freddy333

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.

Ditto. Absolutely nothing new or newsworthy there.

Wow, that is trick & expensive . But, then, considering the car.........

I do not believe Rolex makes DLC (or similarly) coated parts. I think it is just a standard two tone (steel & gold) watch shot in shadows.

Nice work, By-Tor. Just seconds before midnight Friday as I am writing this, so I will be ushering in the weekend wearing this old thing

No idea. You would need to ask Spin. Sorry.

Not a fan of their extreme designs, but I love their more plain-Jane models (especially those with a power gauge)

The generally accepted arbiters of male habiliment - the likes of Esquire, GQ, Vogue, Armani, Ralph Lauren (which recently forged a deal with Piaget to use Piaget's thin/small mechanical movements in RL's high end watches), New York Times, Washington Post, Alan Flusser (Flusser was the sartorial consultant who provided costumes for the male characters in the movie 'Wall Street'), etc. The other barometer is the fact that vintage Rolex watches are more popular than ever (having held or gained value through the weak economy) while many of the big watch companies of the past 10 years lost market share or have simply gone out of business. I suspect that if you ask your local high end watch retailer what types of watches are selling well, he will tell you that the trend is definitely towards smaller, thinner more understated watches. But that is all academic when it comes to personal taste. If the OP likes the way the DSSD looks on his wrist, he should buy it.

I was 1 of a small handful of people on TZ who loved the DSSD when it 1st appeared at Basel (though, admittedly, I knew it would spend most of its time gathering dust in 1 of my cases) & I could not wait to get a hold of a good rep, knowing that it would not be long before they began to appear for sale here. However, when I tried a gen on at my local AD, I thought it looked ridiculous on my 7" wrist. Certainly, others have spoken with their wallets, but it is worth noting that, according to just about every barometer of men's style, the era of the swollen watch (larger than 40mm) is long gone & thin, understated designs are the future.

You are absolutely correct, Ubi. Those things are quite clear in that picture & I should have seen them. Thing is that I have gotten into the habit of looking, 1st, at the subdial pinion alignment when viewing 1165xx Daytonas. If that appears to be correct, I sometimes make the call & move on. I will have to be more careful in future.

Not to worry, we have all learned (mostly the hard way) the meaning of buy the seller before you buy the watch (or watch part).

I consider myself quite lucky in finding all of the parts I have so far, but dials (at reasonable prices) seem to be alot more elusive. I almost picked up a water damaged dial a few months ago for a great price, but, after close inspection, the underlying metal appeared to be in slow decay, so, in the end, I had to pass. No final decision yet, but duly noted.

Ending the work week wearing 1 of my DJs

All - Thanks for the encouragement. It helps. Here are all of the Phase 2 (gen) parts next to my (Silix-cased) Phase 1 watch The bezel is already covered (see pic). In theory, I have a gen insert en route, but the jury remains open until the part arrives & I see it in person. Other than that, unless I get REAL lucky & locate a gen dial (that I can afford), the completed Phase 2 watch will be all gen except for the dial (which is from MY). I realize it is highly unlikely, but if you (or anyone else) locate a gen 6542 dial (from a reliable source) for less than $1k, let me know. Otherwise, I will go with the MY dial for now. An interesting tidbit that I discovered which may be of interest to anyone intending to construct an ETA-powered 6542 - In the interim, while searching for the 2nd donor 1035, I tried fitting the guts of my Phase 1 watch (ETA 2846-powered) into the gen case/caseback. Unfortunately, it should come as no surprise that the dial is 1-2mm too wide to fit the case, but what I did not realize (& figured out just in time to avoid needlessly grinding a beautiful dial) is that the cyclops on the T115 used for the (1036-powered) 6542 is located 2mm to the left (or right, I cannot recall which) of its location on the T116, which is used for the (15xx-powered) 1675. Both lenses are the same except for the location of the cyclops. Although 2mm does not sound like a big deal, it makes quite a difference when you view a 2.5X magnified date through it. With the correct crystal, the date fills & appears perfectly centered in the cyclops. With the other crystal, it is clearly off. So, for anyone constructing a gen-powered vintage GMT, remember, T115 for 1030/6542 & T116 for 15xx/1675. Very important.