jmb

M, I stumbled across those this afternoon and in gold they do seem to go quite well. I spent probably 3 hours looking at every vintage Tudor pic I could find and couldn't find any that didn't have either a rose or shield at 12:00! Do you suppose this dial could have came out of a 60 year old rep? I'll scope around for some hands of this style in gold and put 'em on.

Hmmm, gonna have to think on that. Although they look really good on that watch at just a glance they strike me as somewhat "sporty". One thing that made the hands somewhat difficult on this one is the dial is actually "curved" which gave/is still giving me fits with stem height, etc. I had to "curve" the minutes and sweep hands at the ends or it just looked kinda goofy...

I just counted and I've somehow rat-holed about 20 watches! I really do need to thin the herd... Keepers? I like 'em all but some never get worn. These are the ones I probably will never get rid of: This because of all of the material help and moral support that flowed from people I hardly knew at the time. When I wear it it makes me feel "warm and fuzzy". And, this because it got me started liking no-date watches whether they have CGs or not! Plus, it has so many goofs, short-cuts, rigged make-dos I would be embarrassed to sell it! It's the first watch I ever did any modding on and has undergone several revisions. Probably this, just 'cause I think it looks cool! And finally, this one is a "maybe", just because it's the only thing I can think of that I have ever won by the "luck of the draw". This will be my good-luck charm - plus it really looks bnitchin' on the wrist!

hackR - I think that band would look super on your soon to be constructed Prince Date Chronograph! Your right about the dial, no logo or anything and first I've seen in Olde English script... 'goat - Not sure what "alpha hands" look like. These hands came on the 2783 with dial signed by a company I never heard of. ubi - Thanks, the fluted one was just FUGLY! I now need to go over the whole thing with some OO or OOO steel wool to knock the shine off and give it an older but well cared for look.

OK, went out and made a smooth bezel - 100% difference (for the better) in look!!!

I'm not quite sure what's going on but my preferences seem to have veered in the direction of smaller watches. I had always liked the Sub size watches and they HAD TO HAVE CGs or I really didn't want anything to do with 'em. This conversion seems to have taken place over the last couple of months and I haven't decided if it's just a phase or the way of the future... Enough self-reflection and on to the details. I saw this dial on flea-Bay and something about it just called out to me so I bought it. I have no idea as to the age of the dial or what the exact model was that it came from as it was just advertised as "vintage". At around the same time, Ubi had given me the link to an auction for an ETA 2783 so I snagged that too. Ubi laid an older DJ case on me so I figured I was set. When I went to put the mess together the dial fell right through and landed on the crystal - Crap! I put everything in a box and vowed to take care of it some day. Some day was yesterday, I suppose! I had bought a cheap Prince Date with a 34mm case a little while back so yesterday I got a bit curious and pulled the guts and test-fit the old vintage stuff into the 34mm case and it fit perfectly although the clearance between the sweep hand and the crystal was almost nil. I figured I'd try to shim out the crystal a few thousandths so I popped it out and figured I'd address that when everything else was together. After making a movement ring and getting everything mounted I realized that everything sat a bit too low so the stem was in a bind. I will machine a thin spacer (about .030" will do it I think) to interpose between the dial/movement assembly and the rehaut. It won't pass close muster but I guess it'll be better than a binding stem... Although spacing the movement will probably take care of the hand clearance issue I did a quick measurement and found that the "[censored]" was the perfect size for a T-12! I popped on a Clarks 25-12, sanded a few thou off the inside of the bezel, and pressed it on! Although I like the fluted bezels on more modern watches I think it looks a bit out of place here so I'll machine a smooth bezel later on. For right now I'm gonna just wear it for a couple of days and then put it aside until I have the inclination to fix the remaining issues.

I decided to wear this to work today and since nobody laughed at it I'll probably wear it tomorrow as well.

Thanks, all, it keeps me off the streets!

omega - that would be cool. I was thinking about something along the lines of an expanding mandrel...

I finally got around to putting this one back together last night. Tore it apart and straightened the 8-sided bezel spring best I could, de-burred everything, slathered on moly-grease, and the freaking bezel still won't turn - SCREW IT!!!! I don't think I'll ever need to time any decompression intervals so this is now officially a "fixed bezel" model! I love this watch...

He, he, he... "Have lathe will mod..."

Freddy - If I could find a gen case for $50 I'd damn sure buy it but the ones I've seen have been $200 - $400 for SS! Chief - I put a 10 degree bevel on it - I didn't want youze guyz razzing me about having a "wokky" rehaut. If I can come up with a way to hold the case AND machine the ID maybe i'll add a few more degrees...

Just as cool as the watch! I'm s'prised Ubi hasn't built one yet!

gimp, good choice for a first catch. This is a "very close" rep and if they could figure out how to line up the rehaut engraving, and AR under the cyclope it would be about as perfect as an out of the box rep can be! I have one just like it and would recommend that you check the screw for the faux balance bridge and tighten if needed and also the rotor screw. Nice pics, did you make a "light box" - lighting is perfect?

OK, I had originally bought my wife two Ladies Datejust reps - a silver dial and black dial. She really liked the black dial and wore it daily until the a21j went FUBAR. I tore it apart and put it in a bag and vowed to fix it someday. While perusing the "Bay the other day I came upon this... ... and decided to put it in this... ... and power it with this: I gathered and made the rest of the bits I figured I'd need and finally got motivated: It seems things are never easy and building stuff like this will likely cause me to go insane someday. The dial dropped right through the case - RAT'S BALLZ!!! I had also ordered a plexi crystal as I figured this thing should look sorta "retro" and found that the crystal a lot smaller than the glass one and there wasn't enough meat to just turn it to size so I figured my only option was to construct a new rehaut. The first step was to mill off the old one: And I then made a fixture to hold the case so I could attach the new rehaut straight and drilled and tapped it so it would also function as a clamp: At this point I figured I better make the rehaut. After measuring the gen dial (18.15mm) and the crystal ID I made a sketch of what I would need, cut off a chunk of 303 and started making chips. Center-drill the piece: Drill out big enough for boring bar to fit through: After boring to minimum ID, then boring a short length at a 10 degree angle for the rehaut you wind up with this: I then parted off the correct amount: After de-burring the new rehaut and some final sanding/fitting it was ready to mount: Case was mounted onto fixture with the top of the fixture covered with wax paper: Some JB-Weld was mixed, laid onto the mating surfaces, and new rehaut set in place on the case: I then clamped everything together and let the epoxy set up: After a short curing time, and before the epoxy had reached full strength, I un-clamped everything and took the case off the fixture: I used an Xacto knife to carve away the excess JB-Weld on the inside and test fit the dial - MUCH BETTER!! I then trimmed away the excess epoxy on the outside and test fit the crystal - fit like a glove! I then set the bezel and plastic retainer in place and realized this would just look wrong so I will machine a smooth bezel with an appropriately smaller ID. I really like fluted bezels but even with some sort of stainless "reducer" the original just wouldn't look right. The jury is still out as to whether the quick-set JB-Weld will hold I suppose time will tell. If the joint fails I will re-glue with the original formula slow curing JB-Weld. Now that I have this one under my belt I find that I will probably need to do the same thing to get a vintage Tudor dial into a rep DJ case: But, that would be the subject of another story!

I believe the Exp II needs a 6mm crown and the Datejust crown is smaller than that...

Yummy!

Doc, just a reflection...

From an un-authorized source!

Seems I remember somebody posted a pic of this thing a month or two back and it intrigued me so I ordered a cheap one to mess with. Of course, it came with the wrong crown (I've came to expect that with cheap Explorer IIs and GMTs). After installing the correct crown and tube I looked at the movement wrong and screwed the keyless so I had to rip it apart and put stuff back where it belonged. In the process of recovering from that goof I then knocked a chunk of white paint off the minutes hand and left teeth marks on the GMT hand! Sometimes it just doesn't pay to get out of bed... Well, I finally got it stuck back together with all of it's "user applied warts" and figured I'd toss up a couple pics - just for grins. I remember thinking, after seeing the pic, I would either love it or hate it and I think my feelings are leaning NOT toward the love side. It's not a bad looking watch but the dial is just too "busy" and at night it's got more crap lit up on it than a Christmas tree. It will probably wind up in the for sale section for cheap and somebody else can give it a paint job! For your entertainment.... Here it is as received: And after changing the crown - made a big difference even all other things considered: Oh well, ya can't win 'em all I s'pose!

The cheapie I posted has the steel numbers and markers and they are out there. The only thing that really detracts from mine is the haphazard lume application. This one with a little fixin' up I think will look quite nice - once I figure out how to take off the old lume and apply a perfectly centered rectangle of lume on the marker!

Date??? DATE??? WE DON'T NEED NO STEENKING DATE!!! Looking nice!

It looks to have "EXPLORER" moved to the bottom half of the dial and the oft ranted about rehaut engraving. I do have a cheapie of the old one (last year?) and it looks much cleaner without the engraving regardless whether it lines up right or not... Here's the "cheapie": Here's from the current (today) Rolex web site:

B, nice to see it put together and I'm glad I didn't mess it up TOO bad!

Tasty! I'm starting to like ALL no-date models, even the ones without CGs!