alligoat

T 127 goes on the 1680. Clarks was actually selling some gen 127's a while back- maybe like $25 each. I picked up a spare.

My 1570 makes a clicking sound. I just happen to be wearing my 1680 today. I sure hope that's the right answer! Today when I put it on, I adjusted the time a couple of minutes- it's been on the winder for 2-3 weeks- and I screwed the crown down so tightly the movement stopped. So now I'm not screwing it down so tight- no swimming w/ this watch.

It's really not a big deal. I've got a few watches that keep winding as I screw down the crown. It just means that the stem is still winding the movement- I'm not sure if you need to screw the stem into the crown more or unscrew it out of the crown a little- a watchmaker would know. The crown alignment w/ the tube may be a result of the movement moving slightly in the case. Take off the case back, realign the movement/stem/crown, retighten the hold down tabs and close her back up.

Your best bet is to bite the bullet and buy one from Ofrei, or Jules Borel. They're not cheap and as I recall, sold in pairs, but your only other option would be to find a watchmaker in your area who has the tool and would do it for you.

I've got just about the same watch- got it a couple of years ago from Paul. Ironically, the HE valve held in by a spring clip (mine has a gasket around the valve insert) appears to be a faithful reproduction of the original 1665 HE valve- unlike the fake valve on a MBW. Mine has a 93150 bracelet (hollow mid-links) and 580 end pieces. Trim the crown guards Replace the bezel pearl- it's not terrible, but the illumes dots from Ofrei for $10 would look better or the 'supposedly NOS acrylic pearls' from WatchesandParts over in Hong Kong might work- mine snapped right in. Drill the lug holes- this might be a little more tricky in your case- the holes look slightly off-centered Maybe work on the case back like Carlsbad suggests And beat the watch up to make it look older The biggest problem with any DRSD is just the fact that there aren't that many of them around. But you can be sure that 99.99% of the people have absolutely no clue what a DRSD is in the first place and if you should happen to run into a WIS- well you might just be called out- but maybe he'd be discreet about it! If I saw someone wearing a DRSD, I'd be asking about it, but I'd be cool about it- I own gens and reps and I just like running into other WIS! BTW, the chinese copys of the eta's are pretty good in my book- if it is the true copy like in River's noobmariner, or some of Pauls vintage subs. My River noob is doing great. But the Josh noob w/ the 2813 is really a miyota copy- still not a bad movement- just not really an eta copy, but a Miyota copy.

What L-d says is correct. A 7mm triplock crown may measure 6.9mm, but not 6.3mm. I've received replica crowns from sellers before. Also, some of these sellers will use old numbers when selling a Rolex crown. You need to make it clear that you're only interested in a 24-703-0 crown and the corresponding tube 24-7030-0. Anything else is essentially an 'antique' and you don't need it. Even a 1665 DRSD would be updated with a 24-703 crown and tube assembly these days. FWIW, I did see a crown list posted by stilty this week showing an 24-704-0 crown- this is used on Daytonas and the 14060M Sub- don't know anything else about it, so stick to the 24-703 assembly- it's been around for over 25 years.

Don't forget, the newbies don't have access to the collectors section. But by becoming a supporter, it's all right at your fingertips.

The spinning sound is your rotor. This is what keeps an automatic movement wound. But you can't really tell an eta movement from an asian by the sound of the rotor. I have the SFSO w/ the asian 21j movement and the rotor is fairly loud. But I just bought a genuine Sinn 303 (modified swiss 7750) and the rotor in it is even louder than the 21j asian in my SFSO. I just love to give the Sinn a shake and listen to the rotor spin. Generally, it's been my experience that the eta's are quieter than the asian 21j's, but the only way you can really tell which movement you have is if you open up the watch and take a looksey. And don't forget with rep watches, be it the swiss eta movement or the asian 21j, there's really no guarantee as to how good a shape your movement is in. The eta's are basically surplus and could easily be in need of a service and the asian 21j's might be just as dirty.

I've actually seen a similar dial that had Submariner written above the depth rating. Case was a Datejust type of case with a smooth ss bezel as I recall. Maybe from the late 70's, early 80's. And I think that dial would look good in a Sub case with the black divers bezel. Some of the vintage sub cases which are smaller will take a 27mm dial- the modern sub reps generally are 28mm dials. This was one of my first reps- a fantasy Sub.

Although the 7750 movements have improved over the last couple of years, that doesn't mean thay are clean and properly oiled. So I always figure a servicing in the equation if I like the watch. You might be able to get someone to work on the reset feature, but then you really haven't gotten to the root of the problem- you're just buying a little time. It's all a question of how long you want the watch to last. And a good servicing runs around $200 to do it properly.

When I look at 1680 MBW reps, there are a few things which catch my eye- usually the crown guards are too thick- Pug shaved his on the outside as well as the inside to get closer to gen. Also, the lugs on a gen are thinner and longer than on an MBW. Crown also sits off the case slightly on the gens which still have the 24-702-0 crown assembly- ones w/ the 24-703-0 crown are a little tighter to the case. The serifs on the date font on Mezz's watch are wrong. But alot of gens still have the grey datewheel but it shows up as white in pics.

For a gen, it would be around $600. I think you can buy one from Rolex for $825 plus tax new.

Wow! a 24-704-0. The next in the 7mm line, interesting. And they're putting it on a 14060M and a bunch of the Daytonas from what I can see.

Cool, Greystash. Glad it all worked out ok. Stilty's right, from a collector's point of view, it's best to leave the watch all original. Now what are you going to say if some ahole asks you if it's real? Enjoy!

That's certainly a good reason for building frankens or modifying reps- those prices will knock your socks off!

Yep, mod the cg's, gen crown and tube and a gen insert also help. You can also use the TW Best like River sells- maybe $100 less than the MBW/K but the same case supposedly.

Who really cares about the geometry to the Nth degree. Even Rolex crown guards vary. So you're trying to hit a moving target. Since you're pretty good w/ the computer, why don't you take some pics of gens and show us. But always keep in mind, a rep is always a rep. You can make it look better and closer to the gen, but it's still a rep. What you're really trying to do w/ the cg's is make them look as close to the gen as possible. A few years ago they would surround the crown, so to speak. And it was a dead giveaway that your watch was a rep. These days they're much better and only require a little bit of trimming on the inside to get them close to the gen. I recommend you read Gioarmani's post at the top of this section and get to work modding your cg's. It's really pretty simple and your biggest liability is screwing up the keyless works when you pull the crown/stem from the movement. Good luck.

But bear in mind that the rehaut on a 16800 sub case is less than that of the 16610. What you're looking for is the 3035 movement's crown/stem lining up like the 2836-2's in your MBW case- a simple test would be to stick it in there and see what you have. Install the dial on the movement, put the movement and dial in the case and see how the opening for the stem in the movement lines up thru the tube. If it's a straight shot, you're on to the next step- anchoring the movement in the case.

I agree Stephane, this is just a hobby and it's fun for us. I enjoy wearing reps that are fairly close to the original. I've learned to mod them here and I've had a good time building a couple of frankens. Hopefully the new guys will realize that there's no perfect rep, but by buying a few, at least they'll get their feet wet and hopefully have fun with it. Will we ever see a perfect sub rep? I sometimes wonder myself. But I still enjoy wearing my noob- it's a great beater and if I bust it up, who cares, I only got a couple of hundred dollars in it anyway.

Wow! jimmythree, I haven't seen you since the old RWG1! That's a great rundown on the 3035 movement. And to think I was thinking of maybe buying a gen 16800- maybe I'd be better off getting an early 16610. Lonnie, as you might know from building Frankenjusts, the 2836-2 fits in the 16000 series Datejust cases from the 80's which took the 3035 movement and the 2824-2 fits in the 16200 series Datejust cases which take the 3135 movt. Since your MBW takes a 2836-2 movt, it might be possble to reverse fit a 3035 in there since the stem positions are relatively similar.

Of course they are- it just upsets TTK because he was the first out w/ the noob and coined the name, so he thinks it's his exclusively. Exclusive naming rights to a counterfeit watch- that's a good one. But these watches all come from the same factory in China, whether with an asian 21j, eta copy or a true eta movement. We could call it the F520117, but that would be confusing, because the same case is also used for the Yachtmaster and now according to L-dizzle, the Daytona at 6 uses the same (modified with pushers added) case. And we do see some variations from batch to batch on this watch. Like the "zit" pearl and the thick date font on some Beginmariners. Production isn't static in China- things change from time to time.

I refer to a noobmariner as any watch with the F520117 case serial number. This may upset TTK, but most all of the other dealers carry it, so that's reality for you. Here's Andrew's w/ asian 21j (no pic of the movement): http://www.trustytime88.com/index.php?main...products_id=257 River has what I think is a great deal- the noob case w/ the asian eta copy movement for around $120. I've owned four noobs and this is my current go to sub- I put a gen crown and aftermarket tube on it, a watchmaterial pearl which got busted out on a hunting trip and trimmed the cg's. A great WR beater w/ a Raymond Lee pearl now! http://s22.photobucket.com/albums/b327/riv...TA%20Submarine/ And if it's endorsed by ByTor, enuff said!

freddy, you might want to check justasgood's post about the new case he's looking at for his 5512 and Rolex movement. He had quite a few problems fitting the 1570 into the MBW 5513 case, shimming, breaking crowns... But it might be the fact that it's a different movement, I think (no date). I don't know how easy it is to fit a 1575 into an MBW DRSD case. The last one I remember was torresp's w/ a J&W case. I do recall a few mods to the case are necessary if you're using an MBW case. The dial looks nice but I wouldn't hesitate to cut the feet and put it in the MBW case w/ the 2846. Unless you're on a mission to create a franken. Heck, it's only money!

Lonnie's right, a movement pic would be nice. But this watch is also $10K overpriced. If you check Antiquorum, you'll see that these watches are running $30-40K. But I guess someday it'll be worth $50K- in a year or three.

Of course, 280, 380 and 580 are correct for the 1665, with the 580's being the last (585 was used on GW 1665's). I think the 455B's will fit, I have them on my WM1680, and my frankenjust w/ old style oyster band w/ the safety clasp. It's tough to find the correct 580 end pieces w/o the little cut-out notches on each side. I've got a couple of hollow mid-link bands w/ 580 end pieces- but they have the notches. I'd love to find the correct 580 -no notches- end pieces- short of buying gen.