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Beautiful job, Stilty. That spacer ring for the 2892-2 movt is fantastic and makes it just that much nicer of a franken. And you're right about those white gold fluted bezels- they really are nice. Congrats.

My frankenjust 16014 has a stainless oyster band with the fliplock- it came off a Submariner rep. I prefer it that way myself. A friend of mine has the old ss 6694 Oysterdate Precision with the oyster fliplock band (19mm), so I'm sure you could get something like that from the AD- all it takes is money!

I highly doubt a 5517 bezel insert will fit a 14060, so I think you are probably out of luck. There is no such "military" bezel insert for a 14060 that I've ever seen.

I have that same watch, mine came from Paul. I put in a NOS vintage pearl, trimmed the cg's and finally ended up putting a supposedly vintage 5513 dial- I think it's actually new- maybe from Viet Nam- with the yellow aged markers. The 3-6-9 dial is smaller like a gen dial- around 26mm. My next deal is to try to age the 3-6-9 dial by painting the print with a wash to make it more gold looking- maybe a wash/stain of some sort. I like the dial, except for the dial print- too green for me. Good luck.

The bezel insert looks like a RSC replacement- which could be luminova, not tritium. From a collectors point of view, it's a slight minus, but not a deal breaker- what you're really after is the original dial.

Very nice RG, you're becoming more of a Rolex man slowly but surely! That's a nice shot of the Tag, Iceberg, I didn't realize they used the zenith movement.

I'm thinking the Yacht Master 16622 is a 6mm crown and WR to 100m. The new Yacht Master II might have a 7mm crown. Of course, I can't find the 16622 on the list.... Oops! I found it at the end of the 7mm list- 24-704-0- the latest 7mm crown- interesting- I would have figured 6mm like a GMT.

For a real Rolex, the 6mm crowns and tubes are what is used- like the 24-603-0 or the newer 24-604-0. Rep crowns for the three models you mentioned are 6mm of sorts and can vary from manufacturer to manufacturer. And a rep crown won't fit a gen case tube and vice versa.

No biggy, Heywood. Heck, I'm not even sure of what the correct numbers are, but I do know it is a 6mm crown and tube- the 5508 was only rated to 100m. Phong over at Jewelry and Watch has the old 6mm crowns, but they sure are expensive.

Great review BT. And a very nice watch. But even in my fifties, I just don't care to wear TT, or gold for that matter- maybe a sedate gold watch on a leather/crocodile strap for dress wear- but not as a daily beater.

Actually the 5508 takes the 6mm crown and tube- originally 24-600-0 and a 24-6010-0 tube maybe. IT has the dash under the Rolex crown logo. You can go with the modern replacement- 24-602-0 and case tube 24-6020-0 if you can't find the old crown and tube. The crystal is about impossible to find- T-16, and can easily run $250-300. My watchmaker put a AF 300 crystal on my 5508. I went the same NDtrading route and put a 1520 from an Air King in mine. Hands came from Clarks- used the gold hands for the 1500 series Rolex movement- then you have to paint them to match the dial- still working on that. Hope to be done in a week or so!

Dial print looks ok to me. Interesting coloration to the tritium markers on the dial, but the slight difference to the hands is no big deal- either aged differently or could have been replaced. You have to buy the seller also- but it looks pretty good to me.

WOW! That's very nice- makes for a very neat installation in the DJ case. Great job.

There are some small differences between the Beginmariner and TTK's/Narika's noob- like the movement is a different asian 21j, sometimes the date font on the beginmariner was thicker, but basicaly they are the same- same case, same dial, same bracelet. I would suspect Trusty's is about the same as Josh's- some people suspect them of being in cahoots anyway. All of these guys have access to the same factories over in China for the most part.

In Italy, men carry purses anyway- although usually not with straps. Someone the other day was telling me that he thought even Ollech and Wajs was using a boutique firm to build their watches. I guess this would be what Gucci is doing- have someone build a $200 watch, put the Gucci name on it and sell it for $750 or more. It would be interesting to find out just how Swiss these boutique firms are.

I was recently quoted a price of $800 by MQ on a 5508 case- the same as NDtrading. Since NDT is here in the US, I went w/ them- no customs issues. I do agree that a better case is a good idea. The best that NDtrading has right now is $1000 for a 1665 case (not the DRSD case- which was $1250- the difference would be the case back, I guess). Anyway, the big drawback to the MBW case is the non-working HE valve and you might have to do a little bit of filing to fit the 1575 movt in there. Oh, and file the crown guards, which is no big deal. I figure if you're going to go to the trouble of putting a Rolex movt in there, it's worth it to spend the extra bucks to get the better case, etc. Otherwise, just stick w/ the MBW/ETA and add the crown/tube, and bezel insert, etc. I just feel like putting a Rolex movt in there warrants the extra expense. My 5508 w/ 1520 movt is running $2200 and I'm not there yet!

Do you want the 315-16660, or does the submariner insert- 315-16800-1 work? You might try Raymond Lee, they're in Florida also. What about leaving the insert in and putting a www.watchmaterial.com pearl in there like bklm1234 does? You have to enlarge the hole slightly, but it is a better pearl.

I'm with porsche and dudro, $3000-3500. The good news is, in eight years it hasn't depreciated much. A retail dealer miight price it for $4000-4500, but you're not a retail dealer and on ebay, stuff goes for wholesale, for the most part. Rep's 2200 Euros at todays rate is right around $3450.

Did you install an acrylic pearl or is that the one that came with the PMWF insert? I think it looks pretty darn good myself. As far as the font and thickness, as I recall, over the years Rolex themselves varied it on the vintage inserts- no one was paying that close attention at the time.

You can use the 24-7030-0 case tube from Clarks, but your best bet for a crown is to get a gen on ebay- 24-703-0. Then you'll need the tool to re-tap the threads in the case and another tool for inserting the case tube- be careful, the Clark's case tube is delicate. Maybe a dab of loc-tite when you're installing the case tube to help w/ WR.

Trusty sells the noob w/ an eta movt for $200+. Don't buy the $78 one and expect to change to an eta- it'll cost you more in the long run.

Beautiful watch Bert. And a 6538 takes a T-17 doesn't it? Those are almost impossible to find these days and very pricey if you should happen upon one- $200-300 easily. I love what you've done- now you just have to gently age it. Enjoy!

Those 'm's' look OK to me. There are 3 tick dials and 5 tick dials- maybe originally the LV came out with the Swiss Made between 3 ticks and then a few years ago it changed to 5 ticks. That dial looks OK to me, rehaut is good, can't tell with the crystal height above the bezel insert from the pic and can't see the cg's. Latest bezel insert with the triangular 4 in 40. Pearl looks a tad small, but who can say.

http://www.rwg.cc/members/index.php?showtopic=40683 Here's Jay and Angel's post from last fall when they came out with the latest run of Bond subs. These aren't perfect, but they'll do. Few people really know what a vintage looks like, so it's easy to pull off.

You could try bklm1234, he has the bkmariner which is a nicely modded noobmariner and has done stuff w/ the new SSD. You can find him here or over at RWI. Another possibility is Vaccum- also over at RWI. I don't know what he's up to these days- maybe he's real busy. For what you'd pay someone, you could buy the tools and do it yourself. Rolex caseback opener- $40, set of screwdrivers- $10-30, files, wet dry sandpaper, polish, maybe $20. Gio's got a tutorial at the top of this section. Your biggest risk is pulling the stem/crown w/o boogering up the keyless works. Been there, done that! It can take 15-30 minutes to mod the cg's. Filing the back of the bezel insert and installing a better pearl isn't that tough either- you just have to take your time and be careful.