ubiquitous

Holy smokes! Excellent stuff, Rob! You worked some real magic on that one!

Okay... So, who here bought TTK's Wempe?

Agree 100%! Having the right movement in the case is a beautiful thing

Interesting. I'll have to measure my crystal when I get home...

An excellent point, kanerich. Sometimes gens don't even meet these standards...

Wow, Frank. Oli did a great job on this one! I love it!

For the money, it's a good deal... Lotta bang for the buck

I got my wife the non-blinged version... It's her daily wearer... She loves it

Oh, dookie! You mean to tell me I'm in the wrong place too?

All I'm going to say is... Some of you vintage nuts may be very happy vintage nuts. We'll have to see how things work out. More to come.

Sometimes reps don't always meet expectations. There are always going to be flaws- Sometimes minor, and sometimes not. If you seek perfection, sometimes you have to build it...

HIPPY! BTW... ryyannon... That is one fantastic WM on your wrist! LOVE the fat hands!!

Hmmm... That bracelet in that link is from x-jewelry. I wouldn't buy that one even with someone else's money.

Just to add... Since posting that thread in the second link, I have replaced the bracelet with a new one that's wider at the first link: A big improvement in my opinion...

Nice GENUINE Monaco!!

Man... Sorry to read about your experience. Nothing kills the moment worse than having the hopes and anticipation of getting something great and receiving a lemon Hope things work out for you on the return.

Thanks guys...

Unreal... Simply unreal! The polished bezel is gorgeous... And the Tritium color lume... Too cool... Quite possibly the best 24 I've seen...

Yup... Rotates CCW, while ETAs rotate CW.

What are you searching under, Bob? The only one I see is for 'The Watch Garage' and that's for a flat T-39 (as evidenced by the beveled top edge).

Having the right datewheel on our MBW's would be nice, but alas, they just won't work with the ETAs (believe me... I've tried)... There are some solutions to the problem... But I'd prefer to go with an ETA...

Okay... For Daytona reps, you have several different choices that are model specific. I'll try to outline the more popular ones for you. Vintage 6263/6265 Daytonas The 6239/6240/6241/6263/6265's are the very first actual Cosmographs known as Daytonas. The 6238, which preceded the 6239 was a 'Pre-Daytona', as it was not a Cosmograph; i.e. the tachyring was not on the bezel, but on the outer edge of the dial. These models are handwind and came with Valjoux 72 movements reworked by Rolex into the caliber 727. These watches were produced from 1960 until 1987. There are several replicas of this watch- All of which carry their own characteristics. I will cover them here: DW- DW stands for David Wong, a very low profile yet legendary dealer who is best known for his DW 6263/5's. These watches are the best of the vintage Daytonas as they carry all the correct case dimensions- 37.Xmm case, 19mm lugs, asymmtric pushers, and like MBW vintage watches, they accept genuine parts. There are several variations of DW's, all of which have to do with the type of movement contained within: -V23 copy -V72 (case kits only) -7750 (asian) The V23 copy mimics the V72 very well in appearance. Subdial spacing is correct, and these will even accept a genuine dial. As the V23 is a bi-compax movement, the hour counter is not functional, but the hand is frozen in place (so, if you're like me and never use the stopwatch anyways, it's no big deal). The 7750 Asian is the same typically found in most other 7750 B1/Asian watches. Subdial spacing is not as correct, and the movement is also an automatic (where it should be a manual wind). This, however is easily remedied as the movement can be converted to handwind. This is also the same watch that was offered on TRC a year or two ago (known as the ExtraExtra model, or EE for short). The V72 case kit gets honorable mention here as the basis for a great frankenstein project. Just get one of DW's case kits, add your own V72 movement, and you have one exceptionally nice 6263/5 replica. Venus based- These 6263's come fitted with the so-called Lemania movement (it's actually a Venus copy by Sea-Gull). The characteristics for these models are- 37mm to 40mm case size, 20mm lugs, symmetric pushers, incorrect subdial spacing. Like the DW V23 copy movement, the Venus movement also has a non-functional hour counter at 6:00; in it's place is a hand that follows the hour hand as I believe it is driven off of the same gear. The typical fix for this is to 'freeze' the hour hand, similar to the DW. 7750 based- These watches, as mentioned prior, have the >ahem< ubiquitous Asian 7750 movement inside. Some of these watches carry correct case characteristics (i.e. the DW) and some carry incorrect dimensions, like 40mm case diameters, 20mm lugs, and so on. Because these watches carry the 7750, they require an extra tall caseback to accomodate the rotor of the movement. This makes for a very tall, bulky case whereas the genuine 6263 is rather slim in profile. Neo-Vintage 1652x Daytonas (Zenith) The 1652x Daytonas were the models to supercede the vintage 626x models in 1988. These new Daytonas came equipped with the Zenith El Primero reworked by Rolex to become the caliber 4030. The new automatic movement was downshifted from 36.600bph to 28.800bph and was fitted to improve upon the cumbersome hand-wound Valjoux in the 'old' Daytona (the handwinding movement and screwdown crown of that model made it very unpopular as it was not very practical). There are a number of replications of this watch that exist- Many cheap quartz and Day-Date functioning models which I won't get into. The majority of the 'quality' replicas that exist carry the Asian 7750 movement. As the Asian 7750 (technically, I'd say this should be termed as a 7753 due to the subdial layout) carries the running seconds at 9:00, this movement best mimics the El Primer's in function. However, as far as aesthetics go, this movement is far from accurate, as the El Primero carries a very unique subdial positioning (all the registers are grouped closely together, as evidenced in my photo above). So, it is easy to spot a 7750 based replica because the spacing of the subdials is spread too far apart on these models. Now, you can build a frankenstein like I have chosen to do. This requires time, ability, tools, and most importantly, money as the parts involved are not cheap. The project entails using a case made specifically for the EP 400 (or a genuine case), genuine dial, hands, crown, tube, and a Zenith El Primero 400 movement. Add them all together, and you have essentially the same watch as genuine, yet without the beat downshift and provenance of a genuine. In terms of function and aesthetics... This watch is the same at a fraction of the cost of a pre-owned genuine on the secondary market. Moving right along.... Modern 1165xx Daytonas The modern 116520/3/8/509/519 Daytonas, introduced in 2000, now carry an in-house Rolex developed and manufactured 4130 movement. This movement, completely unique to any prior Daytona movements previously offered carries the running seconds at 6:00, and has a number of improvements to it over the El Primero 400 in terms of function, and servicability. Aestehtically, the biggest difference with this model Daytona and it's predecessor are 1) subdial positioning. Because the stopwatch reset lever now resides below the 6:00 counter, all of the subdial registers had to be shifted up towards 12:00. This means that the registers at 9:00 and 3:00 (hour and 30 minute counter) now sit slightly above axis to the hour/minute and center seconds hands and 2) the subdials are now ringed with silver, instead of the contrasting black or off-white rings of the 16520. With regards to replications, there are a few different flavors out there that exist, but most of which are based on the Asian 7750. To start, there's the plain jane, run of the mill Asian 7750, which carries incorrect subdial spacing for this model, as well as running seconds at the incorrect 9:00 position. Then of course, there's the mod-7750, which is either a Swiss or Asian 7750 modified with 11 extra gears and additional bridges to replicate the appearance and function of the genuine 4130. There are, in my opinion, 2 major drawbacks to this movement: reliability, and size. Because the modification is adding 11 extra gears, there is much more strain on the movement than ever originally intended. As the movement was never engineered for such demands, as well as the fact that the movements don't arrive well oiled as evidenced by our resident movement guru Ziggy, it's not hard to see that the movements in these are not likely to live long lives (though your mileage may vary). As for size... This movement is simply too thick. Those added gears and bridges add height to the profile of the movement- Specifically at the dial side. Since extra height is added, this mucks up the proportions of the casing as the profile of the caseband is too thick, the casebacks are too tall, and in most cases, the bezel and rehaut are too tall/deep, or if they are of correct size, the backspacing is offset by sinking the crown into the crownguard towards the back of the case (resulting in a really ugly gap between the crown and the bezel). Well... I think that about covers it. Please excuse any spelling or gramatical errors (I still have not had my morning coffee yet)... Best! R

Wow... I love it! Can you tell us more about this frankenstein?

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