alligoat

Whoa guys, the modern Daytona is no simple cakewalk. First, the a7750 is modified by moving the running seconds from 9 to 6 and the 30 minute counter from 12 to 3. But in a nutshell this bogs down the movment and makes it prone to failure. Freddy has had some luck with a graphite treatment to make it more dependable, but this isn't an easy mod unless you're a decent watchmaker. Second, Freddy swapped cases to get a better case when he did his Daytona build. So that adds extra money to the deal also. All of this has been going on for the last 3-5 years so good luck in searching the archives. Maybe freddy333 or someone else can help out here, but like I said- it ain't no friggin cakewalk so take off the rose colored glasses. Building a dependable Daytona takes patience and a fair chunk of change.

Trim the crown guards- rep cgs are too fat, gen cgs are thinner A regular rep 16610 dial would be fine, not a gen which isn't worth the money on a $79 rep LV is lunette verte- referring to the green bezel insert on the 50th anny sub- the dial has the fatter hour markers to distinguish it from the regular 16610 sub dial. Notice how the cgs on this sub don't wrap around the crown- it's a gen watch

Well, it's got the LV dial with the larger hour markers. Case is decent but it's not going to be TW or WM9 for that price. But it has decent rehaut. Trim the cgs and a regular 16610 dial and it would be a good buy. I'm just not big on LV dials in a 16610 case but some people like them. But for $79 you can't go too wrong...

Seems like I saw a gen dial- a service dial- that was 'Swiss Made' a while back.

Well, let's see... the dial ought to say 'Swiss- T<25' , not 'Swiss Made', that's one. What's the other? Nice job, you're getting pretty good at knocking out watches these days J!

Yukiwatch looks ok- http://www.yukiwatch.com/catalog/item/6960394/7159505.htm Like janeto says, DW has sadly gone from the scene. And Phong and NDT tend to be somewhat expensive. There might be some others on ebay....

Freddy, I certainly agree with your points about a Rolex holding its value and being able to walk into an AD w/o a worry. But I also enjoy the frankens when you have a solid eta in there at 1/10th the cost- maybe 1/5th nowdays... Besides, who can tell what beats inside- unless they listen to the rotor spinning- then they'll know its not a Rolex!

"It all started in the 1980's when she bought herself a brand new rolex lady date at Bromberg's in Birmingham AL. It went through 3 'overhauls' including two bracelets, two bezels' 2 dials, 2 mainsprings, etc etc before we sold it 10 or 12 years later. It was a piece of damn junk from day one. Next, I bought her a brand new TT sapphire crystal lady oyster (no date to F with). It was not much better and she wore it a few weeks and has been in a bank box ever since. Imho genuine rolex watches are over rated like down home cookin', Christmas with relatives, and Cadillac cars." This was automatico's rant to me a few weeks ago! Neither one of us give the ladiies Rolex movements a high rating. My wife was never happy with her TT DJ and finally quit wearing it. Couldn't keep it wound.

4 million is around 1974 and on so I say hacking. Hacking started around 1972 as I understand. The 17 jewel 1520 might have been for the American market- the old keep the jewels down for the import tax- but I'd go for the 26 jeweled movt.

Given the bad reputation the ladies Rolex movement has and my wife's bad experience with one, I'd stick to the eta 2671 and go with a gen dial.

Nice job M! That's a pretty impressive collection of 1016's and now it's got a gen in the lead. Congrats.

But you have to check your rep case carefully- some take a larger rep dial and therefore a gen dial won't fit. A gen dial is 27.87 or so, so if the rep dial is 28mm or less it should work. I couldn't find a rep case to work early on so I build a couple of frankens. Now days gen cases aren't easy to find and can be more expensive.

I certainly agree that the date feature is very nice on the Vantage. Like LHOOQ said, Bill Yao no longer sells parts. The dial and hands that I got from him 3-4 years ago worked out well in the Silix 34mm 6694 case. The lume on the dial and hands is great. Plus the old rep that I used has a gen eta 2836-2 in it.

Looking good DJ! You may need a 2824-2 movement if it's a 16600 case, or a 2836-2 will work if it's a 16660 case. You could cut the dial feet off the dial you have and glue it to the movement ring of the eta movt/ you end up using. Andy, thats a gen case that DJ started with

jmb is around, here's a post he started earlier this week http://www.rwg.cc/topic/146082-tudor-7809-franken/

No, it's that the crown is too big. The first thing RBJ69, Joe Butts, did to my red sub was swap in a smaller 'rep' crown. Of course he also trimmed the CG's and did a decent job of it also, I might add. This ain't much of a pic and the cgs are faded out, but at least I've got the RBJ crown. This crown is even smaller than a gen 703 OK, my SN is L341062, Orig Polex Design, 5513 on the 12 o'clock end and the inside of the case back says 5512. Joe was buying these from Watchmaster, but they're MBW all day long- old school!

Man guys, it's a Gucci eta movement! And a 2892 to boot- that's as good as the 3135 according to John Holbrook! The only thing that would make it better is a white gold fluted bezel- those engine turned bezels just don't do much for me. Look at this fluted bezel on my $62 silix special But hey red, it's a beautiful watch, wear it in good health

i'd say it's circa 1960. If you can get the case open, you could look at the movement and see what it is- maybe an early eta automatic w/ date. Also look for a SN between the lugs, that might help in pin pointing the date a little closer. Oyster means it's WR of course, and the Swiss at the bottom of the dial may mean prior to 1963 possibly, but the hands also indicate that anyway. Around 1963, Rolex started using the straight hands and hour markers. You can run thru ebay, there's some similar models, like a 7966 and there was one from 1963 which had a TSwissT dial denoting the use of tritium which started in '63. Your caseback may be dated on the inside, another reason to open it.

Looks to me like you're in pretty decent shape. You can't really date the watch by the SN, but it appears to be one of the early ones. Serifs on the date font are another tell, nice bevel on the lugs and the Octo is a Swiss made watch with an eta movement and if it is a 2846-2, all the better- it says 21 jewels on the rotor so it probably is. I think the entire run of 2836s from the beginning were 25 jewels. Now it's on to trimming the crown guards!

It would be a good idea to check out the SN between the 6 o'clock lugs, although the old MBWs had an L341,xxx SN and the newer ones are more correct- with a 2-3 million # SN. Dial looks MBW like as well as the pearl- the flat white pearl. Does it take gen parts, like a crystal and a bezel insert? But bear in mind, the chinese copied the MBW around 4-5 years ago. MBW red sub (as well as white) dial measures 26.2mm which is smaller than the 26.5mm of a gen 1680 dial.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Hands-ETA-2824-2-White-Rolex-Tudor-Submariner-/230773244217?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item35bb284139 I don't think these are 'Tudor' hands, rather they are like Tudor hands that fit ETA. It would be great if we could pick up Tudor hands for $14.95, but I don't think it's going to happen. Besides, Tudor isn't sold in the USA, afaik.

Probably so. The 1570 and 1520 debuted around 1965 from what I can tell.

They can, but it's hit or miss. But you probably wouldn't need parts as much as a service, if you run into problems.

Another option is the MBW 5513 or 5512. They could use some mods, but when they're done, they're excellent.

Woof got it right- mine's an SSD case with drilled lugholes by jmb.