ubiquitous

I'd recommend a crystal press with a big ol' die.

Thank you for the kind words, Bazz! I have indeed been working on my photos a bit Cray- Glad that my info is of use. If you run into any issues with shaving the insert down, I'm just a PM away Old pics removed from last page... New pics are here... Thanks for looking

Better pics to be added...

Bezel pics...

Ed- Clasp is on it's way Bob- Hmmmm... Don't you have a GEN 1665 on it's way?!

Cray- Hmmmm... I am not 100% sure what version of TW Best this is. I had initially negotiated this watch as a partial trade with another forum member; I asked for the 'Classic' as I wanted the older pre-F series 16610 with the lug holes and was going to fit a non-SEL Oyster, but got this instead. One look at the watch as a whole, and I was about ready to flip it. But the more I looked at it, the more I realized how much potential there was for it. So... work began on it, with only best guesses as to what would fit and what wouldn't. After taking a chance, and investing a little bit of money, I now have a watch that just so happened to turn out better than I had expected. Jet- Thank you, thank you kind sir. With regards to the insert- It was actually pretty simple to do. The inner lip of the actual bezel is angled up towards the crystal going around the inner diameter of the bezel. The bottom of the insert is flat at the base and then angles up towards the inner diameter of the opening for the crystal. What I did was... -Held the insert using my left hand (with a gardening glove on), face down so that the back was facing up. -With my right hand, I held my dremel, almost in the same fashion as one would hold a pencil, and had the grinding bit at a slight angle. RPM was around 1100rpm, and I would apply moderate grinding pressure to the insert's bottom surface at the applied angle. -Using my left hand, I would turn the insert gradually, allowing the grinding bit to travel the entire diameter of the insert. I did many passes; more than I can remember, test fitting several times throughout the process. As it currently sits, the insert is pretty thin, but it fits flush with the bezel. Pics to come in just a sec... R

The only market for ths watch is among the serious collectors, and no serious collector in the market or position to purchase an $80k vintage Rolex would even consider that one.

Cray- I was initially worried about the TWG dial going in- The TW Best dial was larger in diameter, as I had to cut it down to fit to my UBI-ariner FOLEX case. So... I was a little worried that maybe the TWG dial was too small. But, I compared both dials out after trimming, and the TWG dial looked to be a good fit. Of course, I still wasn't sure until I had the case in hand to test (the pessimest in me). Thankfully, the dial fit quite well... As expected, however, I did have to trim the dial feet off the TWG dial, as the post locations differe between the 21j and the ETA. Anyhow.. Thanks all for the kind comments. It is still my belief that the perfect Sub is not out there... But with using the right parts, you can get a little closer to that goal by putting something together... Best, R

No big surprise here...

So, is that it on the guesses? Where are the rest of the eagle eyes? If no one else has any guesses on the recipe list, then I suppose I'll reveal the ingredients. Here is the tale of two watches... The watch in the above pics started life like this: The basis is a TW Best from Eddie Lee (but not the Classic). Good case, decent bezel, nice rehaut, and the crystal is VERY well done! There is no visible white gasket ring between the rehaut and the crystal, and the datemag is about right. The crown etching @ 6:00 is so small that at first I thought that maybe perhaps there was NO etching! I caught it in just the right light, and saw something there, so I looked through a magnifying glass, and sure enough, it's there. What's more... It even has the sideways 'S' at the base of the coronet to indicate a 'Service Replacement'. Nice touch. Unfortunately, the bezel insert fitted was pretty bad; the '30' was misaligned and shifted too far to the left, and the dial was no good as it was printed with silver font, and very poor alignment. The rep crown was something that really bugged me for some reason- It had the right height and size to it, but the cut on the ridges was nothing like genuine as it had flat tops on the ridge points, and the tube was typical rep- Small diameter, and soft metal. So... Next step was to gut the thing, and address the CG's. Using a hand file, I trimmed the CG's down ever so slightly, as in my opinion, that's all it really needed. Yes... I use the slow, ancient method to handle this task, but in my opinion, it gives better control, allowing for less material to be removed at a time, and a better overall shape. At this point, I asked a friend of mine to help me with the install of a genuine crown and tube set, as my free time was now being consumed with additional work from the office that I was doing from home (and such is still the case ). In the meantime, I ordered one of TWG's 21J Asian Subs, which arrived quite quickly despite current situations with outbound customs in China. The plan was to use the TWG Sub's excellent dial, and hollow link bracelet in the TW Best case. Since I now had a completely extra case, movement, hands and the old dial from the TW Best watch, I used them all to put together this beauty: Anyhow... Back to the main project... Last night, I got the case back with the tube and crown installed. I believe that the case had to be drilled and tapped for the install of the tube, as the rep tube's case threads appear to be much smaller in diameter than the genuine OEM's. The genuine bezel insert was an interesting install- I had to trim quite a lot off of the back, but I managed to get the angle of the cut just right. How do I know it's 'just right'? When the insert snaps in like genuine and holds without the need for glue, I'd say it's about right ....And, yes, for those of you who noticed something wrong with the seconds hand, that's because the original that came with the watch broke when removing it. The hand actually seperated from the tube when it was pulled. As I had exhausted all the sets of white lumed hands in my inventory (remember, I'm more of a vintage guy), I will have to order another set, or get these guys relumed to all match white. Not a huge deal, but kinda annoying when I look at it. I'm still touching up a couple of areas on the watch, so it's still not quite done just yet. I also have to work on swapping end links between bracelets so that I can use the right one on the TW Best case So... Final run down is like this: -TW Best case -ETA 2836 from the TW Best -TWG 21j datewheel overlay -Genuine bezel insert (trimmed to fit) -Genuine crown and tube -CG's trimmed -TWG 21j dial -TWG 21j hollow link Oyster bracelet -TW Best SEL's -Old vintage seconds hand (from some other watch I gutted for parts, I'm sure) I think that about does it.

Like this?

Okay gang... This is a rough 1st draft of my Project 16610. I won't spill the beans on what's been done so far, but I'd like to see how many of you can guess what parts are what Hmmmmm... And, yes... Some parts are fitted temporarily as I am waiting to source replacements as the prior pieces either broke, were damaged, are broke AND damaged, etc...

Unfortunately, there are no accurate 16600's. The only worthwhile Sea-Dweller (in my opinion) is the MBW 1665...

Both are reps... Frankens to be more precise. The 6263 on the left is going in for surgery to have a V23 transplanted; the 16520 is an El Primero 400 based frankenstein, gen case, etc...

It's genuine. There are many other variations... Some Super Oysters, some with the '+' like on the one you linked to... And of course, the ones signed BREVET that we all know and love...

The only good recipe for patina is age. My advice... Just wear it.

Some pics of a 116520 and 16622 (pics and watches are not mine )

New TwoTone 18k WG and SS combo with Oyster bracelet...

No... 18k's have solid mids... And even the vintage models had SELs... The only ones that have had hollow were SS and 18k/SS two tones

Well, Rolex has been moving towards this direction for some time now. Historically, all solid 18k models have had solid mid links, while the two tone (Rolesium and Rolesor) and most recently, the Daytona have switched to solid mid links. So, if you were to visit an AD that had a 16622 (Rolesium), 116520 (SS), and 116264 (Rolesor), you'd notice that these models all have solid mids on the bracelets. Now... The question is... How long before Rolex starts implementing this design change across all of their SS lines? Or will they? TT has been for the most part converted... But it will be interesting to see if the SS Sports models like the Sub see the change. Remember... The 14060 no date Sub still has the old style non-SEL bracelet and holes in the lugs while the 16610 and 16600 have seen updates with regards to both. With this in mind, it's difficult to say if this would be an across the board change or not, especially since no one except for the folks behind closed doors in Rolex Geneve knows why they do the often time strange things that they do.

The watch is genuine, no doubt, and the dial came that way from the factory. I have seen both, the serif'd correctly spaced hyphen and the non-serif misaligned hyphen on more than one occassion (one of the non-serif'd dials was at the AD). This is the same situation with the 16610- 2 different dials with 2 different fonts, but both are gen... Serif and round fonts Non-serif and fonts are slightly squared

Indeed. It was a sacrifice I had made; one that I hope will get my black dialed 6263 running again under Swiss motivation. More to come, though I am not sure how soon...

One more...

Thanks for the kind words, kruzer! I believe it is you who is the gentleman... The pleasure was all mine! I was absolutely sad to see that beauty go... But glad to know it's landed in good hands Kindest regards... Randy