freddy333

Yes, the reason I posted that old pic is because it shows the working Hev I put in my MBW mid-case.

Looks too new to me. A tool watch should look used

Knowing the specific model of Daytona would be most helpful when requesting assistance. But, in general, it sounds like your watchsmith installed the wrong size gasket in the tube, which might explain the difficulty in moving the stem in/out. As for the bezel, you can often find aftermarket parts for your Daytona on ebay. If this is a modern model, with the running seconds at the 6 o'clock subdial position, then you should search out Ziggy's reviews of the secs @ 6 Asian 7750s (hint - there is a reason your watch stops). You might also search out my 'powdered graphite' remedy, which seems to work well. However, you will need to locate a watchmaker willing to overhaul your watch (completely disassemble, clean & re-lubricate all components) prior to applying the graphite treatment (I am not accepting any new work).

click me

Thank you, all, for the kind words.

Since I have upgraded 2 of the watches since my original post, I thought I would bring things up to date with a new pic

If you feel Minh's dial presents a worthwhile improvement over your current dial & you can afford his price tag ($1,100), then you should upgrade. Aftermarket parts are always improving & only you know whether to pull the trigger or await the next big thing. Obviously, after reading this thread, you know where I stand.

Exactly.

Every few months, a thread appears on a number of gen sites with pics of frankens taken from RWG or other rep sites & trumpeting the need to hang the fakers. Often, the poster is a member on RWG. Sad, but true. You may also occasionally see frankens here that get posted on gen sites after their members find the pics on google & assume they are gens.

You are kidding, no?

If the crown is unscrewed gently & screwed back down only until snug (not tight), it should last for several years. That said, Rolex designed them to last 5-7 years, which is the recommended service interval.

Very true, but this is nothing new. The unscrupulous have been ripping buyers off with frankens-sold-as-gens for as long as I can remember. This dial ,& other aftermarket parts that raise the bar, simply make it a bit easier & broaden the buyer gene pool. But a good, clear macro of the dial & its sins are revealed. Anyone who buys a watch like this based on dark, de-focused or distant pics, regardless of the story that accompanies them, is a fool. & you know what they say about a fool & his money................ Anyone care to wager how long it will be before 1 of the members here post my watch on some of the gen sites with the usual rants & raves about reps & frankens?

Excellent work. For improvements, I would consider some 'enhanced patination' & try to get a closer match for the color of the hand lume & dial lume.

During install, I scraped a bit of paint off in a couple spots around the perimeter. I have been feeling sick about it all evening. But now that I see it up close, it actually makes the watch look genuinely older. Similar to how the cracks in JoeyB's plastic insert give my '42 a shade more authenticity, I am now glad they are there.

Yes, that is what I was referring to in my pre-purchase posts & I still cannot really justify the ridiculous price MQ charges for these things. But, even if the rest of the dial was no different than the dial it replaced, I would have had to get it for the texture alone. This sets a new standard in my book.

For full disclosure, I should mention that, since this is an Asian-made creation, it arrived in a terrible state. There were small dots of 'goop' in several places on the dial & the 11 hour markers were covered in so much muck & debris that they absorbed more light than they reflected. I spent about an hour with rodico & a Q-tip to get them to look like a couple of gens I used as models (very few 40+ year old dials are 100% pristine with perfectly clear/sparkly mirror markers on them), so I think this is an acceptable level.

Here is a pic from my DSLR, which gives you a more accurate view of the terrain. As you can see, the texture looks very much like the early gen dials If you look closely, you can see how thick the paint is on the subdial characters (like the gens). Look at the 10 in the minute totalizer & the square at the end of the line opposite the 10. Compare this to any Newmans from Phong or NDT. Pretty impressive, considering what we are used to from aftermarket dials. Finally, an aftermarket factory that actually does use 'special paint'. As always, not quite perfect, but this would definitely fool me if viewed from my benchmark threshold of authenticity - with the naked eye from an arm's length away. Remove the serifs on COSMOGRAP (the H is the only serifed letter) & we might soon be venturing into Texas territory lads.

Handset?

It is difficult to photograph the texture, but this should give you a general idea When I have more time, I will take some pics with my DSLR, which has better resolving capability to highlight the texture a bit more. Like all aftermarkets, there is minimal depth to the subdials & MQ supplements what there is, cleverly, by shading the paint around the inner circumference of each subdial. It is more easily seen (by eye) on the black dial, but keep in mind that many gens are nearly as flat. Empirically, I have noticed that later dials have deeper subdials than earlier dials. The early dials have that nice texture, while the later dials have a more 3-d appearance.

I had planned to transplant a gen coronet onto the new dial, but the 1 on the dial looks nearly like the gen, so it is not worth the risk involved to swap them. What you cannot see in the pic is the surface texture of MQ's dials, which are very close to early gens like the example in the pic above. I have not seen any other aftermarket Newmans that have this texture.

I had alot of trouble getting this dial installed (not the fault of the dial), so I may be re-doing a few details, but here is the new dial next to its brother (also from MQ) (fyi - I transpanted a gen crown onto the '41 dial & the crown on the '39 is MQ's original aftermarket crown - they look almost identical) a shot of the old dial for comparison & a gen for comparison

Fitted with a gen dial, unless the rest is below Canal Street quality, I would have trouble identifying such a watch as anything other than gen. Except where the watch has something on the caseback (like a 1665 or 5514), the dial is, by far, the most important part of a Rolex & the part that I (& most) use as a barometer for authenticity.

Looks good. What is next on your list of to-dos?