alligoat

Yep, southcoast68, I'd have to agree with you on the cases from roling, they are absolutely beautiful. At least the two he sent me were and they make beautiful watches- they really look great for a 20 year old watch. @ tassilo, that Oysterdate from Trevor looks nice, especially with the gold markers on the white dial. I can't tell if the date mag is right or a little weak. It's similar to the one that Silix has, but his has the silver markers and a 2836. http://www.silix-prime.com/product.asp?id=1294

Wow, freddy, if you can pick up a gen Datejust for $600-700, it would be like a no-brainer. Of course, don't forget to figure in a service for around $200. But still a great deal.

Early Datejusts, the 1601, 16013, 16014, for instance, all had the plastic crystal. Later models, 16200 and on have the sapphire crystal. Freddy, your example from Andrew has the sapphire crystal, it just sits up nicely, like the gen sapphires. The only way you're going to get a Datejust or Date with the plastic crystal is to build a Frankenjust. I have two that I built with cases from roling on ebay (16013 and 16014), gen dials, date overlays, 2836 movements, movement spacers and gen crown and tubes- around $500 by the time you get finished. Also, Silix has a vintage 6694, Oysterdate w/ the 2836 and plastic crystal, but the date mag is weak. I do consider the 1601 Datejusts as great entry models, if you're looking at the gens- it's one of the most reasonably priced along with the 1500 Date and the manual wind 6694- all classic Rolex.

It makes no sense to me. I thought the 14060 had a sapphire crystal. I can't tell from the pic, but is this a situation where you substitute a plastic crystal, but install it like a sapphire with the nylon gasket? Anyway, Wholesaleoutlet is about 30% reliable in my book, but you can try anything once. If you're trying to do a 5513, you could buy the vintage 3-6-9 dial 5513 that Paul, Silix and probably the rest sell and then swap out dials. I just measured my dial this morning and it's 26.5mm, so a gen dial is probably going to fit, they run 26mm, I believe. Trim the cg's, replace the pearl and it would probably be a good watch. It has a 2836 and some people fiddle w/ the movement or swap out to a slower beat, two position crown, eta.

Yep, wrong hologram, cg's suck, HEV valve.... And yeh, what is the 100 on either side of the crown? But at $460, you just hope the idiot masses on fleabay are getting smarter. Some people still don't know how to find reps at a decent price.

I would figure that the date wheel is silver, but when you take a picture of it, it shows up as white. My 78 gen has a silver datewheel. Also, the crown is the 24-702 triplock- the one where the case tube doesn't have the outside o-ring- original to the watch. And the 9315 bracelet is also original. But man, $10,995- wow, that's mucho dinero! I guess Rick is out there elephant hunting. He may not get much, but when he does, he'll be in fat city for a long time!

I sent a 16800 dial to Ziggy a few months ago and got it relumed. Now I just have to get it in a sub case! It cost $50 plus some postage. Of course, Zig is out of pocket for the summer.

The movement is a V72, but the pointer on the balance bridge is a dead giveaway. That is not a Rolex Microstella balance! Pushers appear to be symmetrical, but as avitt pointed out, if you can get it cheap, it might be a good starting point. I just noticed another bogus 6263 with the same pointer on the balance bridge! And this one's from what I would have figured as a reputable seller in the U.S. http://cgi.ebay.com/Gold-Rolex-Daytona-Cos...1QQcmdZViewItem BTW, avitt, thanks for the link to jewelryandwatch.com, they have some interesting stuff. I think I've seen their site before, but this time I saved it. Did you tell Euno about the 24-700-0 case tube?

Parts are a challenge. This stuff hasn't been made in 25 years (the manual wind chronos like the V72), so parts stock is NOS- new old stock- or you have to steal them from a donor movement. There are some watchmakers who work on the Valjouxs and they probably have repair parts- you can do a google search and see what pops up. Servicing a v72 is going to run around $300 and up w/o parts. That's why people buy spare movements for $300-400 when they find them.

Great job, avitt! These Daytonas you guys are putting together are awesome. And thanks for the link to www.jewelryandwatch.com/ over in watchers post- this time I'm saving it!

Beautiful job, watcher, congratulations! I particularly like your creative solution for the case tube for the 24-700 crown BTW, I was looking at my little chart and the 78350/19 is right for the 6263/5 series bracelet, but it lists 571 end pieces. Of course, your end pieces don't look bad- especially being closed on the back side. I guess it has solid mid-links. I'd love to see a pic of the movement in the case and your microstella balance.

Beautiful job, Tribal! Great pearl, crystal height, crown and crown guards and great pics to boot. Of course, we'd love to hear all of the details!

Yep, Tony, I got thru 25 pages of Rolex chronographs on Antiquorum and it's a FAKE. Its a Franken where, as I suspected, someone has put a movement in a Rolex case and redone the 6 o'clock subdial to a date dial.

The movement is old, make no doubt about that. But is it Rolex? Maybe someone added a Rolex bridge, repainted the dial (added the date numbers to the 6 o'clock subdial) and created an early Franken...

It's not a V72. Before the V72, Rolex used a M-13 chronograph movement in early 6034's and maybe even the early 6234 and 6238's, but as I recall, it was similar to the V72 w/ the three dials- running seconds, 30 minute counter and the 12 hour counter. I've never seen the date at 6 on a rolex chronograph. If it's legitimate, my guess is it predates the 50's and I would figure it's from the 30's, but I'd have to see it in a reference book before I bid on it.

I assume you could use a 7736, but it wouldn't have a date wheel and I can't see adding one. A 7750 might work (asian w/ the 3-6-9 configuration), but once again, I'm not sure how the date feature would work out. Your best bet is going to be keep an eye on ebay- maybe something will pop up.

I really can't say. When I first bought the watch two years ago, I thought the DW wasn't right, but since then I've run across another Date w/ the same DW and I've even seen a DRSD with the same DW (although it might of had a silver background, I just can't remember). Back in the middle 60's, I don't think Rolex watched themselves as closely as they do today. I've also seen a few Datejusts w/ shall we call it "the non-standard DW's". In the 60's, I think they just kept turning this stuff out, and of course, they were using various suppliers, so there were variations. My 1966 Date was pretty original in most respects- a silver dial that had faded to the off-white beige color- kinda a "smokey" look, original flimsey rivetted bracelet with the C&I- USA inscription on it and it kept good time, but needed to be serviced. But at 40 years old, who can really say what happened in the past! That's why I'm not so picky about DW's on the 1570 series models, gen and rep. I love the silver DW on my gen 1680 w/ the flat-top 3's and open 6's and 9's, but I still don't know if I'm going to change the DW on my WM 1680 at this point to the Watchmeister DW. And if I can build a 1500 Date Franken and have to use a luenfat DW, it's fine w/ me. I'll just be happy if I can build it successfully.

OK, you've found the 2893-2 movement in the second one which is the better movement ands happens to cost $220 more. The 2893-2 is an actual GMT movement, whereas the other 2836-2 is moified to be a GMT movement. You might want to compare the pics of the two watches. Crown should sit higher on the 2893 case (good). the 2893 is a better and more modern movement. The big question will come down to do you want to spend the extra $220 and is it worth it to you.

Let me mention one other thing. I own a gen Date, c. 1966, and it does not have the same datewheel as say a 1680 Submariner. My datewheel has closed 6's and 9's and round top 3's on a white background. I believe it is original to the watch. And the movement is a 1575, so it is travelling in the opposite direction from the 3035 and 3135. So if you could use a luenfat DW, I'd go for it- it's not the kind of thing anyone else is probably ever going to notice.

Oops! Yeh, I guess I forgot about that. Might have to rob a datewheel out of a cheap rep or something like that.

Yep, it's Josh fr Perfect Clones. But as bklm indicated, you might have to ask Josh about this GMT since it's not on the website (fr what bk said).

I would think you could get a 1575 datewheel from wholesaleoutlet990 (here in beautiful Sugar Land, TX) and glue it to your eta datewheel, remove the dial feet from your date dial and glue the dial to the top ring of your eta and then glue the ring and dial to the movement. Only thing is, I don't know is if you need to use a 2836 or a 2824. I guess the watchmeister datewheel would also work, but they are a little tricky as I understand and all sold out at this time. I'm thinking about the same project, just haven't gotten that far.

The internet is great. I researched your movements. the 7740 is a 7736 with the date feature added (at 6). and the Cal 12 was developed by Heuer, Breitling, Hamilton and Dubois Depraz around 1969- automatic, bi compax with the date at 6, also. These are going to be expensive movements and tough to find. You'll end up buying a whole watch, I would think. And could easily spend $1500 in so doing.

7740 is a pretty rare movement, isn't it? I've never heard of it. Also, Cal. 12, would you happen to have a movement that it is based on? I know Breitling used the Val.72 in the 806 in the early 60's, the Venus 178 was the mainstay for the Navitimers (806) and I believe they also used the 7736 on some watches. If you spend $4-500 on a movement, 250 on case and dial, and a few more dollars on misc, you'll have a nice Franken watch for under $1000, maybe. You might do better to keep an eye on ebay and get a whole watch for less.

Date windows on 3035 and 3135's line up. Dials are interchangeable, but the cases are slightly different.