Jetsons

Hey, 700club. You're welcome. I added additional information/comments and moved them to my initial post. I hope this is helpful to others wishing to give this mod a try. If anyone can add additional tips, by all means do. Jet

Beautiful watch and fantastic work, Ubi! Call me silly but I prefer the Tudor version over the MBW 1680. Very nice Tudors gents. Folks seem to be collecting these fairly aggressively nowdays. Beatiful watches and not too many steps behind their ultra expensive famous vintage brothers. Jet

Thanks, Ubi! I enjoy working on mecanical toys and just about anything else but this is my first serious effort with a watch. It felt very good when it was complete! Thanks, ehtolcad! bruce, added to the initial post. Thanks for the reminder. Jet

These 316L cases are tough! The process of drilling the side case holes, bracelet plus polishing wasn't exactly a walk in the park but well worth the effort. I'm finally rid of the darn skinny spring bars! Rolling up the sleeves: I used a rotary tool (Proxon), SnapOn cobalt bits (#56 & #57-smaller to get things started) fot the lug holes and #46 & #47 (may be sufficient but snug fit) for the bracelet. I applied machine oil liberally and frequently to lubricate the case holes, bracelet and drill bits to keep the temp down. Next time, I will use a drill with more low speed torque than the rotary. I held the case free hand wrapped in a cold damp cloth while drilling to keep the case cool. Further, I stopped work frequently to allow all components to cool down. Take your time. After the drill work was complete, I cleaned the case thoroughly and used the dremel with a soft cotton wheel and polishing paste to polish the side case holes. I achieved best results by polishing in both directions, perpendicular to the holes.. I finished the polish work with a fresh cotton wheel and Simichrome. All polishing was done at relatively slow speed. The inside of the lugs and bracelet ends need to be smoothed (light grinding with a fine stone bit & wire wheel were necessary) otherwise you may have problems fitting the oyster bracelet to the case. This would not be a factor with vintage style bracelets, non SELs. The spring bars used are the $1.98/pair shipped cheapies, available at Ebay. They are ss and of good quality, specially for the price. The OEMs may look better & more durable but these are what I had in my tool box. The key is to take your time, use Cobalt bits and I would recommend a drill tool with more low speed torque than a rotary. Jet

I have not found drilling the 316L case (TW Sub) as easy as it might sound. I am using SnapOn Cobalt bits (#55) and I have gone through a pair and did not completely finished the project. I ordered and additional four so it should be completed by the weekend. The bracelet is complete and just waiting for the case. One thing to keep in mind is that quite a bit of heat is generated around the lugs when drilling. I wraped the case in cold damp cloths and held it freehand. The cloths will keep the temps down. I stopped drilling and allowed everything to cool off very frequently so it does take time, at least for me. If someone has additional tips such as the best rotary tool speed to use (I have tried several) or anything else they would like to share, it would be greatly appreciated. Jet

Randy & Sherrington, I would love to see your views of this bracelet specially if you could compare to the MBW standard issue. My MBW 5514 which I received from a forum member, arrived with an excellent quality riveted (at least compared to the MBW standard) and I've been searching for similar quality since. I hope this bracelet is the one that mysteriously arrived with the 5514. Cheers, Jet

Sweeeeeet, Nanuq! I received a T-39 a few weeks ago that will be installed on one of my toys. The bad news is that Andy has just increased the price on these guys by 50%! I was contemplating adding a second for a project down the road but that idea is now out the window. Perhaps the RWG order flow was causing a run on his hoard. Jet

If reps were illegal, 95% of the women of this planet would have been wearing pin stripes long ago. Women have been flashing knock offs of all kinds since the beginning of time, at least it seems that way to me. Jet

The interesting thing is that the Herman Miller, Eames, Noguchi and George Nelson furniture & accessories you can buy new today from authorized retailers are all in a sense, reproductions. The modern incarnations are manufactured by various factories under licence form the estates of the aforementioned. They are really not too different from the unauthorized reproductions in terms of quality that are available for far less. Their designs were well beyond their times but their simplicity makes them easy to reproduce buy virtually anyone. The original manufactured designs from the 40s', 50s & 60s run some serious dollars today and are highly collectable. The current authorized reproductions will probably be never worth at most, what one paid for them. The folks at Paneristi can stand to learn a few things when it comes to collecting mid 20th Century modern furniture. Jet

For the Carrera reissue, a gen would be the way to go, IMO. I've seen minty second hand ones offered in the range of $1.3K will all the factory goodies and it would always be worth the original investment. The rep with the correct movement would expensive (flaws included) and obviously, not complete with the factory packaging. That is one fantastic sports watch and I've considered it often. The only factor that had held me back is the smallish 35mm case. Jack Heuer designed some of the most creative and lasting designs, IMO. The Camaro, Carrera, Calculator, Autavia and Steve McQueen come to mind. JH was and remains a creative genious and thanks to his brief collaboration with Tag Heuer, the re-editions became available. Jet

I'll second third or fourth (I lost count) the vintage Seamaster 300. Timeless design and should be very easy for the rep manufacturers to offer an accurate reproduction of this vintage beauty. It would be fantastic to also see Tudor Subs offered, preferably the no-date with the guilt dial. I'll take any of them at this point, if accurate. It can also easily have the identical movement as the gen, ETA 2824. Athough the thread specifically stated no Rollies, what ever happened to an accurate 5513? Perhaps the hottest collector tool watch around. I would be all over an MBW creation of this watch.

I have a couple of OEM vintage inserts (circa 1980s an early 90s) & the pearls no longer glow on these. The tritium markers of vintage dials have lost their glow by now as well . A new OEM pearl will cerainly have a nice lume to it. Jet

My first MBW. Solid as an anvil case and the best riveted non oem bracelet I have seen. Have a great weekend everyone. My wife is wearing this big guy. Man, she had a hard time picking a strap. An orange is on the way.

Fantastic to see you back, Tommy. You may not have seen the posts but we were very concered about you. You were missed to say the least. I am very sorry to hear about you Mother's passing. I wish you all the best and hope you recover very soon. Regards, Jet

Hi, Hari: Removal of the bezel is a fairly easy excercise. I cut strips of electrical tape and placed the tape between the case and the bezel gap to protect the case. Next I used a case knife (I suspect any thin blade will work) and gently worked it between and around both ends of the bezel assembly. You will feel the bezel working itself loose and off it comes. No scrartches whatsoever to either the case or bezel. To remove the glued on insert, I placed the bezel it in a bowl warm water & dish washing liquid and allowed it to soak for an hour or so. The insert will seperate easily this way with no damage. The old glue will also be a breeze to remove. With regard to the OEM bezel, washer & insert, I can make it work by setting it with epoxy to the case. Obviously, the bezel will not rotate with this method but it would be installed. I have not done anything with the OEM parts as of yet hoping to come up with a better solution. The watch does look killer with the oem parts in place. Regards, Jet

Andy is an honest seller and delivers. I have purchased from him in the past with very good results. With regard to dials, I would ask to make sure it was 100% authentic as he does traffic quite a bit in refinishes. The refinished dial quality are of okay quality IMO (The Zigmeister can do much better) and the pricing can be a bit hot. I wish he would give up his policy of selectively posting prices. Jet

Thanks, Bytor. If I could just figure out a way to securely fasten the oem bezel to the case. I would be all set. It does give the sub a very different look. A few observations with regard to the TW components: The TW metal bezel is heavy and much more so than the oem. It's a nice piece of quality machine work. A groove is machined on the inside center where a thin rubber O ring resides. This should help seal the case from moisture specially if lubricated with silicone grease. A nice touch that could have easily been ommitted. The bezel washer is an efficient design. On the case side of the washer, a prong inserts into to a small case hole machined at 12 O'clock & the washer locks to the case. On the side that contacts the bezel, there are three prongs evenly spaced which provide the 120 clicks of the TW bezel, as opposed to the single wire design of the oem. The prongs can be adjusted (by slightly bending) to provide harder or softer clicks if one so desires. To install, line up the pearl and with a gentle press from both sides it clicks perfectly into position. Nicely done by the TW case manufacturers and it does not appear to be an inexpensive component to design and manufacture. IMO, cloning the OEM bezel assembly would have been cheaper & perhaps easier to produce. Added: A simple and worthwhile mod to subs it to remove the bezel and polish it. I used a dremel and polishing paste and the change was not subtle. The overall watch will look much nicer with the added touch of refinement. Jet

One way to find out for certain is to remove the case back and take a peek. If you find an ETA or some other movement that looks different from this, it's not the genuine article.

I haven't figured out how to permanently install the oem components but hopeufully, something will come to mind. Suggestions are most welcome. Removed the bezel assembly and polished it and around the crystal. I also touched up the pearl with acrylic. Simple to do and the watch looked much better. oem parts added:

Tuesday.

This big guy today.

I wonder who got the better end of this swap. The vintage WM and MBWs are the business plus are a fantastic compliment to the Pams. The diversity is terrific. Awesome watch, Dani! Jet

Awsome watch, tutima! I know you searched a looong & hard for a top notch vintage SD. Very glad to see that your efforts finally paid off and rather well at that. Enjoy! Jet

I don't have a crystal ball, but commodities' prices in general are in uptrends.. Precious metals are in bull markets as are zinc, copper, titanium, concrete, aluminum, oil, gasoline, heating oil, jet fuel, ethanol, and chemicals in general. Oil service companies have excellent pricing power and powerful long term trends in place so that might also be a good place to investigate further. Another area would be major construction companies as the world mainly India, China & Russia continue to expand heavy infrastructure plus the rebuilding of the southern US. Jet

I'm with Kruzer. I follow the equity markets closely and anything having to do with US real estate (REITs, home builders, mortgage bankers and the likes), have declined 20%-%40% in value after having peaked during the second quarter of 2005. One thing I have learned about markets is that they have a darn good track record as a predictor of future economic climates. Real estate is a very cyclical beast & after the unprecedented run up it has had, I would be careful specially if relying on variable rate loans & heavy debt load to purchase. It is also the most interest sensitive sector of the US economy and interest rates are on the rise and will continue to do so for the forseeable future. I'm also in Manhattan and property values here are well north of $1K per sq foot, on average. One also must be approved by the building boards which is by no means automatic and pay substantial monthly fees for bulding maintenance. However, the properties on the market are not moving anywhere at these speed of the past. Good idea to sell now, if you must. It was a fun ride from 2000-2005. Jet