alligoat

Looking good Frank! What other mods are on the list?

I agree the CG's are short, but trimming would help, and a shorter crown. SDs can have a taller crystals, but the sides are straighter than the reps.

Welcome aboard. That's a nice set of pics and yes, the rehaut angle appears pretty steep. But as was mentioned, it may well be the crystal itself. You should remove your bracelet and check the serial number at 6 o'clock- is it Z539117? If so you've got the old noobmariner V2 case! A few simple mods would help greatly. First off is the better crystal from Ofrei- MC25-295, second is a smaller crown (gen is best) and lastly, trim up the crown guards. Here's the post where I switched out the crystal- it really did help my SSD http://www.rwg.cc/topic/141401-a-new-crystal-improves-the-ssd-v2/

Even a gen insert might not just click in- you're dealing with an aftermarket bezel- close to gen but maybe not exact. You could try the G-S Hypo cement and if that doesn't hold, epoxy would be next. Might help if you can clamp it in with a die from the crystal press and a C-clamp and a couple slices of wood- just be careful not to glue the bezel so it won't turn. You could remove the bezel and then glue the insert on and reinstall the bezel and insert assembly to avoid the glueing the bezel on.

I always had good results with Paul and used him quite a bit in the early days, 5-6 years ago. I'd use him again, but other dealers seem to be more in tune w/ what I'm looking for- Josh, Andrew and Angus have been my recent purchases.

You're better off with a 1500 Date than a Datejust. Something about the top movement ring on a 1600 DJ not being conducive to a 1680 build. Probably has to do w/ the pie-pan dial on the 1600 DJs

Welcome aboard! 1016, 1601, 16000 and 16200 cases are all very similar. All have 20mm between the lugs and the first 3 take plastic crystals. The 16200 has a sapphire crystal, but you can fit a plastic crystal (is it the T-22?) and then you probably need a custom bezel from jmb. I built my 1016 w/ a 1601 case, Clarks T-22, a custom bezel from jmb and a relumed dial from LHOOQ, who by the way is the resident guru on the vintage Explorer. You might search for his posts on the subject. As for end links, you're best off w/ the specific end links which fit the case you're using. I'm not sure if the Yuki 7206 works with the three Datejust cases, but LH would know that answer.

The crown itself would be a single piece of stainless steel. The stem still attaches to it separately. The 703 was wrapped, SS over a base metal and crimped at the bottom. The stem still attaches to it separately.

No, the 16800 was 316L, 168000 was 904L as is the 16610. 16800 started out with a matte dial and then around 1984, Rolex introduced the current sub dial with the white gold surrounds. The same dial was used for the late 16800s, 168000s and the 16610. Tritium was replaced around 1998-9 with luminova, denoted 'Swiss' on the dial and shortly thereafter with SL- denoted 'Swiss Made'.

I don't know anything about this case, but a few observations. One it's costwise between DW and Phong, being a lot closer to DW. With gen crown and tube and T-21 (he says $350 value- but they could easily be rep parts), it's really the same as a DW. Bezel insert looks good to me and the case itself appears to be ok. I have no idea who Angelo DeVille is, but someone has pointed this case out on the rep forums before. And sometimes you just have to take a chance.... with DW getting out of the game, it's going to be harder to find these cases at a reasonable price.

Those pics are pretty darn good Valty! Especially when I can look at the two movements and see that there is a difference between two of the same part- a minute repeater jumper- #8270- your 726 has the later style jumper w/ two screws and the earlier watch has the jumper w/ one screw. Valjoux made changes to these watches thru the years- also the balances are different as are the pivoted detent bridges (the 'L' shaped bridge at 10 o'clock). And of course, you found the hand sizes slightly different. Just like our rep world, things are always changing. Great job!

Have a look between the lugs. Like you say, 16800 production ended around 1988. The last 16800's were R serials, as were the 168000 and the first 16610's. But the watch looks fine to me.

Nice job Pete! I've got the parts to build the same watch, but I was thinking a 2824-2 would do the trick movement wise. Guess I'll find out!

I agree with jmb, pop out the crystal and measure it and check the sides- are they smooth? If they are, you're in luck. If not, the sub noob crystal is supposedly notched, you're probably SOL. And of course, you would have to order a cyclops separately and glue it on to the crystal if a plain crystal will work.

I'd use the 2836-2. That's what I used on my two frankens and it's a lot less work than Stilty's using a 2824-2 and changing out parts and using his special 2824-2 to 3035 conversion ring- Stilty is hard to get a hold of and I don't even know if he has any of the rings left over at this point. You can get a #2 ring from raffles-time in HK for $7 or $8 and it will space the movement in the 16014 case. A 2836-2 also takes a DW overlay a little more easily. I don't know the size of the lughole drilling on a DJ, but it is smaller than a Submariner/SD/GMT. JMB probably would know that since he drills DJ cases on occasion.

I didn't snap a pic of the original V2 crystal, it was almost 3.0mm tall with sloped sides- nothing like the gen. I borrowed this pic from RG- it's about what mine looked like I looked at your SSD, Star69 and it looks like a V1 to me- they weren't as bad crystal wise.

My nephew's V1 is F539117 and it's definitely a little less wokky than my V2. The old original crystal might have helped that and yours could easily be a late V1 w/ the Z SN. I still can't figure out if the case changed between V1 and V2 or it was just the crystal that brought out the wok in V2. I do think there have been some later Polizia di Statos which are not noob cases- the rep market is always changing. LOL, I did just that and it was a slow and laborious project- not worth it IMO. Yuki dial- 27.4mm ID of wok- 26.26 I ground off .2mm and finally put a brushed finish on the rehaut in an attempt to make it disappear. I sold the Polizia di Stato SD dial, so I don't remember what the OD of it was Grif, those old cubic works DWs are long gone, now they're just the modern ones w/ closed 6's and 9's. JMB would be your best bet at this point.

rosnik, JMB drilled the lugholes, it's a 16600 SSD V2 case and the old 16660 matte dial from Yuki, relumed by PBdad. Omega can drill lugholes over in your neck of the woods- I have one of his old noob cases which I made into a 16800. Or you could get w/ JMB and send a case over here, maybe the bracelet also. Thanks grifter and Ephry. Marty, I'm not sure about the datewheel yet- either the printing is slightly off or I'll have to adjust the dial. The datewheel is silver with open 6's and 9's- kinda like the ones that came out in the first 16800's. A carry over from the 1680's which had silver DWs.

I'm not sure I follow you kbh, it's a Z539117. It's a V2 all day long.

Five or six months ago, maybe more, I picked up a SSD V2 from Puretime. It was one of the last Polizia di Stato models. Good old SN of Z539117. Well I sent it off to jmb for lugholes drilling and then I put in a Yuki matte dial That yellow was killing me so I sent it off to PBdad for a relume which turned out great- not that my iPhone photo skiills improved! But the wok was still bothering me. That's when jmb said he was working on a new SSD crystal and wondered if I could sent him my sloped V2 crystal so he could measure it, etc. I went straight home and uncased the movement, popped the crystal and had it off in the mail that afternoon. It took him a while to get the crystals but last week I got my old crystal back and the new one. This new one is 29.5mm, same as the SSD V2, but it's 2.5mm tall and has a very slight bevel at the top. But the nice thing about it is that it pretty much de-emphasizes the wok because of the straight sides of the crystal. It's hard to tell from this close-up photo, but at a foot away, the rehaut wok isn't very noticeable. This is a close up pic, but I'll work on a better pic later. I also have access to a SSD V1 and might make a few comparisons if my nephew will let me borrow his watch for a while. Here's a side shot of the new crystal You can see the straight sides. I borrowed a pick of a gen 16660 to give you some comparison Pretty close to the new crystal on my SSD V2. This is a pretty easy mod to do and it really saved the V2 for me- I was close to giving up on the watch due to the wokky case, but now it doesn't bother me.

I used a Clark's in my Euromariner and it's fine. I order from Ofrei from time to time, but I do so online so I avoid Bob Frei! You might also check out Cousinuk, they have a 16610 sapphire which looks almost exactly like a gen in the side profile. It looks like the closest thing to a gen crystal, but I haven't tried it out yet. BTW, I thought BK liked the TW best sapphire, thought it was the best he'd seen of all the rep crystals.

With crown guards, the biggest thing is do you remove the case tube or do you leave it in? If you leave it in, sandpaer is the only way to go and it's fairly slow. I was doing a set with 200 grit wet dry yesterday and finally took out the case tune. But luckily the case tube came out easily. I've ruined a few and then you have to tap the hole and go back w/ a 7030 tube and maybe a gen crown or a good rep crown that fits on the gen or aftermarket tube. I use the case tubes from wholesaleoutlet990, but Yuki has them and also Clarks, maybe others. Whern you remove the case tube, I then go in there w/ a file and take the CG's down, it's fast enough and easier to control than a dremel. Sand paper (400/600/1000) and some polish will wrap it up. Yesterday I polished a case with a dremel w/ a felt polishing wheel and some auto polish, quick and easy, but the movement was out and I just rinsed the case afterwards. 1000 grit sandpaper and a cape cod cloth are way too slow, but they will work eventually.

Good looking watch! JMB was the key to success on my 1016 build also. He turned a stainless steel bezel that fit like a glove on my 1601 DJ case. This watch even passed the WR test at the watchmakers, so it's good for anything. And it has a relumed dial courtesy of LHOOQ so it's great for viewing at night. J also salvaged my PT 1665 by turning another ring for me and recently got me another crystal for my SSD V2 which cured the Wokky blues! He's been my salvation, w/o him I'd be one frustrated cat!

Ingod comes and goes, but I'm sure he'll be back. He actually sells quite a few gen watches, nothing terribly expensive, but gens nonetheless. And of course, we're all looking for his dials!

Natalie's passion is NDTrading Corp's ebay site. Natalie runs NDTrading. The 2846-2 are all swiss so far, but the gmt part is a chinese addition. My watchmaker got mine running again after a service, but his comment about the gmt hand was that it's decorative- not correctly geared. The movements coming out of the Josh 1655- the DG3804- as Rolexaddict calls them, might be another possibility. White dials are hard to find, I saw a couple on Ingod44's site last month, but they were bid up to $300 or so. Nothing currently on NDT, but it doesn't hurt to ask. But an NDT dial could easily run more than a whole PT 6542 w/ a white dial.