freddy333

For sane pricing (below $400), you should begin by checking out the dealers listed in the Watches, Clothing & Accessories section. If you are willing to spend alot more for a little more accuracy, check out J&W. Or, for the ultimate, diy (as I did with my 5514) by searching all of the dealers' listings as well as ebay for dials, movements, cases & the rest of the bits & construct your own.

Post a good, clear macro of your crown & you will have your answer in short order.

The thing that surprises me is that most people automatically think an ebay rating of anything above 90% automatically indicates reliability when nothing could be further from the truth. Generally, anything below about 99% is cause for concern, especially when the seller has a history totaling fewer than 200 (Rolex-related) items. ebay really ought to revamp their rating system to make it more meaningful to those who need it most.

By-Tor is generally correct. If you want a gold plated rep that is both wearable & a keeper, you are out of luck. Best to stick with steel & avoid gold (or two tone). Contrary to sellers' claims, most rep gold-plating/wrapping/dipping (or whatever sales hyperbole is used) looks either fake, fades/wears quickly or scratches easily (leaving the underlying base metal visible for all to see). However, for a case dweller (a watch that sees little actual wrist time), DW offers a pretty nice 6239 that can be used as the base for a pretty nice franken (crystal, crown/tube & bracelet are gens & caseback is a DW V72 that he gold-plated for this watch - I still need to track down proper pump pushers that fit the case so I can finally seat the bezel)

My watch, which came from Honpo (there are many threads about Honpo that you can find via the Search, but he only sells to buyers in & around Japan), is powered by an A7750 that I converted to manual-wind & then threw on a bunch of gen parts (crystal, crown/tube, bracelet, etc). The modified movement allowed me to replace the caseback with 1 of DW's V72 (low-profile) casebacks & I also fit 1 of DW's 300 UPH bezels, which was the bezel style that came fitted to the initial run of 6239s. I should also mention that the watch, as received, was in terrible condition (loose, ill-fitting parts, dirty movement, etc) , so I overhauled everything & it has been running well ever since. If you or anyone else are interested in constructing a 7750-powered 62xx Daytona, DW is selling cases (& handsets) on the bay for an unbelievably low price. I would encourage you to check it out.

Ditto Stilty.

What? Again? Here are a few Special merit goes to my 1st secs @ 6, purchased 5+ years ago (never treated with powdered graphite) & still going strong

Still dragging this thing (the watch, not the case ) around today

Wearing my non-Daytona Daytona today

The OP's point (a valid 1) has been debated for some time & in many forums (including the gen forums). The real question, as I see it, is whether Rolex (& other high end watch houses) will even be in business 10 years from now because of the increasing accuracy/quality of reps & ever-increasing retail pricing of the gens (without a concomitant increase in quality or performance). There are, of course, differences between the best rep/franken & its gen counterpart (fit & finish, quality of materials, advanced technology, resale value, etc, all of which tilt favor into the gen column). However, while civilians (non-WIS types) used to laugh at people who bought a rep watch (worth $25) for $200+, more & more, it is becoming something of a laughable offense to buy a gen watch (worth $400) for $10k. At some point, the majority of mid-range watch buyers who, previously, have been able to rationalize the high cost of gens due to the finish, technology & resale value, will come to find that the differences in finish are minimal (though still apparent), the technology debatable & resale value no longer sufficient to merit paying an order of magnitude over the actual value just to get into the game. As much as I hate to say it, I fear we may be shooting ourselves in the foot. High quality rep watches may ultimately do to the gen watch makers what digitizing music (which made making quality copies easy) is doing to the record industry. Not sure of the answer, but I am sure that Rolex is thinking along the same lines.

Just returned from late dinner wearing 1 of my VCs (32mm)

16520 case sets often appear on ebay.

Wearing this while working on this (the collection of parts on the left that will look similar to the watch on the right (hopefully, even better) when complete)

Ditto Ubi.

Have you tried any of the watch parts houses like julesborel? You can also often find them on ebay. And to head off your next question, new/NOS stems are made long to fit a wide variety of cases, so you will need to trim it to fit your case.

Unless a knowledgeable watchmaker or collector opens your case & closely inspects your movement, no one will know whether you have a standard V72 or a gen Rolex-modded V7xx in there.

Rolexaddict - what details on that dial did we miss?

Wearing my beater Sunday am (@ left)

Compare your bezel's movement to mine

Welcome, Sammy. Like you, I was, at 1 time, a big Panny fan, but my love affair with bloated time began in the late 20th century & ended around 9/11 (no relevancy to that date/event, just timing). I guess I got in & then got out before they became a big cult fashion. Anyway, my (serious) interest in watches (& reps) began some quarter century ago (there is a thread floating around here somewhere with pics of 1 of my late 80s Rolex reps (1 of the 1st available with an ETA (as opposed to cheap no-name Asian movement)). Since then, I have pretty much been centered on vintage Rolex. Classic designs, with ever-increasing values, that we will still be wearing (& lusting after) for decades to come.

Odd, I was not aware the ceramic GMT had bezel problems (other than the slight misalignment). The bezels on the 2 I have handled (including my CHS from the initial run) are both quite snug, no abnormal play at all. Unfortunately, since I have never removed these bezels, I do not know what would cause them to become loose (or what is required to tighten a loose 1). I think Lani has some experience r&r'ing the bezels, so maybe he will have an answer.

Thanks & not too scruffy yourself. Wearing my beater Saturday afternoon

The older ETAs tended to be nickel-plated (my circa 1987 DJ rep came powered by a (still running) nickel-plated ETA 2846). I tend to prefer the appearance of nickel over the current gold colored plating, but I do not know if either has anything over the other from a technical standpoint.