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I was browsing through my favorite "cheap watch" dealer's selection when I was struck with a thought that the Air-King must be the "Rodney" of the rep world as I rarely have seen much mention of them. So, I reckoned the best cure for that was to order one - and it had to be cheap! There were several different dial colors available so I chose my favorite - Black - and settled down to wait. This guy might be cheap but he ships quick so in less than 2 weeks I had my new toy. At a glance it was a sharp looking watch and I was a bit confused as to why they were not more prevalent in the "wild". The case is nicely polished with no scratches or tool-marks, the bezel was pressed on evenly, and the crystal "protrusion" was even all the way 'round albeit maybe not tall enough. The band was, however, the usual disappointment as far as cheap reps go in that the lettering/wording on the clasp was gibberish, the coronet was "squatty" and the end-links fit poorly. Some of you who have read any of my older "cheap rep reviews" might notice that I'm starting to get a bit more picky and critical - proof that y'all are bad influences! The dial has nice crisp print and when compared with some "off the web" gen pictures looks to me to be reasonably accurate but I'm no expert - At least everything's spelled correctly! My main disappointment was that it came in a 36mm case. I was hoping it would be in a 34mm case, as my cheapo a21j Prince Date has a 34mm case, but what makes sense to me apparently does not make sense to rep makers even though the parts are there. 'Nuf said, here's a few pics...

Strange lookin' critter...

Been wearing this one the past couple of days 'cause it's different!

I'm finding that this is kinda fun to wear! Sure will be nice when the welding spatter burns incurred while building this heal, though...

I bought an old 2783 movement off flea-bay and didn't notice until it got here that there was no stem. I can wind it with the rotor and it starts ticking so that's good! I ordered a pack of stems from Cousins, they hit the USPS hub in New York on the 4th and that's the last update. Nothing about customs or anything: Your item arrived in the United States in ISC NEW YORK NY(USPS) at 7:05 PM on April 7, 2010 Usually stuff from Cousins is here in about a week... I have all the parts for a new project except for the freakin stem. I'm sure these will probably show up eventually or after a considerable wait maybe Cousins will re-ship but I'm an impatient ba$tard! If somebody could let me have one I'll ship a new replacement when they finally get here. The main purpose of this post is that I now know that the items will show up the day after somebody volunteers a stem!

Andy, I'm half tempted to "whittle" out one from scratch. After the grief I had modifying a Datejust case I think it might be easier to start from scratch! I have though about building a case for a long time but was always worried about threading the case and case back but after discovering my lathe will cut the proper thread I may try to get a stray case back and build a case around it!

Thanks, T, heavy on the "tools" aspect! S, I'm seriously thinking about the band issue. The gen band looks to me to be made out of "flat" segments whereas the Oyster band's segments are slightly curved. It might not be too difficult to get a chunk of the proper thickness stainless and mill them, and then use a vintage clasp from a rep band like I used here. The only thing that would be different would be that each link would be one, instead of three, pieces. That might not be that noticeable...

Looks good, T. Was this a cq find? You at least got the correct band and crown - mine had a Sub band and a 7mm Trip-Lock! I like this insert better than mine, mines a bit more "vivid" and glossier, yours is ideal.

I've taken this project about as far as I care to at this point. I now have a somewhat unusual wearable watch that doesn't look too bad - from a distance! The only major things left to do are to make the graduate conical shaped "chapter ring" and modify an Oyster Perpetual Date dial. I don't quite have marking the chapter ring figured out yet but I have some ideas. I'm thinking that about the only way I might be able to do it would be to turn out the ring on the lathe, mount the ring on a rotary table on the mill and mill a mark every 6 degrees where every fifth one is double width. I also need to find a rep "Oyster Perpetual Date" dial to modify as the markers are going to have to be moved inward a bit and I can't see doing all that work on the "wrong" dial. I have e-mailed a couple dealers to see if there might be some old a21j Perpetual Date watches laying around but so far no response... Once I'm able to put checkmarks besides these two details I will revisit the project but for the time being I think I'll just wear it around a bit and have fun with it. After discovering the messed up threads in the case that were preventing me from screwing on the case-back I was pretty discouraged and almost just said, "Screw it, I'll grind off the threads and epoxy the SOB on..." I'm glad it was late and I would rather sleep so I called it a day. This morning I decided to measure the thread pitch of the case-back and found it to be .5mm and I started to feel better. For the first time since getting involved in this hobby the "horology gods" smiled upon me and I discovered that the finest pitch metric thread my lathe could cut was .5mm!!! I ground a small "inside" thread cutting tool, mounted the case-back into the lathe, lined up the thread and chased the old thread for about 1.5 revolutions. After doing this I was able to screw on the case-back!!! I fixed the freakin' a21j's keyless works AGAIN and installed the movement into the case, pressed the crystal and bezel back on, and installed the band. I still need to get out the Dremel and do some final polishing on it but right now, on the wrist, it just looks like a well used watch. Here are some pix of the semi-finished piece which, truthfully, will probably stay in this form for quite some time! The final image is a catalog page outlining this model: Thanks for following along with me on this odyssey and hopefully I've proved the worth of "Canal Street" priced reps as far as being suitable as "mod fodder". There is no way I would have tried anything like this on a $300 rep!

Red, I like it! A perfect "matte" black finish. I think MG is just thinking of bead-blasting and leaving it at that, still would be a nice non reflective beater...

That would be great for a "tool" watch!

Very nice! I'm green with envy! We need a little green droolin' smiley... :-p

Great. But, it seems if you just look at an a21j wrong...

Thanks, LH, it is definitely different! I thought I was going to be able to post finished pix this evening but a cranky keyless works and the fact I still can't get the back screwed on have sort of put the brakes on this project for the time being. Seems like some of the a21js cause me to have to straighten out the keyless about every third stem removal/install cycle... I'm seriously contemplating replacing the 21j movements in my favorite watches with clone 2836 movements - they seem to be a bit easier to get along with!

+3. I've decided that when it comes to daily wear reps "low profile" is the way to go! My wife wore this one daily for 6 months - simple, understated, her co-workers didn't believe her when she told them it was a rep:

Of this herd of photographers did any look Chinese? When can we expect a 1:1 rep based on actual photos of the genuine watch?

I may want to decline that job, this has been somewhat trying!

I'll send a pic of this abomination to my "parts guy" and see if he can come up with a set like this for an A7750.

I went out to the shop a little early today and turned some 2.0mm rod down to 1.5mm and made a couple of pins to attach the band to the modified case. I made them a snug sliding fit and when all is finished they will probably be epoxied into place making the band more or less a permanent part of the watch. After attaching the band I put the movement back into the case, installed the hands, and just set the crystal and bezel in place as I'll be taking it back apart for a bit more filing and a final brush and polish. I then tried to screw on the back and found I could only get about 1 turn out of it - CRAP!!! Looking at the case threads under the microscope revealed some deformation, likely from getting red hot during welding, which is probably causing the back to not screw down properly. If I can't think of a way to fix the threads this exercise might wind up being just a "display" piece. Is it going to be perfect? H3ll no! Will it be close? Probably not... Was it worth investing all this time in it? I think so as I feel it satisfied my curiosity as to just how carried away one can get with what was basically a $30 watch! Hopefully it will capture the concept and essence of the original and you have enjoyed watching it's progress. Once it is 100% complete I'll post some final pics and if there is enough interest I suppose I could do a more detailed pictorial chronology. Here's a few more pics:

Thanks, chief! It's almost starting to be fun making this thing now that all of the little burns I got (dumba$$ didn't wear his gloves) are healing and don't sting anymore!

Thanks for the support on this - one thing for sure is that it will be rather, shall we say, unique!

I had a little spare time today so I finished shaping the case, polished the sides a bit, milled slots for the band, and drilled holes for the band pins. Don't really know if I can refer to the holes as "lug holes" on this one! Drilling almost .31", straight, with a .061" bit is an a$$ kicker! One cobalt bit was able to make three clean holes, the 4th started and then the bit started "walking". I immediately stopped and switched bits but that hole is one I/m not very proud of. Here's a nice one: The band doesn't really look correct as the mid-links are too narrow, the links are curved, and the band isn't quite wide enough but for now it will have to do. Maybe tomorrow I'll make some pins for the band and press them in.

I don't think all of the gen hands for the Valjoux will fit the Asian movement. Maybe take a look at this one. The watch is uglier than a mud fence but the hands look to be black or dark grey... http://www.idolreplicas.com/rolex-daytona-working-chronograph-pvd-case-black-diamond-markers-with-blue-mop-dial-black-leather-strap-replica-watch--51375.html

Maybe we should have a game - "Name That Tool" O/S could MC it 'cause he's probably got tons of "stuff" to post pics of...

That is a lot flatter, sure thing! It will probably look quite nice on it! I bought a replacement sapphire crystal for a Tudor and it's about 2 mm bigger than the rep Daytona. I'm thinking about maybe making a plain transitional bezel that would "fit" the crystal and the case. I'm afraid if I carved on one of these it would get out into the markings...