alligoat

a gen 5513 dial is 26.2mm or so. Some of the cartel reps will take a gen size dial, but a lot of them take a 28mm dial- or larger- 29mm. good luck!

I thought there used to be a JK factory that did vintage subs and that morphed into JKF. I went to trusty's site and the BP factory making vintage subs is now referred to as BPF. these are both cartel subs as far as I'm concerned- they're ok and with a few mods can be decent beaters.

I just love the way they put brand new chamfers on an old watch! The winding crown doesn't have the three dots on it, so it's not a 702 or 703 trip lock crown- odd, the 700 crown was long gone by the time this watch was built. This watch would have originally come with the 702 crown and could have a 703 crown if it was changed out during a later service. To put a 700 crown on a later watch makes no sense to me. The lume on the dial is lighter on the left and darker on the right- could this be indicative of water infiltration at some point? Given the pitting, one could assume this watch spent a lot of time in a corrosive environment- i.e. saltwater. 380B end links are odd also- weren't those used on the 9315. And the sharp teeth on the bezel indicate it's a replacement.

You never know what reps will do. As I recall, a 16800 caseback will say 16800. early 16610 will say 16610 and a 16610T will say 2160

My guess is that all three end pieces are very similar- I've seen situations where they were mis-matched with cases and it really looked ok. Certainly the differences between the 16800/0 cases and the 16610 are minor- they have the same crystal/bezel assemblies and crown/tubes. Stem positions on the cases vary due to the movements, but that's about it. Oh, I do remember the casebacks are different and not interchangeable, but who can say why- just one of Rolexes idiosyncrasies.

correct ends for a 16610 are 501Bs and 593s are correct for the 16800 and 168000. WSO might carry aftermarket 501Bs- can't remember. Correct bracelet is the 93150, but they're tough to find these days. Any hollow mid link oyster bracelet with the flip lock clasp would work and probably a set of 580 end pieces would also- they're not too hard to find.

Is the price $108.75? Interesting how they refer to them as radiant markers- by 69-72 they were tritium of course.

Tiger cases have changed. I don't think a Tiger 5508 case has drilled lugholes these days so it's not a good candidate in my mind. Yuki doesn't make a 5508 dial from what I see on his web site- 6536 is the closest you can get. I did find a cartel 5508 on Trusty's site https://trustytime.shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1_103&products_id=1850 It's a start- you'd need a better bezel insert and bezel which might be tricky and the dial is passable, but until you got it apart you wouldn't know what the dial diameter is- my thinking is that it's 28mm or so but that's just a guess. Beyond that you could go to MQ or Phong and build a high dollar 5508- maybe put a 2824-2 slow beat variant in there- typically a 2846-2 won't fit in a 5508/5513 case. But you could put a 2846-2 in the Trusty case and that would be a slow beat upgrade. Maybe for $500-600 you could end up with a decent 5508- age the dial, soften the case, if you got a decent bezel insert, maybe no one would notice the bezel.

https://www.yukiwatch.com/parts.html Hands for eta at Ofrei.com are Han 6595 and Han 6713

Beautiful build! It's also interesting to see that Yuki has the Commando dial - cheaper that MoChaCha.

I think you're missing the point. You can't put a better plastic crystal on a rep 6238 and make it a franken first of all. And if you bought a genuine T-21 (for $100-200, maybe) and it did fit on the $240 rep it would be a poor use of a genuine part- the cheap rep doesn't deserve a genuine part, unless you got it for a cheap price and want to waste the gen part. Secondly, don't believe what the rep guys tell you- most of it is sales hype.

No one makes a 6238 that accepts genuine parts unless you go to someone like Phong (jewelryandwatch.com) and spend a lot of money- over $1000 for the case, $400 for a dial and then you'll need a V72 movement to stick in there- $1000-1500. Trusty has the 6238 with the Venus 75 movement and it's not a bad rep- he says it takes gen parts but I'm not too sure about that. https://trustytime.shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1_6&products_id=7576 I picked up the same watch from Marvellous for $240 shipped back in the early spring. It's a nice rep and the Venus 75 is a fairly reliable movement.

I think the 5500 case would work well with the MoChaCha dial which is 27.2mm. You could use a 2824-2 with or without the autowind assembly.

I'm sure some of you remember Donerix's post about the Rolex Commando from way back A few weeks ago I ran across a Commando dial on a website- MoChaCha.org. I saw this over on RWI and a few of the guys had been buying dials from MoChaCha and were happy with them- mostly vintage Submariner dials, I believe. Recently a friend built a Commando watch for me He did the dial himself and installed it in a 36mm Riyi case with lugholes and powered it with a 2824-2 Swiss, installed a plastic crystal and a gen Rolex bezel. The hands came from Ofrei, I believe. I've been very happy with the watch and even change out the bracelet/straps from time to time I realize it's not a 34mm manual wind watch like the original- I guess it's closer to a 1016 build, but the 2824-2 sure is nice.

I've certainly quit building frankens with Rolex movements. I've got two of them and recently beat up my SS 1803 playing in the attic- crushed the plastic crystal and a few internal parts. Luckily, $500 later my watchmaker was able to get it back up running. I'm a little more careful with my 5508 franken- no water for it. Now days I think the best bet is to build your rep/franken with an eta movement. I like the 2846-2 which is getting harder to find and I've gotten good mileage out of a couple of 2824-2s in a 1016 and a Rolex Commando. I'm using the Seiko NH35A and NH36A in a couple of watches these days also- you can't beat it for $40. I pulled the old 7S26 out of this SKX031and installed a new NH36A- should be good for 10-15 years hopefully

Sounds like you're missing a tooth on one of the gears- could it be the fourth wheel?

Here's one I bought a few weeks ago https://www.ebay.com/itm/GENUINE-Seiko-SII-NH36-NH36A-Automatic-Watch-Movement-White-Date-Day-at-3/172366597826?hash=item2821d98ec2:g:TbwAAOSwi7ZclXPQ He's also got the NH35. Lots of other stuff also.

I thought all of those Seiko hands were 150/90/20.

Looks like a Seiko Dagaz mod to me. I just put a NH36A movement in an old SKX031 and added a set of mercedes hands. My other Seiko project was to put a Dagaz dial and hands into an $80 Invicta diver- now I have a $170 diver! I really like the NH35A movement in those Invictas these days Sorry for the bad pic

check out rafflesdials.com http://rafflesdials.com/watch-bracelet/?sort=bestselling&page=2

Don't know if these would work or not. https://www.ebay.com/itm/555-END-LINK-PIECE-FOR-VINTAGE-JUBILEE-WATCH-BAND-BRACELET-ROLEX-DATEJUST-20MM/310411735267?hash=item4845fb30e3:g:bE0AAOSwdQFeC87d

I've used a product- Rust Cure. It's an acid. www.rust-cure.com after that maybe you could use some J-B weld to fill the holes, and file it back to round and then like oldtools says, put some silicone grease on there. beats the heck out of laser welding which would be your other alternative with some turning on a lathe afterwards

https://www.timepiecechronicle.com/features/2017/10/3/thehistoryofthezenithelprimero Here's a history, don't know if it'll help.

I had the same problem a while back and it was one of the gears. It was an easy fix for the watchmaker and I had the movement serviced while it was apart- it had been like 12-13 years.

I heard that if you join NAWCC- National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors- Startime will let you make purchases. It like $30 a year or so to join.