bklm1234

I promised a member friend I did this for him a long time ago. I took today, President's Day holiday to finish it. It's not particularly hard thanks to wm9's movement ring design. Here're the specs:

- wm9 v3

- gen dial $300 (not $200. Corrected by owner), sent in by the owner

- gen crystal $250, sourced by me

- used gen crown $50, sourced by me

- JewelryOutlet555 sub blue insert $10, sent in by the owner

- pearl extracted from a wm9 LV insert which I installed it on the JO insert. I had to enlarge the existing pearl hole to put on the wm9 pearl.

The gen dial's feet got clipped and filed smooth and flat. It's then glued onto with shoe glue to the wm9 movement ring. Easy enough. Just have to be patient and steady with the hands to center everything.

hands installed

perfect fit into the case. Note all the minute markers are even with the rehaut

gen crystal and gasket

used gen crown

wm9 LV insert pearl on JO insert

The rest is standard assembly procedure

-bk

good to see this review, good to see the exp2 both gen and rep getting attention. The gen exp2 was my first gen rollie. The rep is a lot of fun to mod. I put gen crystal and gen crown and wm9 datewheel overlay on mine. First a few pics of the CG trim and gen crown. I'll do some shot of the current state with gen crystal and wm9 dw overlay installed

-bk

Thanks for the info, Dean. I guess that means the Ofrei illumines dot for $20 + s&h- cost of poker keeps going up!

yes use OFREI lume dot. It's practically identical to gen lume dot

-bk

@by-tor: yes 2836-2 fit into the v2. I did a couple of 2836-2's in v2.

While 2824-2 can fit into the v2 case and 2836-2/2678-2 fit into the v3 case, I'm not so for it. The reason is while the crown stem can go through the crown hole and snaps on to the movement, there's a certain stress on the stem as well as on the movement because the stem cannot be entirely straight and free from the wall of the tube hole. When I assembled the first YM, I gave the dial and datewheel overlay extra clearance to make sure the datewheel didn't get obstructed when turning, which essentially lowered the movement's hole in relationship to the crown hole. While I could snap the stem on the movement through the tube hole, the stem was basically bent and stressed (so was the movement). The crown stem felt very stiff to turn for one thing. As I turned the minute hand over and over to test the advancement of the dates (I turned through the entire 31 dates), the movement gave out. My point is there's a reason v3 uses 2824-2, v2 uses 2678-2/2836-2. We don't want to exceed the tolerance of the movement hole and the tube hole alignment. I have seen 2824-2 used in the good old MBW. The crown stem also felt very stiff. It was very hard to refit the stem back to the movement through the tube hole. For longevity of the movements, I don't recommend 2824-2 in v2, 2678-2/2836-2 in v3.

As for the bezel, it's really variance in the parts. I installed several gen inserts. Some installed tighter with sure/tight snapping, some installed without any snapping. The variance isn't big to the point you see a gap on bigger bezels. You have to use glue on them. In fact, I always use glue (shoe glue) on all gen inserts - not fun to lose a $150 part.

As for the shape/profile of the bezel, variance exists on gen too. Which profile is correct? Generally speaking, you want to see a thick and significant bottom portion which the v3 bezel has. The top portion should not be too slanted/slopped down which the v3 bezel also is pretty good. On older v2, the bezel top portion slants down way too much. Now the teeth. No rep bezel to date, except for one short period for the MBW bezel, has long enough teeth. Perry you have one MBW that has that bezel with sufficiently long and near-perfectly shapped teeth, like this this old MBW I used to have

The v3 bezel, or no other bezel can compare to this MBW bezel.

v3 bezel is measured 39.90mm. If they lengthen the bezel teeth by .01mm, we have a perfect bezel, and exactly 40mm in diameter. Something to wish for.

-bk

@FxrAndy: do you have similar info for eta? when I put a 2824-2 on a meter, I notice it runs faster upside down, i.e. dial facing down. It runs slower when it faces up, i.e. dial facing up. Seems opposite to Rolex movement. Do other people find the same?

-bk

thanks for the post, seraphe

@shkolnik: you are saying big diameter again. Precisely?! I told you I measured the bezel which is 39.9mm. Gen insert snaps in. How exactly did you conclude that? Precise eyeballing?

-bk

@joerg: I have a nice member friend here at RWG in the UK to do forwarding. So far it works great. You can use that. I want to say upfront I don't assume customs loss. It's your decision to buy or not by weighing the risk. With that said, all my watches once trapped at customs were returned to me, from Finland, Germany, Italy, all came back. I guess they wanted taxes/duties. When the recipients refused delivery, the watches got returned to the sender. Don't think it's the rule. I just provide my experience for your risk assessment. I'm a low volume seller. I can't stand to lose a watch as much as you.

-bk

wm9 hasn't upgraded the black insert pearl to be the same as the LV insert pearl (we all know how good that one is). They won't for a long time because they have so many black ones.

-bk

bezel it seems in the a bit big diameter and it strongly considerably and is evident, the crown touches bazel....... These small lacks strongly spoil a fine thing......

No it's not big. First gen insert just snaps in. Second I just measured the outside diameter to be 39.90mm.

Is gen supposed to be exactly 40mm or it's 39.something?

-bk

thanks for the post. I love building these wm9 LVs.

-bk

anybody knows the part number for the 2mm springbars? thx

-bk

You can get silver flat-top 3 dw overlay from Chris at Eurotimez. It think it's $20, 25 each. I got 2 for myself.

I have new gen 127 crystals. Forgot how many I have bought over time. Have to look. PM me if you want 1.

-bk

on the stiff turning bezel, if the clicking is loud, the stiffness is most likely the click wire being too bent. Just straighten the click wire some. If clicking is soft, the fit between the bezel and the retaining ring might be the problem. Check if the bezel is bent/warped. It's hard to flatten a bent/warped sub bezel though. The spring plate can be another reason if the clicking is soft. Check if it's bent/warped. Also you can sand it thinner.

-bk

@Star69: when I have more of this new case, I sure will offer them for upgrade. wm9 hasn't supplied enough of them to me, quickly enough.

-bk

By-Tor's right. The sub isn't supposed to be heavy but heft always get equated to genuine. That's just a layman or outsider's thinking. How can anyone actually tell the wm9 v2 is a rep by feeling the weight by hand? Did he take off the bracelet and feel the head only? If my wrist is bigger and I put on 1 or 2 extra link, the weight is more already, more than the difference between v2 and gen heads. The guy was guessing, speaking with a preconception.

Here's my formula for modding the v2. Clark crystal and gasket to give the closer to gen look (more rounded top edge like gen's, more accurate cyclop mag, NO etched crown) and water resistance; correct sized crown (newer ones have correct sized crowns), gen insert only if you can't stand the insert pearl. Gen insert is the best ROI. A new one for $150. You can't get more out of $150 spent. There's really nothing else you need to do. There's nothing you can do about the SEL except you can find a v1 bracelet or a gen.

What to improve on the v2? The answer is in the new wm9 LV. Higher, exact-to-gen crown position by use of 2824-2. That's the final stop of a sub rep case.

Here're some pics. The new wm9 LV. Note the higher case hole:

v2's lower case hole:

wm9 also tappered the lug profile thinner. That makes the SEL less sunken/recessed. I think the SELs look much better in the lugs,

still gaps though.

-bk

Good thing I have only received Z serial cases. I asked George when he could send me the M serial ones, he told me he would have to fixed the issue first. So I don't have a single M serial case at the moment - a good thing.

-bk

no damage. If you have a crystal press, just press the retaining ring back down. You might have to smooth the dents on the edge with a file. Otherwise the bezel might not turn smoothly.

-bk

@silvio: I trimmed the CGs' inside and outside. But I didn't trim the bottom of the U.

-bk

Here're some pics of my reshaping of MBW 5513 CGs to pointy CGs

gen:

MBW:

I have filed down the fat CGs to the pointy shape with needle files and motorized grinder. They were ready for mirror-polishing:

After mirror-polishing:

Enjoy.

-bk

I take an ugly copper/ gold one gen ETA over a decorated clone anytime. Who are we kidding? What does the decoration do for you? The colored gears and 3135 don't make it look anywhere like a Rolex 3135. I have enough bad experience with those clone 2836 it's not even funny.

-bk

The wm9 YM dial often has crooked 12, 9, and/or 6 markers like MP's 12 and 9 o'clock markers here:

and TShoot's 9 and 6 o'clock markers here:

and olorin65's 12 o'clock marker here:

It's my fault to miss it on Tshoot's and olorin65's YMs which came from me. From now on I stare at every dial till I go blind and fix the markers. They are quite easy to fix.

I fixed Tshoot's already. Here's how it looks now:

-bk

I can sell you a wm9 v2 bezel assembly for less. PM me.

-bk

womart's link doesn't come up so can't comment on that one.

eurotimez's and perfect clones' ceramic subs are the same. Those 2 and the last link are all from the noobfactory. The way this factory does the rehaut engraving is really their signature, really easy to recognize. It's the same engraving on their popular GMT-IIC. I'm really bumped by this upgrade on the classic noob sub and noob exp2. Yes, they not only do it to the sub, but also the exp2. The serial is now a M serial. Most members who asked me for the exp2 don't want the rehaut engraving. I now have to polish it off. It's a lot of work. I have to pop the bezel to pop the crystal, not to mention the movement. They don't know what the customers want. They just blindly follow the latest gens. Yuck.

-bk

The CGs are stock except for the inside trim. I didn't polish them and of course I didn't scratch them during the trim

-bk

I put in a gen crown (part 931) on this noob exp2. The tube is an aftermarket tube that screws in the noob case. Gen/generic tube requires re-tapping which I hate doing so I looked and looked for one that doesn't need re-tapping. It took me a while to finally find the tube I want. It's a bit long so I had to trim it short. I also had to countersink the hole. The result is excellent. BTW, I also trimmed the CGs. Enjoy.

-bk