freddy333

Caught on the street, Saturday night, wearing this

Extend the bit only slightly beyond the end of the chuck to allow for the total depth you will be drilling. This will reduce the likelihood of the bit bending/breaking or sliding across the surface & scratching it.

Yes, welcome back, Pho. I am glad to hear the serious stuff is now behind you now.

You can use a hand drill, some cobalt bits & a Sears drill press stand as described here. I am not in a position to provide this service for members, but it is relatively easy to do once you have this setup.

The crown with space between the coronet & dots is the current Triplock (703 & 704, which look similar from the outside). The version without the space is the previous version (702). Rolex installs the 703/704 currently on most sport models during servicing, however, vintage sport models since approximately the 80s would have come with a 702 (earlier sports models would have been fit with a 700, which is actually a Twinlock & lacks the dots altogether). This is a very complicated subject (with many exceptions to the rules) that could fill a book (if Rolex were willing to provide guidance, which they will never do).

Ending the week wearing my 1 of my '42s

That figures.

I was about to say the bracelet looks good, but then I noticed the size/shape of the links, which are wrong (too short/thick) The case is also too thick &, as was suggested above, most of the rest of the watch would need serious work. I suppose that if the dial would fit, you could transplant the dial/2846 into the Silix case I used for my Phase 1 '42 & that would produce a more credible watch than this for not that much more cash.

Carhartt with an Italian suit?

Similar, but not the same. I replied to your PM.

The Thunderbird name stuck when the US Air Force started to award members of its acrobatic team, The Thunderbirds, with the mid-50s Datejust 6309 There is a webpage someone put together about the Thunderbird DJ, which does a pretty decent job outlining its history, but I cannot locate it just now.

The standard MBW dial is good, but far from perfect. There are many threads detailing the dial's issues that you can search out, so I am not going to rehash it yet again here. For the money, it is probably your best bet. If you are willing to spend $300+ for something better (though still not perfect), check out the dial offerings from here, here or here.

Like minds (TT)............. Gen & gen today

Dial/hands - click here Gen T21 averages around $200 (ebay, etc) Gen crowns (either 6mm Twinlock or 7mm Triplock are correct for the 6263) average around $200 (ebay, etc) Ofrei pushers - click here

You mean it isn't?

Late dinner update

If you want accuracy, you may have to build your own. I have not come across any rep 'Birds with the correct 36mm case like the gens. This is a gen 1625 (made between 1959 - 1977 & powered by either 1565 or 1575)

Beautiful diary of the work performed & the end result shows the talent/labor involved. I think the CGs could use a bit more rounding. They look a bit too squarish for a 5513, at least, 1 that has not spent its entire life in an AD's showcase.

Backup loss is actually not all that uncommon. I had a similar problem on a BSD server a few years ago (server got fried & main set of backups were corrupt). Glad to see that good old ingenuity prevailed.

'Shocking' is not a word that belongs in the vintage Rolex dictionary. Be prepared to see more like this in the future.

Thanks for clearing that up, Richard.

There was a smooth bezel 6541 posted on VRF recently, but very few details available. However, the 3 in your pic do not look gen to me.