sneed12

Thanks I'm leaning towards just the names at this point. I really want something personal on the dial. And my future wife is a white anglo Texan, so her name doesn't lend itself to Korean...

The Korean character in blue is my name. You think the future wife's name should go on there? I sort of felt like there was enough text as it is...

I'm getting married this September, and I've decided to do watches for each of the groomsmen. I've been doing a lot of digging. I want GMT automatics, not too expensive since I'm going to be tearing them apart. At first I was leaning towards a21j Explorer reps, but I decided that against a custom dial, the standard Rolex meatball-style hands wouldn't look all that great. Plus, I'm planning on doing the dials in white so I wanted black hands. I found this guy: http://www.perpetual-watch.com/ in China who builds his own line of watches under the Perpetual brand name. They seemed nice, and after some email back-and-forth he agreed to ship me seven of his GMT model, complete but unassembled. He says the movement is GMT - SH RK4D which I assume is a Shanghai B of some sort; the rotor looks exactly like an ETA 2824/2836 rotor and I'm hoping the dial diameter is the same. I plan to use blank ETA 28xx dials from Ofrei (they're 4 bucks) and I hope the date window will match up. I've put together some ideas for the custom dial, here's what I've got so far: EDIT: The aliasing in the image is from converting to jpg, I've got it in vector graphics form as well. Not sure if I'm going to include the PERPETUAL on the dial or not, in the end. I plan to leave the logo on the crown and buckle. Trying to come up with the best way to print the logo in high quality but not too expensive. We have a bunch of color laser printers at the office, so I'm basically just playing with their different settings at this point. I'm also considering leaving the dial alone, and using a decal or something to put the additional text on--I like the texture and the markers a lot, surprisingly. Opinions sought: Custom dials or no? One advantage of the custom dials is that I can (was planning to) do a little lume. I don't think the hands on this watch are lumed, but they look like they would accept lume in the slot in the middle. Include PERPETUAL text on the dial? Do an accent color on the tip of the GMT hand? I was thinking painting just the arrow red or light blue might be nice looking, and would be really easy. Too much color? Any other opinions/advice welcomed.

Not easily, no. Unlike the many watch houses (like Panerai) that use ETA-based movements, Rolex uses all in-house movements and essentially none of the parts will swap with ETA parts.

I bought a beautiful TAG chrono from another member. When it arrived, the chrono was running and the start/stop button would not work. I took the back off and after some digging I think I have diagnosed the problem. The little toothed part that engages the chrono cam doesn't engage it normally, and in fact I think it's installed backwards. If I push it into the correct position with a tweezers then it will engage the cam one time, but won't reset properly. Here is a movie showing the problem. Before the movie start I pushed the piece into position then gave a bit of pressure with my finger on the pusher. When I push it the first time it engages the cam correctly and starts/stops the chrono, but when I push it again it is out of place and won't engage the cam. http://diablo.phys.northwestern.edu/~devildog/a7750/IMG_0579.MOV Looking at the parts diagrams from ETA it really looks to me like it's installed backwards/upside down, ie the side facing the caseback should be facing the dial. How hard is it to remove this piece? Can I just pull it off with a hands puller, and if so how would I reinstall it? If not, can I just remove the screw holding that lever down and pull the whole thing off? I'm hoping this is a fairly easy fix...

The 2836's can be cranky too

I got into watch modding years ago, and have been doing a lot of stuff with Seiko SKX divers. I'm relatively new to the rep game, but already I love the different challenges! When you mod an SKX, everything fits. There's no problem with dial feet. There's no problem with movements not quite fitting the case. The rep thing is totally different. No two watches are the same. I have 2 PO's in pieces on my bench, I was going to do a case swap but the dial-to-crystal distance is not the same between the two. Today, I had a bracelet screw that was slightly too large to fit through the hole in the link. After brainstorming a little bit, I chucked it up in a drill and went after it with a piece of sandpaper. Yes, I know, compared to our resident experts here that's child's play. Heck, ubi's 10 year old girl can probably do it faster and better than I can. So what? I felt like MacGyver. I took stuff that didn't fit and MADE IT WORK. I love that feeling.

Well, I'm eating crow. This watch is beautiful! Slide rule alignment is pretty darn good. Not perfect, but I've seen gens with worse--my Nighthawk was worse when I first got it, and this is about as good as the factory was able to get it. Nice signed rotor. Slightly sunken datewheel I can live with, slightly off datefont I can live with. That blue strap is a lot... brighter... than I thought it would be. I've swapped it out for a brown as you can see, hopefully the blue will start growing on me soon

I already swapped straps on the Navi and the 113--I think the white face 113 looks better with the rich brown, and the blue leather... well I ordered it specifically that way, and maybe it'll grow on me, but it's really... bright

I am totally blown away by how quickly my order got here. I was expecting to wait several weeks, I don't think it was even a full week. Navitimer, Serie Speciale with the standard 7750 subdial arrangement--I don't understand why the datewheel should still be sunken, but I can live with it--and a PAM 113, E/F series stamped movement which I asked for specifically. I'll be honest I was preparing myself mentally for receiving an H movement, I don't know if Josh took into account my request for an F or if I just got lucky, but it doesn't matter. Quick pics: closeups of the watches: Recessed cannon pin, but I can live with it I have been wanting stamped Panerai plates FOREVER! Slide rule alignment is pretty darn good. Not perfect, but I've seen gens with worse--my Nighthawk was worse when I first got it, and this is about as good as the factory was able to get it. Nice signed rotor. Slightly sunken datewheel I can live with, slightly off datefont I can live with. This big crystal needs AR, though, I might have to do something about that. All the empty slots are already spoken for--I have a pepsi GMT master in pieces on the workbench, as well as a 45mm PO. Vac still has my ceramic blue sub. I'm on the preorder list for a BK LV. I guess I still need a bigger box!

I bought that kit, and the quality of everything was reasonable. It was just before I found RWG and the Geek. If you want to build a rep out of those parts, though, you need a dial, crown, and clasp at minimum... and then the rehaut won't be engraved, the crystal doesn't have the etched crown, etc. While I don't regret buying it, since I learned a lot, I did find that it was not cost effective. You're much better off buying a cheap rep (you can get a WBK ceramic bezel sub for the same as the BIN price on this auction) and if you want to go ETA, all you need is movement and hands. Just my .02

If I'm careful and get it out with a small ez-out, is it ok to use it in another case? Or should crown tubes just be one-time-use only?

But the GMT case is 46mm, the regular Navitimer is smaller. Your guess makes sense if it's due to the tricompax module, but then it makes me wonder if the subdial hands would have clearance.

I think I ordered the same version, but with blue face and blue leather strap. Hopefully I'll have the same kind of luck with the slide rule. Does anyone know why the datewheel on the standard-config 7750's are slightly sunken? That doesn't make much sense to me, there isn't any additional module between the movement and the dial to account for the extra thickness...

Mine does, but is it supposed to? I thought the Submariner had a slightly different clasp...

Thanks so much for the heads up! I PM'ed him just last week saying if he ever got another 4813 in I would buy it, but I PM'ed him again to be sure.

I've always liked blue sunburst dials, and I wish Rolex would have built a Submariner with one. I have a smurf blue maxi sub, and I like it, but it's just not the same. I spotted a blue dial sub originally from WBK in the for sales section, a while ago, in the maxi case with ceramic bezel. I snapped it up just to use the dial for this project. Here is the Submariner Rolex should have built: Movement is a standard 21j, I'm debating whether to try and swap to an ETA (don't have a running one in the box at the moment) or try and find a high-beat 4813. I think adding the high pinions to a 4813 (dunno if the parts would swap from a 2813) might be a fun little project. Also, the date font sucks, so eventually I'll put in a better looking datewheel/overlay. For now, though, I'll leave it as it is.

What movement is it? If it's an asian 21 jewels movement, most of them have a little button right near where the stem enters the movement. Press it gently and the stem will pull out. An ETA/ETA clone movement will have what looks like a button inside a slot. Same deal here, but DO NOT PRESS TOO HARD! If you do you will have to remove the dial and hands and fix the keyless works. That slot is designed for you to use a tiny screwdriver to push the button, and do that if you have the right tool. It is really easy to screw it up using a pin.

Ah, thanks for the heads up! Cheapest I'd seen so far was $20 for a set from that eBay seller.

Ah, thanks for the heads up!

It's quite simple, I have done it, it's not that I don't get it. I think it's unnecessarily dangerous and it seems like a bad idea to recommend it to someone who clearly (since he asked) has no experience with it. Seems you're taking it a bit personally. I didn't "crap" on anyone's post, I said that trying to open a watch caseback with scissors if you've never done it before is a good way to cut yourself. That is a factual statement, and not an "attack" on anyone.

Posted over in Wanted, but haven't gotten any nibbles. I bent a seconds hand putting my Pepsi GMT back together, and I need another one for an ETA movement. AFAIK only complete sets are available for sale, and I don't want to spend $20 if I don't have to. Thanks!

I have done it, and it does work fine. There is a HUGE difference between being willing to do something yourself, and recommending that someone else try it. I've changed tires using a box wrench, a pipe and a couple of rocks before, when I was stuck in the middle of nowhere with no cell phone and just the tools in the car. It worked fine, and I was careful, but it was dangerous and I wouldn't ever recommend that anyone else try it. Applying pressure to scissors, whilst presumably holding the watch in your hand, is a recipe for stabbing yourself in the palm. Yes, as long as you're careful you probably won't, but why not just buy a case wrench or use the duct tape ball (which, btw, is the "tool" that I love the most for opening watches!) and save yourself the trouble? To the OP: You will always save time, sweat, blood and money by using the proper tools.

Ofrei has gen hands for $30 http://www.ofrei.com/page1335.html

I would absolutely not use scissors unless you want to stab yourself in the hands. Try the duct tape ball, if that doesn't work get a cheap caseback wrench.