alligoat

gen left both pics

Could you be a little more specific? Are you looking for a side case profile shot....

A few years ago I ran across a gold 118208 with the white dial- it was on ebay for a low price- maybe $11.9K- can't remember, but it caught my eye. It looked nice but it appeared the oyster band was slightly stretched. At any rate, I wasn't ready to buy. I had built an 1803 from parts- a 1556 movement with a redone dial in a phong modified 16000 case I called it the Sportman's DD, since it was an ss case and bracelet. I wear it as a semi-beater and it's done well. But alas, I signed a big O&G lease this year- I'm not an O&G guy- I just have some property from my grandfather- and with a windfall I decided to cut loose. I found a nice 118208 which turned out to be in very nice shape and I bought it I got a good deal on it and the pleasant surprise was that it was in almost mint condition. So then the next thing I did was set out to build a rep of it to wear around- save some wear and tear on the gen. So I went to MMM and told him what I wanted. I had a decent 118238 case, but it got screwed up by USPS in shipping, but luckily the old Swiss eta movement survived. Matt got me a gen DD white dial with gold sticks and put it in a DJ 116208 case, I put the old YM oyster bracelet on it and it look pretty good. But it wasn't what I really wanted. So I went to Andrew/Trusty Time and ordered a 118208 which had a gold stick dial and told him that I wanted that watch with a white stick dial. A few days later he came back and said the factory didn't have that dial. So I asked for the watch with the white lume dial. He was able to get that dial so I went with it So my plan at that point was to swap dial/movement and end up with a nice 118208 rep and another 118208 so so watch. The gen dial/swiss 2836-2 fit in the Trusty case/ bracelet and it's on the right in this photo. The oyster bracelets are nice- clasp on the rep isn't gen spec but I hope it holds up One last note- rep gold is as good color-wise as the gen- please forgive my photo talents- any variations are due to my picture taking. The Trusty dial ended up in the MMM Dj case and it looks like a good beater or I may sell it to recoup a few dollars.... But all in all, it's nice to have a gen and a few reps to help keep the wear and tear off the gen!

There's an article over at VRF by Jed on the Early Military Submariners and it discusses the A/6538- wish I could cut and paste it for over here but damned if I can figure out how to do it. Worth reading. Look forward to seeing how the watch turns out Dlf!

It's a good looking watch, but salmon isn't really my color. Interesting how you got the dial from raffles

I believe the expanding 6636 rivet that I have came on my 6542 that came from Puretime- but as has been mentioned, that was 5 years or so ago!

44.2mm (it's a rep DJ case, not a rep DD case). The original rep 118238 DD case is no longer usable- it was damaged by the USPS service and part of the gold plating was worn off due to rough handling. It might be possible to take all of the gold plating off and use it as a SS DD case, but i don't know if a gen dial would fit.

On the rep DJ case, lug to lug is 44.2mm On the gen case it's 43.27mm. I never had a DJ oyster bracelet in gold except the one that's on my DJ- it's from Riyi002 which means it's unmarked I was going to try to get one for my rep DD, but riyi002 doesn't currently show them on his ebay page.

The lug size is 20mm and the rep Silix YM bracelet fits fine, but quality of the YM bracelet is ok, not great- I'm just glad it fits nicely. I just got lucky that the YM bracelet fits well. It has the YM clasp- the short flip lock type typical of the YMs and not correct for a 118208 DD, but those bracelets are hard to find

I'm thinking the same thing- stem is too long or too short- I just don't know which it is, but my guess is too long since I have a 5513 rep with the a21j movt. and the short stem just makes it hard to wind- the crown engages with the tube too soon when winding.

Finally got photobucket to work- I don't think it likes Internet Explorer, sometimes I end up using google chrome. This watch is a compilation of parts. Gen dial and white day and date wheels from MMM, swiss 2836-2 which obviously functions as a 2834-2 from an old 118238 rep which I got from Paul back in the 2006-7 range, case is from MMM and is a DJ 116200 gold plated case and a gold YM bracelet from an old cheapie Silix 16628 YM. The DJ case is slightly larger in the lugs than the real 118208 cases. This is the gen 118208 for comparison slimmer lugs as you can see

I just had Mymanmatt build me a 118208 which is similar to the 118239 that you want to build. He used a gen dial and white day and date wheels. Maybe he could just sell you the day and date wheels and Ssteel could mount them on your 2834-2. My watch was an old 118238 rep that actually had a 2836-2 in it- from 2008 and it was a swiss eta, not an Asian clone. I'd post a pic, but photobucket is giving me fits today

It's not going to be easy finding a bracelet, especially a WG one- really not worth it IMO. Changing out the crown would be easier, but this is a new model and I'm not even sure which crown it takes. And again, not really worth finding a WG crown. An ss crown might be the 24-603-0 possibly and what if you had to change out the tube with it? That could be another can of worms. Enjoy your new watch and keep reading! If you were to try to mod a vintage rep, it would be easier to find parts for it.

This bracelet from riyi is basically a 78350- you could use the parts from it or maybe just swap over your clasp http://www.ebay.com/itm/19MM-BRUSHED-STAINLESS-STEEL-OYSTER-BAND-BRACELET-FOR-ROLEX-OLD-EXPLORER-WATCH-N-/142306198808?hash=item21221c4518:g:K20AAOSwWKtUsm-Q

Wow, I've been getting this message all day long!

Ah, yes! Now I remember- the T-38 is the non-cyclops version of the C-116! I have a little cheat sheet of the various crystals and their non-cyclops counterparts- will have to add this to the list. Where are you planning to get the dial from? I just found a couple at Yukiwatch- with the hands, but the hands fit a 1530 etc. movement. That 29.2mm dial might not fit in your 1655 case.

doesn't rafflestime have the 24 hr hands?

The first issue I see is finding a plastic crystal without a cyclops. This watch case takes the C-116 crystal and I don't know what a similar crystal without a cyclops would be. But if you find a crystal that fits the case tightly, you could have jmb turn a bezel for you that would fit. Buying a good set of calipers will help you thru this process.

All I could find was the Trident 600 with the Sellita 200-1 for $830. Better watch, but I'm not going down 600m!

Nice find. Too bad that Trident doesn't come with an automatic movement- that Malvern MKII does for not much more money.

According to my little chart, hand sizes for the 1030 and 1570 movement are the same- 80/130/20, so you should be ok with those hands. Only catch on a 1016 is you need a longer minute hand- like 1mm longer maybe- 13mm vs the 12mm which is standard like on a sub. Don't know if Rafflestime or Helenarou has the long minute hand in a Rolex size. Clark's would be another suitable supplier to check out. I think these are Clarks hands on my 1016. I have a Swiss 2824-2 in there and built this watch 5 or 6 years ago. A slightly longer minute hand would have been better.

@ Blindpirat- that sure is a nice dial- a 'Frog's Foot'!

Too many!

What's the deal with the pearl- it looks like it has a metal surround?