Luna

In some cases, especially with the better quality reps, it'll be less of a health risk than a gen. The case backs of reps are often 409 steel, because it's cheap - but the more expensive steels have nickel in them. 904 in Rolex watches is well known for giving rashes to people with nickel sensitivity. Also, a modern rep of a vintage will not be radioactive - whereas some vintage gens have radium lume. Any lead inside the watch is not going to present any risk at all to the wearer. If the bezel paint contains lead there might be a risk. There have been posts in which people have tested reps for the types of steel used. It'd be interesting if people could test for lead and nickel. I remember reading that Alpha 'explorers' have a bracelet clasp that contains lots of nickel, and these are re-branded reps. I always give the bracelet a good clean, and usually wear natos though

Thanks for the links, always good to know of another source for those snowflake hands. For non-rolex types, RLT in the UK has a few, seem to be the same as ones Ofrei stock. RLTWatches

On ebay, the ones from repairthatwatch in the UK are pretty terrible - too small and the lume is very green. I would be interested to hear about other UK sellers too, I haven't found much so far. I like Helena Rou's hands, but she is in Hong Kong (ebay rouhelena). They are nice maxi hands, with very white lume. They are like the new ceramic sub hands, rather than the old maxi LV. In the US, Mkii sell excellent hands, with very good lume, but they are expensive at $45.

Yuki's are $10 delivered for the set. At least if you get all three the lume will match.

That is a lot of money The ebay seller in my first post gives the choice of 5.35, 6.1 and 7.3mm crowns, in the same listing for the same price. I chose the 7.3mm. Unfortunately there aren't any pictures of the other ones, but it might be worth asking. He also mentions that he has date discs, not sure which ones, but some members were looking for some after Eurotimez stopped delivering.

It came as just the crown and the gasket inside it. But other tubes were sold separately too.

Thanks for the replys! Here are the insides. The left is the ebay one, the middle is Yuki, with Yuki's $11 tube, and the right is Cousin's Swiss made one, which is the worst of the 3. I also bought 2 of Cousin's tubes, one had a long thread, the other short On the right is the one with the short thread.

I recently bought some crowns and thought I'd post a few pictures to show what they are like close up. Both of these are sold as genuine, and they both look better than any reps I've seen, but I'm not sure if they really are gen or not. The first are vintage style crowns from the ebay seller ojjk18. These were listed at

Copying and pasting from a watchuseek thread: The standard eta 90/150/25 hand sizes will fit: ETA 2801-2 ETA 2804-2 ETA 2821-1 ETA 2836-2 ETA 2842 ETA 2846 ETA 2850 ETA 2851 ETA 2852 ETA 2853 ETA 2858 ETA 2859 ETA 2870 ETA 2871 ETA 2872 ETA 2873 ETA 2878 ETA 2879 ETA 2892 Hangzhou 6300 Seagull ST24 All of these listed movements are 11-1/2 ligne movements, so they all have a casing diameter of 25.60 mm, and an overall diameter of 26.00 mm. The thickness (T) and stem height (SH) are the only things that vary: ETA 2824-2, T: 4.60 mm, SH: 1.80 mm (Hands 90/150/25) ETA 2892A2, T: 3.60 mm, SH: 1.50 mm ETA 2801-2, T: 3.35 mm, SH: 1.80 mm ETA 2804-2, T: 3.35 mm, SH: 1.80 mm ETA 2821-1, T: 4.60 mm, SH: 1.80 mm ETA 2836-2, T: 5.05 mm, SH: 2.25 mm ETA 2842, T: 5.05 mm, SH: 2.25 mm ETA 2846, T: 5.05 mm, SH: 2.25 mm ETA 2850, T: 4.05 mm, SH: 2.50 mm ETA 2851, T: 4.05 mm, SH: 2.50 mm ETA 2852, T: 4.05 mm, SH: 2.50 mm ETA 2853, T: 4.05 mm, SH: 2.50 mm ETA 2858, T: 4.05 mm, SH: 2.50 mm ETA 2859, T: 4.05 mm, SH: 2.50 mm ETA 2870, T: 5.30 mm, SH: 2.50 mm ETA 2871, T: 5.30 mm, SH: 2.50 mm ETA 2872, T: 5.30 mm, SH: 2.50 mm ETA 2873, T: 5.30 mm, SH: 2.50 mm ETA 2878, T: 5.30 mm, SH: 2.50 mm ETA 2879, T: 5.30 mm, SH: 2.50 mm Hangzhou 6300, T: 4.60 mm, SH: 1.80 mm Seagull ST24, T: 4.60 mm, SH: 1.80 mm So, yes the 2846 should fit a 2836 case like the MBW, but not fit a 2824 case.

Is your yuki dial a blue one too? I'm wondering if the black dials from Yuki hold up better. Its not uncommon for one color to be stronger than another. The gen blue Tudor dials are supposed to hold up better than black, and I remember that the white blanks from ofrei were tougher than the black ones..

+1 I couldn't find any direct info about this either. I did find a some mention of other reps being sold as MBW, when they were not, I guess this could have started the rumours. I have a very recent MBW from Narikaa, the case is threaded at 3mm for the tube, so takes a gen tube and crown. The movement is 2836, which means that a 2824 won't fit properly, and the crown is close to the back of the case. This can make it difficult to countersink the tubes for a new, bigger, 7mm crown. Inserts click in to the bezel fine, but I've used a little glue to make sure they are secure. The bezel is the gen construction, but I haven't tried to see if a gen bezel will fit. I'm very tempted to get an aftermarket one from NDT, because the machining is a bit weak and shallow around the edge of the MBW bezel. Tropic 19 crystals fit but can be too tight, so either the crystal or retaining ring need filing. 26mm dials, both Yuki and MBW, have room to move about a bit, so I think a very slightly larger dial might fit.

Could it be that one is the new style tube, with the spline at the top, and the other is the old style, with the spline at the bottom. There are also at least 2 spline sizes, 3mm and 1.8mm I think, maybe you have an incorrectly labelled tube? Then again, I don't really know what I'm talking about, so best wait for someone who does

See page 6 of the documents called 'Technical Communication'. There is one of these for each movement. The 2824 uses the H1 to H6, with H2 being standard. The 2836 uses H3 to H6, with H4 being standard. H1 and H2 would presumably be too small to allow for the day mechanism.

I think the ETA website should be able to tell you the standard heights, and available heights for each movement, and which parts are interchangeable. The documents are here: ETA Service Portal EDIT to add: the 2836 is 0.45mm thicker between the crown and dial than the 2824, to allow for the day mechanism. Logically it would seem that the pinion etc, should be 0.45mm longer.

Doesn't the 2836 have longer parts you could use in the 2824? - if you have a spare old movement lying around.

Cool! I recently tried a blue Tudor Sub dial from Yuki, but its so fragile, you only need to glance at the time and all the paint falls off Each time the dial and movement are removed, it leaves a ring of blue where the dial was touching the case! Fortunately it's the same shade of blue as Humbrol matt blue emamel paint. In contrast, the MBW dials are absolutely proof. I'm thinking of getting another Yuki, and this time applying a few coats of matt varnish.

Just to play devil's advocate, and I'm only a noob when it comes to vintage Rolex - so don't believe what I say , but I've seen many tritium dialled watches where the hands have darkened more than the dial markers, most likely due to humid air getting inside the case. Together with temperature variations this would result in condensation. It's also not uncommon for some parts to darken more than others. Each of the hour markers are also different shades. I can think of two reasons why the hands could each be original, uniformly colored, and yet different shades. It might be that they are each from a different batch, one batch being more susceptible to darkening. Also, any moisture on one hand could spread over the whole hand, because the lume is connected at the back, thus causing uniform darkening. Maybe the watch was left stopped for a long period at 10:10, and moisture attacked the 10 o'clock position more than the 2 o'clock. Well, even if it's not all the original parts, it looks great. Any changes are as much a part of its history and character as any of the little scratches or dings. Enjoy it!

Wow, looks fantastic! How is the ink holding up over time, have you noticed any fading/peeling/etc with the first ones you made?

I seem to remember a problem was that the crown tube was part of the case, and not replaceable if the thread stripped.

Project X style vintage sub... I just couldn't leave the poor crown guards alone Not sure if I prefer a blue, green, or black insert... It's been fun, and I think I've learnt quite a bit with my first attempts at modding.

Yes, I got a sealed nickel plated ETA 2836-2 yesterday

http://www.ffupload.net/download.php?filename=12699079061.pdf Done using vectormagic.com, the 10 needs a bit of work.

Cousins material house have 2 sizes of T19. Both are made by Sternkreuz. The tightest fit measures 279 inner diameter, and 305 outer. The other one measures 282/303. I bought the 282/303, and still could not get the retaining ring of my MBW to fit over the top of it. After running the edge of the crystal along some 600 grit sand paper, it was perfect. It only takes 20 seconds to sand a new crystal to size, and if you go to far, it is only a

Waiting for a blue bezel insert to arrive - could be a couple of weeks, so I decided to wear it like this for now.