lhooq

So this is the club I've been hearing about! I always thought you could never go 'too thick' on a Rolex crystal. I just looked at your original thread, and all I can say is, "Yikes! You most definitely can!" Huge improvement with this new crystal. Are you doing any further mods (say, on the crown guards), or does $60 include the cost of your own labor?

I'm very tempted by the rep, but this (and the delicate, skinny lugs) is the reason why I'd like to find a gen SM300 someday. What a good-looking movement! I could probably live with the terrible caseback -as long as I didn't have to look at it!- but how hard will it be to change the seconds hand to a white one? I also wish they'd offer a non-date 3/6/9/12 model.

Thanks, everyone, for the kind words and the information. Just to clarify, I'm a more frequent (but still relatively new) poster on the other rep forums, but I thought that RWG was the way to go for vintage Rolex knowledge. Looks like I was right. Cheap is relative, of course, but my total cost is a bargain compared to whatever Stilty paid for his franken (which was well worth it, in my opinion). Without shipping, I spent $111 (GBP 68) on the Narikaa Explorer, $108 on the bracelet, $10 on the springbars (I definitely overpaid), $5.25 for the unused Clark crystal, and $10 for the drilling. (One of the nice benefits of living in southeast Asia is the very low cost of labor!) All in all, a few bucks less than the Trusty 1016's list price for a much closer rep. To be honest, I was tempted to order from Trusty earlier this year, until they insisted I pay $65 for shipping by FedEx. At that point, I started to calculate the minimum cost for a weekend trip to Bangkok to see MBK. I gave that up once I factored in entertainment costs! As for the fast movement, I took it to my watchsmith this morning and he found the balance wheel sticking to something. (See how mechanically challenged I am.) A quick cleaning sorted things out and the 1016's time has matched the clock on my cell phone for the last few hours. More intensive regulation to follow. My watchsmith also said he'd try to fix the endlinks next week as he's a bit swamped with work right now. I made another attempt on one endlink for an hour with taped-up pliers and (now-sore) thumbs. All I got were a few new scratches, unfortunately, so I'll just enjoy a week of having endlinks "with character". Nanuq: Thanks for the tips and the chart. Unfortunately, I don't have any calipers to do a proper measurement, but the crystal feels like it's out by almost a millimeter. freddy333: As ugly as the endlinks look from some angles, they seem to be functioning properly and pivot without any resistance. I wanted to ask you, though, how the links on your gen 7860 feel. The Yuki is a bit stiff, as you can see in the side photo I took! Should I give it a Threepio-style oil bath? I forgot to include a wristshot in my original post. Here it is in the late afternoon sunlight:

First-time poster here, and this is my first time doing anything more drastic to a rep than changing a strap. I've lurked RWG for a while, and felt it necessary to pay respect to those who inspired me. I've had a long obsession with the 1016 Explorer, which is the only Rolex design that's really got a hold on me. Unfortunately, a gen purchase isn't within my reach anytime soon, and the reps for sale are all deficient in one way or another. Reading about Stilty's beautiful franken made me realize that I'd have to work a bit to get the watch I wanted. Gen parts were not in the picture, partly because I wanted to see how cheaply I could do this, but mostly because I'm cheap. Here's how my list of ingredients looked last week, when most of them arrived in the mail. In the background is my old 1016, purchased from Hont. Not a great rep, but it's a dependable beater that I use while swimming. (It also stood ready to donate any parts I might need.) I laid out what I considered to be the essential elements in making a convincing 1016. In order of personal importance, these are as follows: 1. Dial: After looking over the 1016 rep offerings available (esp. Trusty, Trevor, MBK), I found the one that got the most things right was an Explorer sold by Narikaa. Markings are properly sized and spaced, numerals are well shaped, and the text is clearly printed. The only negative is the yellowed minute indices, which -as far I know- are only found on Explorers old enough to also have yellowed text. However, it's not noticeable under most lighting. One added bonus of ordering Narikaa's Explorer was the 21600bph movement. But don't mistake it for a slow movement--it gains 2.5-3s a minute! 2. Lugholes: A 1016 without lugholes is a rep that can be called out from a distance. The Trevor and Trusty examples are drilled, but in the wrong place--too far from the points of the lugs. The MBK has the holes in the right place, but these are expensive and difficult to obtain. I don't have the skills or the equipment to drill the holes myself, so I found a Rolex repair specialist to drill the Narikaa 1016 for me. Note that the 2mm springbars were ordered from Fasci in Australia. I ordered another pair from Yukiwatch, but these had very thin pivots. 3. Crystal: Is there a simpler way of 'selling' a Rolex rep than sticking a thick, thick crystal on it? I assumed the Narikxplorer had a 16200-type Datejust case, so I ordered the Clark equivalent of a Tropic 22. From what I read in pitimany's thread, the crystal would fit a gen 16200 with the bezel needing just a tiny bit of machining. I still don't know what type of rep case I have, but I do know a Clark-22 fits it VERY loosely and was ultimately unusable for this project. Never assume! 4. Bracelet: Given the slightly yellowed markings, I felt a riveted bracelet would be age-appropriate. A good vintage-looking bracelet would also serve as a useful bit of 'layering' (as money launderers call it) to distract from flaws of the case and crystal. I'd heard horrible things about the ones being sold by the usual suspects, so I was very pleased to read freddy333's qualified experience with the Yuki expander. I figured my driller-for-hire could sort out the problems freddy had with the endlinks, and I was right. I'm not sure how my guy did it, but I now have a couple of 2mm springbars jammed in there good, and I don't think they're ever coming out. The final product—for now. And here's the 'Stilty Signature' view of the Explorer. Unfortunately, it's also one of the least flattering shots. Part of that is due to my poor photo setup, and an improperly placed sheet of paper that makes every hole look burnt and uneven. (The lugholes are indeed round.) Second is the absence of the Tropic 22 and its imposing profile. But the most depressing element is the endlinks, which 1) arrived in poor shape from Yukiwatch and 2) suffered from my amateur skills with a needlenose. I'll try to get them tucked behind the lugs; any bending tips would be appreciated! Superfast movement aside, I'm generally happy with how things turned out, especially at a total cost that's cheaper than the Trusty 1016 (let alone the rare and exotic MBK Explorer). I can live with the low crystal and crazy endlinks for now, but I welcome any suggestions on how I might fix these down the road.