lhooq

The pictures were sent by DW himself. I've never handled these cases up close. Even if I did, I don't know enough about vintage Subs to give you the pros and cons. The best way of reaching DW is through the "Ask the Seller" link on his eBay listings. (It's often faster than emailing him directly!) He told me he would have "many other watches" for sale in April. After Chinese New Year, expect the Rolex 6238 to be ready.

Pics of the DW case and a couple of his dials:

Lemania is well-known for its movements (especially among Omega fans) but the watches are pretty nice, too. Your Lemania's movement looks a lot like an Omega Calibre 30. I've no idea how similar they actually are, though. Great watches! Find nice, period-correct straps to wear them on. Don't be lazy and put them on black NATOs!

There's a Canadian chap named hp_v6 who's just finished making some datewheel overlays for the Ingenieur. I've ordered a couple, but it may be some time before I can report back on them. For one thing, I don't own an Ingenieur yet!

"'Only around $100?' But I paid for a Swiss ETA movement... and water-proofing!"

Neither the original nor the reissued PloProfs are my cup of tea (I'd much rather have a Seamaster 1000), yet I really, really want one. How often does that happen? Great Sinn girls. "Would you like to see my moisture absorption capsule?"

"Fakes always leak?" You lie! On the plus side, maybe the dissemination of this video will lead to rep factories focusing on getting their cyclops magnifications right!

Try opening it. There may be a tooth inside!

I had a bit of an eye-opener after work today. I stopped at a second-hand watch store and saw a lightly used titanium GST on sale. I asked to view it up close. I must have stared at the dial for a good couple of minutes. The hour indices on the gen were off-white, but what surprised me was how most of them weren't centered. None were crooked, but most had noticeable black gaps on one side or the other. Furthermore, the 6 o'clock marker wasn't perfectly aligned with the 120 pip on the tachymeter. It was closer to the dot than on my rep, but still not all the way there. I left the store feeling better about my purchase from Mary, but with a worse impression of IWC's QC circa ten years ago! I'll install the ETA day/date wheels when I get them, see if I can nudge that bezel a little, and be done with it. I agree that a relume would offer too little bang for the buck; I had to get real close on the gen hands and squint hard to see the texture of the lume. Again, these are very minor items. It would have been interesting (great word!) to have brought my rep to that shop and compared the two side-by-side, but based on my short-term memory there was very little to separate the two. Terrific rep.

I'm very encouraged by today's posts. As is, it's already a stunning, no-nonsense watch (color... who needs it?) that reminds me of an alternate-universe Speedmaster. (That's not meant as a slight to IWC fans; I'm an Omega fanatic.) I'm waiting for my ETA wheels to arrive (including a German day wheel, nat

That's what I'd like for my second Daytona, except with a 6239 steel bezel. Heck, I even bought a riveted 7205 in preparation for the project. But then I read about DW's 6238 plans, so I've decided to wait until I've seen the dials for those. (Please, please, please, let one be a 6234-style tachy/telemeter...)

Love the rotating case shot! (And the bottom one, too.)

Thanks for confirming my suspicions, freddy. I got my crystal from xxx on eBay. Buyer beware. [Crystal was genuine, but was altered during installation.]

Day-to-naaa!!! Let's go away!

Unfortunately, my original DW crystal has been tossed out. Back in December, when the bezel was first removed from the case, it was found that the crystal was cracked around a portion of its base. I've been using a Clark's crystal (early T21) since then. Please excuse the filthy crystal on the right: Maybe it's apples-to-oranges trying to compare these two different shapes, but the 'Rolex' crystal definitely has the edge in clarity. I only wish I could have taken this picture with a brand-new Clark's! The reason I doubt it's a genuine T21 is the profile, which lacks the clearly-defined, roughly 60 degree bevel that you see here: Are there more than two types of Tropic 21 out there?

I was certain the plain black Ingenieur was going to be my first IWC rep. But at the last moment, I decided on getting the IWC that had first grabbed my attention in a watch shop some time ago: The GST. The 3707 doesn't get discussed much on the forums these days, but it's still a fantastic rep. I ordered this one from Watch International. (Great dealer, by the way.) I'm very happy with the watch -particularly the titanium case and bracelet- but there are some problem areas I've identified. I'd love to hear any advice on possible fixes: 1. Misaligned bezel. Is it a straightforward matter to open up the case and rotate the internal bezel a tiny bit counterclockwise? Does the crystal have to come off? 2. Lume-less hands. I thought this was a problem with my specific watch, but apparently other Ti GST owners have noted this in the past. Do I send them off to a pro for a relume? 3. Wrong datefont. According to the dealer, this datewheel is all that's available from the factories. I've ordered a proper ETA wheel. 4. Misaligned day. This is the first watch I've owned that has a day/date display. If the day is tilted, do I blame the dial or the day disc? 5. Crooked indices. I'm guessing there's not much I can do about these, short of buying a genuine dial. Any suppliers out there, or do I trawl eBay for one? Any tips or modding ideas would be much appreciated. I'm a beginner at the IWC rep game.

Excellent. I love the panning time-lapse shots. I grew up in Vancouver and miss living there. Hope the Olympics end up being a net positive for the city. I was against them!

Thanks, everyone, for the very detailed and educational tips. Thankfully, chiman had the right advice for my situation and slightly loosening the caseback got the chrono running again. I never encountered this problem when I had the old dial mounted, but I've quickly learned how temperamental these pieces are. I'm loving the dial the more I look at it, and I especially like the well-balanced 'R' on 'ROLEX'. Yeah, it's a shame about the missing 'SWISS'. I imagine that after DW enlarged the subdials, he couldn't figure out how to squeeze in the text without losing the lume dot!

It's very comfortable, as far as Rolex bracelets go! Unless you wear your bracelets loose, the spring-loaded links give it a close and low-profile fit. The fact that it's brand new with stiff links is also a plus, since you don't have to deal with floppiness of a vintage. Loose and dinged links do add to the visuals, though. The clasp looks great, but I find it accidentally opens more often than later friction designs. Nothing a little bending can't fix.

Finally got my 6263 completed. (Well, almost...) Then I had to go and get it mixed up with my vintage Tropic obsession:

An update on what's happened since my Mixed Results post: As previously mentioned, DW apologized for the inferior dial and offered to replace it as soon as a better one became available. (He also promised to replace the dull and tatty-looking second hand for free.) He estimated I'd have to wait about a month. Since I was traveling to Hong Kong in mid-January, I offered to meet up with DW in China to make sure I got the parts I wanted. Unfortunately, these plans fell through, but not until after I'd secured a visa. I ended up going to Guangzhou for a day trip, instead. Not nearly as exciting as the adventures of Offshore and TVT, mind you, but a worthwhile and fascinating experience, nonetheless. DW was kind enough to send the new dial and hand to my hotel in Hong Kong. Here's what I got: Oh dear. To recap, here's my original dial: Well, at least the 'OYSTER' wasn't as smudged! Not only was it the same poorly printed dial, but there was chipped paint in the 6 o'clock subdial, too! It's hard to see in the picture, but there's bare metal at the bottom of the subdial. After rampaging through Kowloon in a fit of rage, I calmed down and emailed DW again. He apologized for sending a second bad dial, and said that the better ones wouldn't be available until the end of January. Ordinarily, I'd be suspicious, but he also asked if I'd be willing to take a '6240' dial, instead: Also silver, but without the red 'Daytona'. It was also missing the T SWISS T at the bottom, but the printing of the ROC looked good in the picture attached to his email, and I was desperate for a wearable piece. Unfortunately, I would be leaving Hong Kong on the evening of the guaranteed date of delivery, and I didn't want to take a chance. I paid extra and had DW send it to my home address. Better! Much crisper printing all around, lume dots properly aligned, subdial edges clean. Note that subdials aren't nearly as black as those on the sloppy dials. With luck and a lot of sunlight, maybe they'll turn brown in a few years? I received the dial on Monday, along with a Tropic 21 I'd won on eBay, and took them to my watchmaker, who was already working on excising the troublesome auto-wind gears from the A7750. Several days later, it was ready. I had reservations about losing the 'Daytona', but the end result looks very, very good. I miss the iconic splash of red, but the monochrome dial is wonderfully subtle and clean. The sunburst texture of this dial is much clearer than on the sloppy-printed ones. Subdials look a bit wide, but then it's always a battle between diameter and spacing on the 7750 DWs, isn't it? I'd also received a vintage Tropic 19mm on Monday and wanted to give it a try. I'm not sure if this is a historically accurate OEM combination, but they are contemporaries and the curved ends fit beautifully (as does the 16mm Rolex buckle). In the end, though, I've still got to go with the folded-link 7835: By the way, the second hand is not the replacement that DW sent. That hand was too long and dragged along the inside of the crystal. (Strange... More about the crystal in just a bit.) So my intrepid watchmaker took the old hand, gave it a new point, and painted it black. Looks great! Now, about that crystal... Is this really a genuine Tropic 21? Aside from the mystery of the dragging hand, I also found that the edge didn't refract like T21s I'd seen in pictures.. The crystal profile also looked more vertical than I'd expected. Then, when my watchmaker pressed it onto the case, he found it couldn't squeeze through the bezel until its base had been polished a bit. Have I been duped? If I have, then watch out for the guys selling T21s on eBay for $100 OBO. The only other issue I have is a chrono that starts and stops, but doesn't reset. I'll have my guy look at the pusher tomorrow. (It's times like this that I wish I were technically competent.) Anyhow, here's a final shot of the Daytona with my other favorite Rolex rep--one that's definitely got the wrong crystal on (but I love it anyway!): The DW 6263 was a huge headache compared to past reps, but very much worth the patience and effort. It's gorgeous, and has a fantastic presence on the wrist. I'm already imagining which variant I want next. Black Paul Newman 6239? Or should I wait for the 6238 that freddy mentioned? Or maybe after I get the chrono fixed, I'll take an extended break from all the researching and trawling on eBay. I just want to wear it and watch the hands spin round the dials.

My watchmaker resized my Yuki riveted bracelet with a pen knife and the edge of a desk drawer! Probably not as neat a job as the RSC would have done, but I can't complain about the price i.e. free. Here's my 7206, shortened for my puny wrist:

Have fun, guys! Maybe I'll catch some of you in March!

Three cheers for ubiquitous! That's one of yours in the left clamp! How impressed was I by his kind gesture? Well, as of five minutes ago, I'm now a VIP Member. Seriously, this is one terrific community, and I'm glad to return the favor a little.