ubiquitous

If you have the movement ring and some experience building watches, it's really not too bad Changing the hour and minute gears are also not terribly difficult, but it does require getting into the movement from the dial side a bit. The upside is how affordable this project is. Using a similar approach, I built a 14270 for $600-ish using a gen 16200 case, gen 14270 dial, rep Sub hands, ETA 2824, etc.

I think he's referring to the SSD V1 and V2 Personally, if you're merely looking for a piece to test drive to try and determine whether the gen is really for you, either should be sufficient for at least providing a basis regarding how the watch will wear. That's the important thing if you're concerned about comfort. Otherwise, none of the reps will truly give you a good idea for the fine details and characteristics that the gen has. They all have their faults and the rep will not provide the full experience that the gen has to offer.

To answer a couple of questions- 1) Gen crowns can indeed be difficult to source. Not sure on current pricing, or where to find as of current. Personally, I like them since they have the double gasket set up: The downside is that most gen SS crowns out there are going to be for an auto movement with a tap 10 stem. The UT6497 hand wind has a tap 6 stem, so you'd need to have the 6497 stem turned down to fit the crown. As an alternative, you can go with a Palp crown (2.1mm) or a T48, which are both quite nice and an improvement over most rep crowns. 2) The term 'Jimmy' refers to an old eBay seller called 'jimmyfzu'. He had some great aftermarket cases that are very close to gen in terms of detail and dimension. 3) FGD is a member here on the forum- fishgodeep. He has created these fantastic Pre-A and Pre-V dials in limited batches. Good stuff. Above are gen 1 (uncased) and gen 2 (cased) dials. Gen 2 had slightly thinner indicies, nice surface finish, etc. 4) + 5) PVD costs may be more reasonable than you think! There are a couple of forum members that can assist with this. Prices and services will vary but I think beadblasting costs are factored into the service price. You definitely want to beadblast as that's what achieves the nice matte finish to the case. If you PVD a polished surface, you get a black shiney finish as a result. Hope this helps. Best of luck...

My advice would be to build one. Start with a nice Jimmy case with good CG and take your choice of a palp, T-48 or gen crown, have it beadblasted and then PVD'd and add an FGD dial. This will provide a nice overall result, in my opinion. Essentially, it would be like this, except PVD'd: Jimmy case, 2nd gen FGD dial, gen crown. To give you the PVD visual... modified DSN PVD case, 1st gen FGD dial.

Dug up the measurements: Hour hand: ETA: 1.50 3135: 1.40 Minute hand ETA: .90 3135: .95 Second hand: ETA: .25 3135: .22

Well, we know that the ceramic is pretty well resistant to scratching; perhaps this added rigidity makes for a case that is more prone to cracking as a result of it's rigidity? To point out a similarity- Let's look at crystals. Acrylic crystals are soft and quite easy to scratch- Just looking at them could cause a scratch However, if you were to drop it, the acrylic seems to be able to absorb that impact better because it's relatively soft. Sapphire on the other hand is also resistant to scratching like ceramic, but is more prone to shattering; I imagine there's more tension in the rigidity. At least, that's my theory on the matter...

1) With a Stilty ring, you can use either 2824 or 2892- His ring will position the movement to the right height so that the stem lines up center. 2) Gen datewheel can be fitted to the ETA datewheel, but you will likely have to file down the ETA wheel to provide enough clearance for the thicker gen DW. 3) Hour and minute pinions will need to be replaced with the taller ones to facilitate clearance over the indicies. 4) I forget what size the gen 3135 hands are, but they are definitely not a direct fit; they all need to be reduced if I recall correct (I'll have to dig up the sizes to provide approximate measurements). Stilty will have this info as well. My advice is to just use gen Tudor hands since they are ETA based as well. An additional point- Since you have a modern sapphire crystal case for a 3135, you will need the 6mm crown that mates to the smaller tube originally for the 5.3mm crown. Older cases had a tube specifically for the 6mm crown.

Sounds like decent results. Glad you gave the manual wind a try... If at least to isolate where the problem might be.

Heh... Well, we've been a pair for 11 years now and going strong Aside from how she takes care of watches in comparison to how I care for mine, we're really quite similar

Mrs. Ubi has an uncanny knack for busting up watches; not even a month after picking up this J12 for her and she's already managed to crack the bezel insert I bought her a new J12, but figured this old one could be a good parts donor. So, I decided to dismantle the case to see what I could salvage. 3 piece sandwich construction- Cool! The bezel/crystal and movement are all one component: And the caseback seats to this unit, thus providing the sealing to the case: The mid case ring sits in between: Unfortunately, upon closer inspection I discover that the mid case is a write off: Nice fracture going right through the lug end... But it is indeed solid ceramic! Let's hope Mrs. Ubi goes a little easier with the new one when it gets here. I am somewhat relieved that this happened to a $250 rep and not a $4k gen!

But do you like it? That is ultimately what matters... Unless you bought it for your wife...

Heh... That last pic... Looks like whoever serviced it didn't do a great job in seating that retaining ring... I wonder what else they did half assed?

Looks amazing! I just love how the chief AR makes the crystal just disappear.

Compare to the genuine insert and bezel on my old WM9: Not very close at all...

1) No instruction manual, but getting the watch going should be pretty straight forward. To get the watch started, put the watch on the palm of your hand, caseback flat on your palm and give the watch a swirling motion. This should spin the rotor a few times and should start the watch up. 2) No issues with damaging the watch aside from manual winding. Let the auto rotor do the work of winding instead of handwinding at the crown as this could potentially damage the movement. 3) I would advise that you wear the watch for a few days/weeks to check accuracy. The watch may or may not exhibit great time keeping out of the box; if it is +/- XX seconds a day, give the watch some time to settle into your wearing habits; you may find that over time, the time keeping will improve as your arm's motion will provide for correctional positions throughout the day (remember, this is a mechanical watch; the lubrication/oil can and will distribute as it moves in different positions). 4) When you unscrew the crown, the first position the crown will be in (once disengaged from the tube) is the winding position (1st position). If you pull the crown out one position, that's date setting (2nd position). If you pull one more position, that's time setting (3rd position). Your watch may or may not need servicing; it's always difficult to say with reps and Swiss movements as there's no real way to determine where the movement came from or how old it is. If your movement starts showing signs of low power reserve, or egregious time gain/loss, you may need to have the movement overhauled. It's generally a good idea to do this once every 5 years anyways for longevity of the movement. Good luck with the new watch! Hope you enjoy it...

MD- With regards to VRF and pricing- Yes, pricing can indeed be very high, but you have to remember that the items sold are usually old used or NOS original parts (not current RSC replacement parts) and most are going into collector hands for either restoration of their genuine vintage, or to hold on to as back up stock for when the day comes that they might need that item. So, for restoration of genuine pieces, the cost makes a little more sense as many of those watches do carry significant value when fitted with the right parts and justifies cost. For building/modding frankens it doesn't make a lot of sense adding a $7k dial to an aftermarket case (however in the end one could always part the watch back out and sell the gen pieces a la carte to recoup investment if need be).

Fri- Vintage SM300 Sat- Work in progress 4th gen 42mm Sun- 16520 frankenstein Have a good weekend!

Remember to take it slow while performing the mods. Don't rush or hurry the process And if you're working with case knifes, etc. to try and remove bezels, be sure to mask the adjacent edges with thick masking tape to protect the surfaces! It may take a few minutes to mask everything off, but if it saves you some knicks and scratches it will be time well spent. Good luck and have fun!

That Sea Eweller is a beaut.

My prices listed are what I paid at the time and are not prospective or quoted estimate.

Well, out of personal principle, I keep everything under the hood as unmodded. So, for the Daytonas, they are standard fare El Primero 400, still beating at 36000a/h. Rolex detunes their's to 28800a/h, and they also add new 4030 signed plates, the trademark red PTFE reversing wheels and Rolex signed rotor among other smaller changes. Since I have no intention of trying to pass these as 100% gen, I feel there's no need to mod the movements

It's taken me a little while to warm up to the Aerospace, but these days, I really dig it. Great watch... Very unique... I love it!

I'd need to see what I have in the way of parts. I've been offloading and throwing some stuff out; probably a bad idea, but my work space is getting cluttered. If I have anything that is useful and that I can spare, I'd be glad to help out.

That's an excellent point. I try to keep my 'build:gen' ratio/threshold at around 50% for personal reasons. Granted, the main reason why I build is because it's just a fun hobby. But there are always economics involved with any hobby (and hobbies in general are never cheap)...

I've been meaning to pick up an old 145.022 861; 1977 would be nice for my birthyear Somehow it always gets pushed to the backburner