. Look forward to seeing more of this new Euro watch.

I'm with SD4000 and Logan, that movement is toast!

Here's another Rolex 295-C crystal, but it probably doesn't have the etched crown. I'm thinking this will go for around $75-100 USD. Maybe more. http://cgi.ebay.com/ROLEX-GENUINE-SUBMARIN...1QQcmdZViewItem I'm with SportsRider and jdavis though, an etched crown is no big deal to me

If you build a Datejust 16200 series franken, an ETA 2824-2 will fit in there just fine. The real 16200 has a 3135 movement. The same 3135 goes in the Submariner. So with proper rehaut, crown position, 295C crystal, WM9 type bezel assembly and a 2824-2, you would think that it would be fairly simple to build a damn good Sub rep case! Noobmariner dial, bracelet and a gen bezel insert (or even a good watchmaterial/wholesaleoutlet one) and you are there. We've seen the Rolex crown and tube being accurately copied in the last 4-6 months (on the SSD for example). So maybe we're not too far away. I guess in the mean time, I'll keep wearing my noob- it's a great WR beater with a gen crown and better pearl. It's the watch on the right in this pic: attachment=23338:CIMG3474_cropped.JPG]

You could get them from www.cubic-works.com a while back, but the last DW I got was closed 6's and 9's. Their site shows the open 6's and 9's, but everyone's been getting the closed ones lately, AFAIK. Last year I bought a $50 TT Sub and it had the open 6's and 9's- but with a gold background. Kinda like sub cases with lugholes- they've all but disappeared. Too bad the date on the 16800 was the 10th- but I do remember Friday and Saturday were round top 3 days! Interesting bit of trivia, Freddy!

It looks OK to me. The acid test is to take off the bracelet at the 6 o'clock lugs and check the SN- F520117.