alligoat

Looks very nice to me. The only thing I don't like is the laser etchings, but no one will ever see those. Enjoy your new watch.

Well, you seem to be moving along nicely. A couple of things, the first pic of the crown and tube, I thought someone had said that that particular crown and tube pictured was gen, but the seller would send you a rep set, so be careful. A 702 crown is fine, but finding the 24-7020-0 case tube is tough or expensive- www.jewelryandwatch.com has the tube, is it gen, I don't know. Repaustria probably would. Hand set- a gen handset won't fit an eta movt, so it's all aftermarket hands to fit eta- 90/150/25. Datewheel overlay- another tough one, unless you can find a watchmeisters overlay from someone around here, you'll probably have to stick w/ the MBW overlay- it ain't all that bad. But if you'e serious about putting a gen 1575 movt in there, I'd leave the gen dial alone til you do. You'd have to remove the dial feet to attach it to the eta movt, but then it would be kinda screwed up for using w/ the rolex movt. Of course, when you put a gen movt. in there, you can use gen hands and your datewheel problems will go away. Good luck.

They are real models. The Datejust, not sure why it's referred to as a Thunderbird, is recent and the chronograph, a 6238, is a vintage Rolex from the 60's. Both are good prices and nice watches, the kind that you're not as likely to get called out for wearing. Is that a real Rolex?

I especially like those lug holes in the noob and the crown guards- nice and straight on the inside edges. Good job. And I may try drilling my off-center TWBest lug holes from the inside to see if that will center the holes on the outside. Thanks for the tip.

And this same seller has a replacement case up for auction, I guess w/ a genuine bezel: http://cgi.ebay.com/Rolex-Daytona-16520-be...1QQcmdZViewItem

Jay and Angel @ Silix are great, good service, great prices. I'm going to order another watch from them in a week or so. As Andy says, the price is good for a watch w/ an eta movt.

Well, I just went to check on this watch and it's been removed! I guess enough people had complained. I know I hadn't gotten around to doing anything yet.

Here's a crown that I ran across on ebay. I don't know what you'd do about a case tube to fit though. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...s_promot_widget And you can't beat the price, so far.

Carl, I think that watch looks pretty good on the dark brown alligator/crocodile type strap. And I guess the nice thing is, no one will ever call you out cause they don't know what it is! I'm still kicking myself because I got the Explorer dial with the 200m=550ft on the dial- sheesh, you'd think I'd know better. But I'm certainly going to get a dk brown strap for it soon, although I do like the Nato on it. And of course, Bond wore his Rolex on a black croc band strap in Dr. No! BTW, here's a Rolex buckle you might like. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...em=270127069767 Adds a bit of authenticity to your Rolex!!

You have a problem. Can you remove the two links where the two screws are stripped and replace them w/ the two links that you previosly took out? If you put the screws from the two extra links in the other links, you run the risk of stripping them also. I always try to put the same screw in the same link to avoid stripping the screws. Silix sells tt sub bracelets BTW, if you can't fix it.

OK, kinda like the stuff we see from www.jewelryandwatch.com. In fact, they even sell some of these franken watches, or will build you one for a hefty price. I certainly agree with you about putting a 702 crown and case in a vintage watch- only a collector would do it- not a watchmaker or RSC.

Good find on the caseback post, avitt. The caseback on this watch is definitely lacking, and no wear marks so to speak either. The case also has the fat lugs of an MBW, and I guess a working HE valve was installed. The crown and tube look good, but they're 24-702-0, not the more recent 24-703-0 series- wonder what the date of the service invoice is? Somewhere after 1980, they would have updated w/ the 24-703 assembly, I would think. And of course, what is the serial number for an MBW DRSD? That would be the icing on the cake so to speak.

I sure hope this link to ebay works. Lately, I've noticed they haven't been. http://cgi.ebay.com/ROLEX-SEA-DWELLER-SUBM...1QQcmdZViewItem Item # 14015648267 I don't like the crown guards on this watch. Then I looked at the side view and noticed that they don't droop. But then again, I only have a gen 1680 to compare it to, but Wightstuff had previosly indicated his 5512 and 5513 also had droop to the cg's, as I recall. Everythin else look ok, except it's hard to tell w/ the dial due to the poor pics. What does everyone else think?

Beautiful job, vmena. And that's one of my favorite combinations with the silver stick dial and the smooth bezel. I don't know how many Frankenjusts you've built now, but you certainly have the program down. Congratulations.

All of my noobs have had the correct date font, but it looks like a moving target type of situation to me. Things are changing. My pearls have all been better than bk's latest, but I know he can fix it. I've got TTK's original, josh's beginmariner, Pauls' prefect and River's eta copy movt sub.

Certainly the three MBW's are excellent reps and definitely quite a few steps above the Silix Bond sub. XRT's 6538 was a Watchmaster case, which is the same as an MBW case. And a while ago TTK had a no crown guard early sub (MBW)for sale. This would be the way to go if you are serious about modding to get closer to a Bond sub. At least w/ MBW/WM cases, you have a better chance of gen parts fitting. BTW, the crown on my Silix Bond sub is 6mm/Datejust with the dash below the crown symbol, so I was wrong about it being 7mm. Now if you were install a 7mm rep crown, it would help the appearances in that respect with the bigger crown. Don't know if you'd have to change out the case tube at the same time or not. And of course, the three dots on the 7mm crown date it from the 70's on. But only a WIS is gonna know.

You are absolutely right about the coin edge bezel. Would it fit the Silix Bond sub? Why don't you buy one and let us know. There is no correct crystal for the Silix Bond sub. The Silix Bond sub is a Chinese watch and therefore bears no resemblance to an early Rolex sub sizewise. If an early Rolex Tropic (pre T-19) were to fit, it would just be a coincidence. Heck, a T-19 might even fit, all you can do is try it out. What you have to realize is that these watches are REPLICAS. Sizes vary and more often than not, genuine parts don't fit. Rereading XRT's post, I now realize he probably spent over $2K building that watch. Start w/ the WM case at $400, coin edge bezel at $330, custom dial..., custom made 8mm Brevet crown..., custom white seconds hand..., and add in RBJ's time. Oh, and the crystal was just something Joe had that happened to fit! And finding a real 8mm Brevet crown and making it fit a replica- probably impossible. Perry, you obviously know a little bit about watches. Stick around here for a year or two and I guarantee you'll learn a whole lot more. Welcome to RWG! Oh and BTW, enjoy your Silix Bond sub for what it is- a great little $85 replica. I know I enjoy mine.

Perry, I think you're making some assumptions which are incorrect. First of all, the Silix case is not a thin case. It's as thick as the current cases, all of which are thicker than the very early cases- you've never seen a thin case, so you don't know what your looking at. If you put an 8mm Brevet crown on a Silix watch, and had a decent dial and the correct bezel insert, you'd be there- as close as anyone can get to the Bond watch as shown in Seadweller4000's signature. Oh and don't forget the 18mm Nato strap. And the crown on Silix's watch is 7mm- it's not a 6mm Datejust crown. The problem is, you just can't find an 8mm Brevet crown. If you really want to study Submariners in great detail, I recommend Skeet and Urul's book "Vintage Rolex Sport Models'. It's got a lot of good information which would be helpful to you.

Seadweller4000 has the shot of Bond looking at his watch. It may have a big crown, it's really hard to tell, but the dial is not an Explorer dial, it's the standard old style Sub dial. And the bezel insert does not have the red triangle at the top- it's more like a later bezel insert. Not to take anything away from XRT's watch, it's one fine piece of work. But as I recall, Joe custom built the 8mm Brevet crown, the dial and bezel came from CWP over in Hong Kong and I bet XRT's got over $1000, maybe more in the watch- it's a totally custom deal. I'm w/ Pug on this one, I don't think the question of which watch Connery wore in the Bond films has been answered. So we're just left w/ the group of pre-crown guard watches- 6536, 6538, 5508 and 5510- to choose from.

I have my doubts, rehaut on the TT sub is shallow, can't see the crown guards. If legit, this watch is worth over $4500. The GMT pic is also not too good. Can't tell if it has the proper hand stack, which is hour hand on the bottom, GMT next, and minute after that, can't see the cg's from the front, but clasp is short which is correct. Again, if legit, it's worth $3K. Rule #1 is know your seller, i.e., reputation, sales history, are the prices reasonable, no one gives these watches away. Much below the prices I quoted (more than $500) and you are being scammed.

It certainly wouldn't have gotten that far on Timezone, and then the moderators would have yanked the whole post! poor fatario, hope he didn't get burned too badly. Those cg's just scream!

Another example of no read English, no understand English, but copy wrong stuff very well.

What about taking the pearl out of the MBW and putting the gen pearl in there?

I don't have a problem with this watch. It's an early Oysterquartz as evidenced by the open 9 on the 29 in the date window. Rolex cased a number of the early oysterquartz watches in the automatic cases and ironically, even put a few automatics in the oysterquartz cases. Back in the late 70's early 80's they did stuff like that.

Giorgio, maybe you could tell us how you got your link to work- like a tutorial for us non-computer geek types!