sneed12

Hey jmb, do you happen to know if a 2783 will swap datewheels with a 2824?

That "funny grinding/gritty noise" is manually winding your watch. It's normal/good/ok although there's no reason to manually wind if you don't have to, and you should be gentle when you do it.

Nope. But they probably said a new crown and caseback GASKET. Those are service items that should be replaced. The caseback is a hunk of steel, no way it needs replacement unless the threads are damaged.

It's true that you cannot apply the kind of torque with a sticky ball that you can with a good wrench. I never said or implied otherwise. I've opened a couple of hundred reps. Why would you think I would disagree with you? I never said or implied that reps come tight from the factory. See, here is where you are wrong. Demonstrably wrong. You say they "never will be" but I posted a picture of a watch, under ten feet of water, which I personally closed up with a sticky ball. I never said that a sticky ball is the best tool in all situations. I never said that a sticky ball should replace a good set of wrenches. All I said was, when you are faced with an odd sized Rolex rep back, which is supposed to fit the die you have but doesn't, that's pretty much what sticky balls were created for. For what they're supposed to do, they work fine. I have no idea why you have such a strong level of emotional investment in this issue but it's both weirding me out and, frankly, making me regret the fact that I've bought tools from you before. You are wrong. You are making statements which are factually incorrect. You state that it's not possible to close a caseback tight enough to be water resistant with a sticky ball, but I have personally done it a couple of dozen times. I think we also have a duty to be polite and civilized to each other, and you are failing at it utterly. I never advised anyone to throw away their wrenches and use the sticky ball for everything. I made an off-the-cuff comment and when you called me on it, I clarified that there are situations where the sticky ball is appropriate. In some situations, it works. I stand by that statement. It is factual. We're not "discussing"--I am citing facts, and you are ranting like a crazed old man. I'm not relating a "view" or an opinion. I am describing reality. There exist watches which are waterproof, which were closed with a sticky ball. I have dived with quite a few of them. I'm not saying and I never said that you should stop using your wrenches. All I'm saying is that a sticky ball is nice to have around for situations like this. I have no idea why you have such a problem with this, but rest assured, you have convinced me not to spend any more money at your store. If that was your goal, congratulations.

Please don't spout off things that aren't true. It's a fact that you don't know what you're talking about. I've owned a couple of dozen seconds at 6 reps and only had a problem with one of them. Yes, the movement can potentially have problems, but to insist that ALL of them do is ignorant. The gen movement uses the exact same hack (a plate with transfer gears to move the running seconds) they just do a better job of it.

A 2846 has a different stem height (same as a 2836) so it may or may not work in that case.

It's a couple-hundred-dollar rep. Yes, if it were a several-thousand-dollar gen I'd have it tested first. However, you're moving the goalposts. First you implied I couldn't get it water-tight with the sticky ball: Then you said diving with a watch doesn't prove that it's watertight: Now you're calling me a kamikaze. I'm utterly puzzled by WTF happened in this thread. I suggested a tool which, given our hobby, is surprisingly useful. Yes, if I were an authorized Rolex watchmaker who only worked on Rolex watches I could probably just use a set of Bergeron dies and a a wrench, but these are reps. They come in whatever sizes the rep factory felt like making them. A sticky ball is a good thing to keep on hand, especially/specifically for the circumstance that the OP mentions: the rep caseback doesn't fit the size of die it's supposed to fit. Then you go off on some weird old-man get-off-my-lawn rant about how sticky balls are kids toys and "serious watch repairers" don't use them. Well, like I said, if "serious watch repairers" are all as stuck-up as you are I don't want to be one. I'm just a guy who likes tinkering with watches, and I have fun. I'll keep using my sticky ball right along with my Chinese copy of a Jaxa wrench and my other Chinese copy of a Bergeron tool to close my watches, and I'll keep diving with them, and if it makes you feel better to believe that they can't possibly be waterproof, you go right ahead.

Literally just a rubber ball. Wash it well with soap and keep it clean, any grease on it lessens its effectiveness a lot. As I said above, it's not the right tool for all jobs and I do have a Jaxa and a Bergeron style caseback wrench, but it's nice to have especially in the rep world where things are often made to odd sizes.

Uhh... I swim down 80-100 feet into the ocean, and it doesn't leak. That's not "speculation." That's waterproof by definition. I'm not pretending that a sticky ball is the right tool for the job every time. I have a Bergeron clone and a set of dies, too. But these are reps, and sometimes they're made to odd sizes, and in those cases a sticky ball is a nice thing to have. Why do you have such a bug up your ass about it? If serious watch repairers are all like you I'm happy to continue being an amateur, you don't sound like you have any fun. You're the one living blindly in his own little world. Telling me that a vacuum tester says more about whether a watch is waterproof than diving with it is insane.

As a matter of fact, I have. Can't get all of them, but you'd be surprised how much torque you can apply with a good clean sticky ball. I have made something like 3 dozen dives wearing watches that were closed with sticky balls. This watch was assembled by me and closed up with a sticky ball Over-torquing the threads won't make a watch water tight, it's about flatness of the mating surfaces and a good gasket. Overtightening can actually ruin water tightness. Whatever you say, sir. You sound like the guys on the gen forums talking trash about reps. What works, works.

That's why god invented the sticky ball

EZ-out, and be careful.

That's what she said

Pandas don't seem to be available any longer.

Yeah, I have a parts drawer full as long as you're not picky about whether the mag is exactly correct. PM me your address.

It can be made to fit.

I'm not super anal about it, but I do try to do this whenever I can.

I have some spares, I'll send you a couple.

Quick glance at the caseback shows a gen Omega movement in it....

Interesting. I'd have thought the date would be very far to the right in the cyclops, since the ETA position isn't correct for this watch.

No.

No way. No watch that has a different beat rate than the gen should even get mentioned as the "best rep of all time."

I've owned about a dozen without a problem. If you buy a $200 rep, and it dies in 2 years... just buy another one. Sell the dead one for parts.

[censored]. Yes, some have problems. Not "most."

You've been here a week... out of 12 posts, two of them are on this topic?