alligoat

Beautiful job! The bezel insert and crown look great, as does the whole watch. I'm sure you'll enjoy wearing it.

If I'm going to tear up a watch, I certainly would prefer to be wearing the TTK's noobmariner, or the Josh beginmariner. Paul's perfect sub, TWG's $188 or EL's sub are good if you want to tear up something w/ an ETA inside. I hate being caught w/ the gens on when I find myself in the trenches, doing demo work or out in the yard sweating and gettin. Even when I'm scuba diving, I prefer to wear a $200 knock-off sub dive watch. There's just no point in tearing up a perfectly good Rolex, IMO.

The engraving looks like nothing I've ever seen before, ech!

It would be the same movement, 3135, and I assume you're talking about the gen, so you'd think they'd take the same parts. Date fonts on the newest subs are thinner than the older font. Maybe you're looking at the difference between the latest and fonts from a few years ago.

First, remove the bezel from the case, then remove the insert from the bezel. Then I would sand the outside edge of the bezel down- maybe 600 and 1000 grit wet/dry sand paper, followed by some polishing. Consider it instant aging. My gen 1680 is very smooth, as is my WM 1680. My 5513 sub with the Explorer dial has the same sharp bezel. I've sanded it some, but not enough, yet.

This is classic in that it isn't the 2006 CN case that everyone is now carrying- TTK, EL, Paul, TWG and even Josh's Beginmariner. The cyclops and date window on the classic are too far to the right and a lot of the other dealers also have this model. I would suspect its days are numbered, just like the old cases w/ lug holes and the much sought after TW classic case w/ lug holes and deep rehaut.

Very nice watch! And great photos, also. Congrats.

Hey Randy, maybe you could explain the hands part for me. Are the sizes different? Swiss and asian? Thanks, MD

You could go over to RWI and PM him and ask. Sure hope the Rolex boys didn't start messing with him! I wouldn't be surprised if the Rolex boys monitered this board and used our expertise to spot replicas, frankens and fakes. What do a bunch of lawyers know about watches in the first place?

A couple of things, first, you are completing this transaction outside of the auspices of eBay at this point, so you're probably not going to get any support from them (or possibly Paypal, which is owned by eBay) if you need it. I would think you did the right thing by taking the money out of you PP account, but it wouldn't surprise me if there was fraud involved, that Paypal might go back and try to charge your CC. Paypal does some weird things. But I would think you could dispute it w/ your CC company. And it might be a legitimate transaction where the buyer is making money and shipping this cue to Japan for her buyer. And of course, you probably can't find out if the buyer did in fact pay by credit card thru Paypal. But that wouldn't stop her from disputing the charges anyway. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. Hope you're not talking about a bunch of money. Good Luck.

I think Hambone hit the nail on the head here. It's the dealers who are at risk first and foremost. And it's conceivable that these forums could be next in line, but being hosted by an "offshore" provider might slow them (Rolex Attys) down, but then again, if they went after the dealers over in China, and their websites, it could be only a matter of time. I doubt they'll come after individual buyers/collectors, they'd spend to much money trying to get blood out of a turnip, and there's way too many of us, hopefully. But I'd sure hate to spend all of my time hanging out on Timezone, those pompous 'holes would drive me crazy and I wouldn't learn one-tenth of what I learn here on these sites.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-Style-Cosmogra...tem130069936486 Here's an interesting one, the guys honest about the description, it's a fabricated watch. Does anyone know this guy?

The movement pic ain't great, but it could be legitimate. A 1575 movt is worth $900+ in decent condition, but repairs could easily run $500. Of course, finding parts to fix that watch would be the toughest part. Movement parts are readily available, some of the other parts might take some work. Definitely a project watch and a gamble at that.

Wow! That rotor on River's LV sub looks like it came right out of the ETA parts bin. And the bridge holding the balance looks the same as is on the 2824 that I just looked at. I haven't done a side by side comparison of movement pictures, but that's next later on today. If parts are interchangeable, it would definitely be cool. But I wouldn't think Swatch would be at all happy about this.

I'd put the 2846 in there and use the money you save for your next watch project, or two! Just my two cents!

I believe the original HE valve on the 1665 was stainless steel like the case. The modern SD's may have a titanium valve, but I don't know for sure. I've heard that the MBW valves are merely decorative- stamped or engraved onto the case. Surprisingly, Paul's DRSD and WSD (1665) have what appear to be functional HE valves, with o-rings and springs on the inside of the case to hold the booger in place. When I was modding my cg's on my DRSD from Paul, the spring kept coming off and then the valve would pop out onto the floor. It looks like the pic of an early HE valve in Skeet and Urul's book "Vintage Rolex Sport Models" When I was done, I siliconed the o-ring and put it back in there, but I was tempted to glue it back in there so it wouldn't leak. I have no plans in this lifetime to scuba dive any deeper than 150 ft.

Comparing www.ofrei.com/ and www.julesborel.com/ it looks like borel has the best prices on the 2892-A2, $149.00 and the 2893-2, $175.00. The 7750 is running $280 at borel right now. Seemed like ofrei had the 7753 and it was close to $500! Ironically, the 7751, which is a more complicated movement (triple date, 24 hour hand, chronograph) is less expensive

Well, if you can move the cyclops up a tad, the etched crown would also rotate and that would about solve your problem- but I'd do it by removing the crystal and resetting it.

Well, Finepics is certainly a lot more accomplished than I am, but it's not clear if he's removing the sapphire from the case, but since the crystal is held in place by a plastic/nylon white ring to the case, it seems like you wouldn't want to expose it to any heat. So, I'd think it would be best to remove the crystal from the watch case, which ain't that big a deal, if you have the tools- caseback opener (Rolex), screwdrivers, and a crystal press for reinstallation.

I don't think this is going to be easy. It looks to me like the cyclops may be sitting a tad high relative to the date window. So if you popped the crystal out, repositioned it and repressed it, dropping the cyclops down a tad, the etched crown would move closer to 31 and not 30, as it should. Now, I guess it is possible to remove the crystal and heat the cyclops and break the glue bond between the cyclops and the sapphire crystal and clean it all up and reposition and reglue the cyclops using UV glue.... but that's a lot of work. The topics been covered here a few times in the past, and I usually read about half or two-thirds of the how-to part, before I shake my head and say I ain't doing that. Good Luck!

That is one awesome watch! Bee-U-Tee-Full. Those shots of the movement are great. I guess you're beating Rolex at their own game. Wear it well and enjoy.

Well, Gioarmani, I haven't sold a watch yet, but I do give a few away to my relatives- the nephews for testing, so to speak. I'm thinking about building another Frankenjust because this one turned out so well, IMO. I just love an ss oyster band, the off-white (used to be silver) vintage dial, and the bright shiny WG bezel. Understated elegance. And as my watchmaker pointed out, the case is in excellent, almost mint condition, amazing for a 25+ year old case. You spend more money building a franken (I have just under $500 in this one) but I certainly find this the most satisfying of all my watches to date, gen and rep included. And heck, $500 ain't bad when you consider MBW's start at $400 before you do any mods! I'm hoping this is the other pic I saved and not the first one I posted, another washed out pic of my franken.

I would call 2700 euros a "retail" price, and 2250-2500 euros would be more of a wholesale figure. Most 1982 watches aren't going to have the box and papers, and you don't say who the dealer is, but the pictures look good to me also. As they say, buy the dealer first, then the watch.

Check out ofrei.com/ on the ST6D: http://www.ofrei.com/page1119.html Movement size is the same at 11.5 lignes, ht. of the ST6D is slightly greater than the 2836 and hand size is different, 85/135/20 vs. 90/150/25 on the 2836. The good news is, you probably could reuse te plastic spacer ring! Or buy a new ST6D movement and keep on going. A set of hands for the ETA movt will run $15-25 depending on where you find them. You could check ebay for Tudor hands and maybe come up w/ something. Clark Watch Supply in CA has them as I recall. The things that hold the movements in place are sometimes referred to as movement tabs.

Yep, I used a little light brown stain to try to tone down the yellow on my TWG 5512. It's WR also. And I plan on using the Beginmariner as a beater also, just like I did w/ the TTK Noobmariner, till I gave it to my nephew for testing.