theblueprince

No surprise that vintage dealers operate like this at all, an "open secret" if you like. The vast majority of them do and they all know it but no one will upset the status quo while they are all making good money. Go Mayer imo.

There were so many different style 1675/0 inserts that Rolex made/put on watches that comparing one to one gen example is not a good way to tell. I picked up and sold 3 gen vintage Pepsi's until i found one i really liked. Colours/shades/fades on pics on the internet rarely look the same in front of your face. It's a very personal thing. I just found a "perfect" one I'm now keeping and it cost me £100 from VRM. On the other hand I've seen one's on there costing more than 5X that which I think are poor and I don't like. What year watch you're trying to build also plays a big part as to what kind of insert font style, size, positioning etc you should aim for. Research on VRM archives is your best way to go then keep a look out for the type of insert you need. Anything with fat fonts is now going to silly prices, ditto strawberry and sky blue or similar *natural* fades. Edit - Fwiw from the poor pic I'd say the one posted by OP is gen. The 2's look OK which is usually the easiest way to tell. Value about £100/$150.

Has anyone ordered from Minh lately? Results?

Getting hold of multiple old watches like that and like this one is not that hard really. What most of the traders on VRM, TRF and all the other brand watch forums do is put ad's in local(ish) papers, magazines, periodicals, ads on local companies websites etc...something like "OLD ROLEX / OMEGA / WHATEVER WANTED!!! TOP PRICES PAID EVEN FOR YOUR BROKEN WATCH!!!" and you'd be surprised how many calls they get. That's how they get old never polished examples and safe queens as well as the usual old used but ok condition watches. Sometimes they turn up junkers like this. They also have deals with jewellers (cutting them into profits) to call them when a walk-in turns up with an interesting watch. Their MO is to go see the people who call them and if the watch is dirty (scratched up plexi, ingrained dirt in case and bracelet etc but behind all that a good clean maybe even never polished example) and not been serviced for ever they will say something like "Oh, this was a nice watch but it needs a lot spending on it to make it good again, it's not been serviced, buyers like to see service history, needs a lot of new parts and money spending on it blah blah" and if it's been serviced regularly, bit over polished maybe, dial and hands replaced maybe they'll say "Oh, this is a nice watch but it's really lost a lot of it's value cause all the original parts have been replaced and the case is worn down". In both cases they'll use these tactics to get the seller to accept a low-ball offer. They get loads of pieces like this from old guys short of cash, widows selling their husbands old watch, children selling legitimate inheritance pieces and that sort of thing. It's easy to build up a collection of spares to this way from really rough pieces so the one's they get with replacement dial/hands say will suddenly get the correct period parts put back in. The vintage watch market, especially for Rolex is super-shady, even when so called trusted dealers have pieces with papers and original purchase receipts the watch will often have been fettled by them prior to sale and not be all original. Of course this is common knowledge amongst a growing number of sellers, buyers and collectors now but it's not talked about because no-one wants to upset the apple cart. It's still too easy for everyone to make good coin. Try bringing this up on VRF and see how long it lasts!

There isn't one pretty much tbh. Even the WM9 TT one isn't that good it looked great and had wrapping on the side of the SEL's etc but scratched as soon as you breathed on it.

If you want it for the Mcqueen connection then you should consider that he never had an 1655 Explorer. He did have a 5512 Sub though.

There was one for sale on here a while ago, 900 Euro i think and in the last year one has sold on Ebay - 900 USD i seem to remember. There have been none on trf or vrf that i can remember.

You'll be needing a 16660 too then too... http://www.chrono24.com/en/rolex/sea-dweller-16660-matt-dial-box-and-paper-full-set--id1474649.htm?id=1474649&picnum=0&tab=pics

Looks like she'd ruin your life. And in the first pic does look like a man!

Cheers guys.

^ I've been wanting to know that too...

Yeah £500 is about the going rate for a decent working one now.

Yep, learn all the brands that have V72's in them and search search search. I had a list on a scrap of paper of about 20 brands. Always meant to copy it to a file....and of course i lost the paper before i did in one of many house moves.

Being discussed on VRF and hasn't been called out yet. Interesting.

Unless the description on the package was "fakez watchezzzz" i doubt it. Packages from UK - Germany (or any inter-EU packages) don't even need customs decs or descriptions anyway.

Try the one from slimeball and let us know

I like the work on the dial.

The 6 in the 26 isn't open like all the other 6's and 9's are. Never noticed that before.

Well done for getting a proper gearbox...see loads of these with tips! Uuuuggghhhh.

Quite a few gen owners do it. I like the look.

The price in the UK for service on vintage sports Rolex has just gone up from £300-350 to £650 ($1000) and that's before any extra/replacement parts are needed.

Rolex UK serviced my 31 year old 16750 in March this year. They left the original Tritium dial and hands on it.

If you start putting 3135's in these things they're getting too close to gen cost to build once you figure gen dial, insert, hands, crystal etc. If it was a rare ltd edition or rare vintage then yes that would be worth while but no way on a common regular modern sub.

I bought it to put on my $100 Watcheden milsub rep.

There was a $3000 insert on VRF the other week, sold within an hour.