alligoat

I'm headed to the Mayan Riviera in a few weeks, but I think I'll leave the gens safely at home and wear either the Noobmariner or 5513 rep. Probably take a dive watch along in case I go swimming/diving, but I might have the two reps checked for WR, and assuming one passes, then I could just take one watch. I love my beater reps. And freddy, I wouldn't take either of the frankenjusts, just because I want to wear a sports watch. But I do wear all of my good watches from time to time- just not when I'm playing rough!

Actually it's the TT Noobmariner w/ the ubiquitous SN F520117. Josh's is more like a TW case w/ the date window too far right. Here's Paul TT blue noob: http://www.pam111.com/product_info.php?cPa...;products_id=79 Maybe River has it also, maybe Andrew.

Nice collection V! We obviously have similar tastes! I have a 16610 noob w/ gen crown, reworked cg's and aftermarket pearl. Two frankens- one ss and one tt, and the SFSO- mine's on a dark brown leather strap. This watch caught my attention yesterday- no bling, just straight good looks The Sinn collection sure is nice- classic good looks- no bling.

I wear my Rolexes, gen, franken, and rep, to the gym. But I must say, I prefer to wear the reps, like my noobmariner, just in case I do happen to bump into a machine or weights. I'd much prefer to total out a $200 watch over a $2-4000 watch. I also wear the reps for yard work, home repairs, etc. They don't call em beaters for nothing- save the good watches for non-active occasions.

Looks good to me- correct rehaut, crown sits high on the case- that's the one thing no rep has imitated, good pearl. Enjoy your new watch. I much prefer the old 16610's w/ tritium dials, lug holes and the old 93150 bracelet (w/ 501B end pieces?).

Michael Young over in Hong Kong- www.classicwatchparts.com Everest Watchworks used to do redials but now they only do relumes.

Just out of curiosity, what year is W? My reference books at work! It's got to be 90's- tritium dial, 93150 bracelet.

I've been seeing the flat 'S' dials on 16800's and maybe early 16610's- from the late 80's and very early 90's. Of course T<25, tritium, went away around 2000. And 16800 prices continue to escalate- especially the early transitional matte dials- they're up over $5K if they're in good shape.

I had tried a month or so ago. Like you say, NDTrading type dials which aren't my favorite. But the cases could be another matter if they are reasonably priced. But I did notice that Phong has expanded his selection recently- like a 6238 dial.

WOW! 100K! That makes torresp's franken look even better. He can refer to it as his $100,000 watch!

The watches that I've seen on the bay with the rehaut engraving are the new M serial #'s- the 2008 model.

Hey freddy, have you ever contacted this guy? http://www.vintagewatchesmq.com/wrist_watches.html I've never got any response from him.

There's no doubt that the stuff at Jewelry and Watch is not gen, but it is some of the nicest stuff around- high end replica stuff, so to speak. Look at torresp's Comex SD. I'm sure it cost him over $4K to build, but the gen could easily run $20K, if you could find one for sale. Same with the early Daytonas- the real stuff is expensive, so you build a first class rep- something good enough to fool 99.99% of the people.

Paul's 'so called Perfect Submariner' is the ETA noobmariner. Also comes in the green LV edition. An excellent choice if you want the ETA. I also got the Submariner from River with the asian copy ETA- going for $119 last I checked- this is also a noob. I've been very happy with that watch, keeps good time, put a gen crown and aftermarket tube in it, trimmed the cg's and it even had a watchmaterial pearl in there until I busted it out- now it's got a Raymond Lee pearl. Great beater.

Like Poopy says, stainless is very close weight wise. And it's a common recommendation around here to stick to the ss. W/ TT and full gold (both plated) you run the risk of wearing off the gold- a dead giveaway. The Datejust reps are pretty decent- and good beaters with the ETA movement inside.

That dial is a nice upgrade over the MBW dial- thinner font on the 660ft=200m. Pointed crown guards are a nice touch also- MBW's are too thick on the outside. Good job!

Wow! That's more Franken than Frankenstein! You've taken it to the highest level no doubt. Very nice!

Freddy, the back side of the crown guards looking bad is because the picture sucks! The tops just got blacked out. And my cut-out on my 78 gen is off center also- can't remember which way. Other than the bad pearl and the confusing last picture, i'd figure the watch is basically OK.

Interesting. I'm fixing to transplant a 2846 w/ ubi overlay into my WM 1680- hope my local watchmaker can do it! If not, I guess I'll just keep the 2836 and the stock overlay which really doesn't bother me all that much. There actually are Rolex 1575's w/ the other two datewheels out there- open 6's and 9's and round top 3's and closed 6's and 9's and round top 3's. Rolex just didn't pay that much attention to the details in the 60's and 70's. Nevertheless, the flat top 3's, open 6's and 9's (except 26) were the predominate style of datewheel in those days.

I agree, the last pic looks different than the rest. I wrote Rob a couple of weeks ago and told him his insert was crap- the pearl that is- and how could he expect to get $12.5K w/ a crappy pearl- the least he could do is spend $100 and get the correct insert. No reply. At the time he was selling a 5512 for about the same price and it had the correct pearl in the insert. These guys are a reputable high end watch place. If you were really interested, I guess you'd have to spend the next $500 or so and fly out to LA and see the watch in person (of course that won't work for EU types). Maybe they'd send you some better photos. I can always tell their photos- I don't like them that much- you see alot of better photos here on RWG

Yeah, I like amber shellac. I use it on my woodworking projects. Of course, at $10 a quart, it helps if you have it laying around. Plan B would be coffee or tea and your wife's nail polish- it's always around and free!

I ran across this watch last night looking at jmryshi's site on ebay. Buy it now for $2195 (gen of course, lightly used) http://cgi.ebay.com/OMEGA-SPEEDMASTER-NEW-...1QQcmdZViewItem Item #220186178142 if the link doesn't work. It looks to me like an Omega modified 7750- it's referred to as an cal. Omega 1164. Omega cal. 1151 is a Valjoux 7751- automatic triple date. This new one looks like the standard 7750 layout to me. And that would make getting the subdial spacing right a whole lot easier! Kinda like the Tag Heuers which also use the 7750 in the new Carrera chronos- great to rep.

When you check the currency conversion today, the Euro is up over $1.47 on the exchange. So 80K Euro is almost $120K US. And this year we've seen the Canadian dollar come back up to the US dollar. I sure hate to see you over in Paris for any extended time Ziggy, I need you to fix my watches!

Lonnie, I remember seeing someone advertising a 24-702 tube- Helfands, I believe. Didn't look like the tube out of my gen, but if it works, what the heck. As wight says, the 702 and 703 are not compatible. Also, check Clark's- I just can't remember since I don't need one. That joker down here in Sugar Land, Tx might also have them- he just started carrying the 703 tube, as I recall. He's the one that sells all the bezel inserts on the bay.

There's a few differences, Silix has the silver eta movt, Josh the gold- both have the GMT hand on the bottom of the stack- which is the most reliable, movt wise, but not like the gen where the GMT hand is above the hour hand. Date window appears right on both models. Silix's clasp is the long Submariner type, whereas Josh has the correct short GMT/Explorer clasp. I would think the two come from different factories but don't know for sure.