freddy333

All aftermarket Mercedes-style hands I have seen have the same 3 problems - 1. the center lume section of the hour hand is not long enough 2. the seconds hand is not tapered at the end 3. the edges of all the hands are rounded (the gens have square sides) If/when these 3 issues are corrected, then aftermarket hands become a viable option for many gens.

You can get them from Ofrei.

Yes, looks fine.

1 on my wrist. Never more. And, if the watches have Rolex inscribed across the dial, I believe the US gov't (per Rolex's request) disallows more than 1 Rolex to be brought into the US. It is probably unlikely that any airport staff will snatch your watches, but it is worth keeping in mind just in case.

Did you check Clarks?

Yes, there is definitely something crazy accurate about these older movements. My '42 is 1 of the most accurate watches I have. Runs well within COSC parameters. Definitely, if you have a NOS Twinlock, that is the 1 to go with. Although I would never swim/bath with my Subs, I have never had any humidity issues with them. Remember, the Twinlock was intended to seal out moisture down to 660ft! So, as long as it is NOS & fitted correctly, humidity leakage (via the crown) should never be an issue. At least after a full overhaul, I have noticed the same thing. After a full manual wind (40 turns) months ago, the mainsprings in my GMT & Subs are near full charge every time I check them (& keep excellent time).

With the exception of that THING Nanuq posted above, I have to agree with the others. For a Sub, gilt on gilt is the way to go

I am not positive, but I think a 1964 vintage 5513 would have been powered by a 1530. 1520s would have been used after that.

& welcome back. Been awhile.

The reason the end links are mashed-up is because the bracelet is a franken. The seller (or a previous owner) took a relatively common Rolex bracelet & swapped the end links from another watch to form a bracelet for a more popular (expensive) watch. Until recently, when vintage Rolex values began to skyrocket due to the Web, you never saw damaged/bent/scratched end links or hinges (where permanently affixed end links attach to the bracelet). These days, it is rare NOT to see damaged hinges, because nearly every bracelet designed to fit a popular (expensive) vintage Rolex has been monkeyed with. You can see it here with the gen 9315/380 on my pre-Comex Under normal circumstances, there these hinges should be the least damaged part on a bracelet. Yet, these days, it is common to see a pristine bracelet with mangled hinges.

Nice collection & the photography is excellent.

The 9315 end links are permanently attached & I would not deform or modify a gen bracelet.

Yes, you are correct that the end links do not fit the case (which came from Phong) perfectly. The end links did fit my old MBW case perfectly, but, unfortunately, the 1570 movement did not fit perfectly in the MBW case, which is why I replaced it with Phong's case. I could probably reshape the end links to reduce some of the slack, but, then, they might not fit onto my 1665 as well. In any case, the watch/bracelet looks ok on my wrist & the slight looseness (which is somewhat common to many vintage Rolex bracelets, especially as they wear & stretch) does not bother me enough to want to modify them

Why? The bracelet is gen (& correct for early 551x Subs)

Still wearing my beater

You can purchase a separate movement as long as the seller has a lengthy track record (of selling vintage Rolex) with near perfect buyer ratings. 98.7% does not install confidence, especially when accompanied by fuzzy pics.

Early Wednesday morning

Even if both crowns are gens, there are multiple versions of Triplock crowns with varying dimensions. So even when replacing 1 gen crown for another (assuming differing versions) could result in an ill-fitting crown. By the way, there is no relation to the orientation of the coronet on the face of the crown & it proper fitment of either the crown or tube. Orientation of the coronet is mostly luck-of-the-draw (dependent on tube dimension/position, depth of tube in the case, length of stem, thickness/condition of gaskets, etc).

Wrong. In fact, there was a thread on TZ discussing this a few months ago with a number of members admitting having sold Daydates for their scrap gold value.

I thought it was bi-yearly.

Yuki, NDT & Phong all sell 1665 cases to fit a 1575 movement. You will need to check each site for pricing/details (I used an MBW mid-case for my 1665, so I cannot provide any details of other aftermarket cases), but Yuki tends to be at the low end of pricing & Phong tends to be at the high end.