freddy333

Ditto JoJo.

On ebay, you should be able to find good used crowns starting at $40. New or NOS, $75+. New/NOS tubes about $50+.

Great work, especially for your 1st try. If the bracelet was not such a dead give-away, you might have fooled me into thinking it was a gen.

Same again (but with the end link rings at 6 reversed so the gaps are, properly, on the backside of the bracelet)

Accuracy is in the eye of the beholder. What may be inaccurate to me, will likely pass for perfect to many others. When it comes to the accuracy of a given rep, your best bet is to research the model you are interested in (there are tons of sites & books about gen watches that will provide all the info you need) so YOU know what to look for when gauging the quality of a given rep. I can say that I have never seen a rep that does not contain a number of mistakes & that includes these. In the case of these 2 (as is often the case with reps) they are essentially the same case & dial with different movements. As to movement reliability & rep watches - all rep watches come with used or unserviced movements, so they are, functionally, ticking time-bombs. For this reason, it is always recommended that you ignore sellers' claims of movement quality &/or in-house servicing & factor in the cost of having your watch overhauled by a professional watchmaker if you want it to keep running (properly) for 5-7 years (the recommended time interval between recommended overhauls for all mechanical watches - gen or rep). A cheap non-name Asian movement can run forever if it is properly serviced on a regular basis. Similarly, just about any movement in good condition can be made to run within COSC specs. It all comes down to proper servicing & maintenance.

In my case, I was building a watch without a date, which is why I had to modify the calendar ring. Since you are building a watch with a date, it may not be a good idea to modify it. I would check with the seller of the case (Yuki) & ask what he recommends since the case was designed to fit a 1575.

RYM - Although your case is slightly more accurate than the MBW, read the end of this post. It explains what I had to do to get the 157x to fit into my MBW case.

This (gen, vintage Made in USA) jubilee has been on there for quite some time (though I did shoot a few pics of the 6542 with it a while back). I know a jubilee on a diver's watch looks, at 1st glance, a bit odd (I thought so, too). But once you get used to the look, I actually prefer it (at least on a Rose Sub) over the standard Oyster. I think it gives this watch a bit of edge that it lacks with the Oyster. Oh, the rings are backwards (they flop around alot when the springbars are out). I just spun them around so you cannot see the gaps anymore). Thanks.

Some great shots today, gentlemen.

The metal bits on the dial (crown, hour markers, etc) have small pins that fit into holes on the dial & are glued (from the back of the dial) into place. Once the movement is removed from the case & the hands have been removed from the dial, the rest is relatively easy. However, if you do not have experience removing/reinstalling a movement, I would leave this to a watchmaker or someone with experience. It is very easy to mess something up (even without knowing it).

With reps that require a spacer, I think it always best to use the heaviest material available to help bring the weight of the rep closer to the gen.

Read this

There are many threads describing this problem (& the cure - cementing the joint between the arm wand & arm tube). Very common with DWs & similar reps/frankens.

I am not normally a bit KonTiki fan, but this 1 is very striking. Definitely popped out of the page when your post came into view.

The lighting in a typical surgery is probably 1 of the few places (outside a jewelry store) where the GMTIIC's AR will come in useful, so I think the work involved in getting your crystal AR'd can certainly be justified. The original rep crown, while better than most rep crowns, is a bit too wide, which is why I replaced mine with a gen 7mm Triplock (24-704 - purchased on ebay).

Ditto Flex

Ditto Alligoat - 6mm Twinlock (24-600 or 24-602, which is the modern version that Rolex currently retrofits).

Read this

A Mystery today

6mm Twinlock crown (24-600) & tube (24-6000, but the current 24-6020 is what Rolex fits to all 6mm Twinlock crowns today).

If Mr. Slimeball quit ripping people off, he would not be Mr. Slimeball & we can't have that now, can we? The 'new' watch looks great, Alli. Nice color match.

Both of these MBWs are gen powered. I had to shave a small amount of metal from the calendar ring on the 1575 to get it to fully seat into the case & grind a small flat spot on the pillar plate to give the Hev clearance (note - the gens do likewise). Otherwise, both 157x movements fit their respective (3+ year old) MBW cases without incident. They have also been fitted with gen crowns/tubes, crystals, bezel/insert/pearls, handsets & bracelets, so, excepting their dials (both of which are modded non-MBW aftermarkets) & MBW mid-cases, they are nearly gens

At some point, DW's PN dials will get that long-tail 3 correct (which is the most obvious failing on aftermarket dials that always give them away) & then I will not have to spend an entire evening trying to figure out if it would make sense to sell some of my DWs to fund a single gen PN dial like this (answer - no).