freddy333

Thanks, but that was not the shot I had planned. It was supposed to be a pic of me wearing the sunglasses with Newman's image reflecting, fully, in both lenses, so it looked like I was standing there next to his Z with my 6239-strapped arm also reflected in 1 of the lenses. Unfortunately, I ran out of hands (2 is never enough) & I could not figure out how to get everything in the shot without the reflections (& camera) blocking everything. Then, the plan was to strip out the color, half-tone the result & crop the pic into a newspaper article from the 70s so it looked period correct. 1 of those cute ideas that, in theory, seemed doable, but, in practice, did not work out quite as planned. Off to the feed trough.

I was a Jaguar apprentice when the last of the V12 Es left the assembly line. Unfortunately, I could not afford 1 then (even though I was able to get a discount through Jaguar Cars) &, as you mentioned, they proved to be alot of trouble later on (hard to produce a quality car when, between the strikes & tea breaks, the assembly line is constantly being stopped up to a dozen times/day). I have owned 2 E-types (sadly, both sold years ago), but both were inline 6s. Beautiful Beemer, Euno.

If the dial is MBW, I would assume the movement & datewheel are also MBW. Most MBW dates are pretty well centered, at least when new. However, they rely on datewheel overlays (thin metal plates containing the Rolex-style fonts which are glued on top of the original ETA datewheel) & these tend to shift &/or come loose over time. So your overlay may have simply shifted off-center. The only way to tell for sure is to remove the movement, remove the dial & hands & check the datewheel &/or reglue the overlay in the correct position. Then reassemble.

I assume by 'Day-Date', you mean the Rolex Daydate? Search the Collectors' offerings to see if any of them have what you are looking for. I believe that Josh (Perfect Clones) & Andrew (Trusty) still make some Rolex reps to order, so you might email 1 of them & inquire if you do not see what you want.

Off to dinner Thursday eve with 1 of Newman's own

Is your date disc gen? Varying date locations sounds like 1 of Mr. Slimeball's 'You Will Not Be Able To Tell The Difference From The Original' discs. These contain any of the following - incorrect font, incorrect placement of said font on disc or incorrectly shaped teeth of disc (which causes the disc to stop in between some dates). If you can see the edge of the disc, your dial window may be cut incorrectly in the dial.

Very nice watch, but it does have a few notable errors (wrong date font, etched (instead of engraved) markings, index marker at 12, mediocre fit & finish, etc) that most modern reps have.

They look good, but a bit overpriced. The last set I bought on ebay (they also came from Germany) cost almost half what he is selling his for.

I used to restore those. The early 60s versions were especially nice cars. We also did Triumphs & a couple of Lotuses This was my daily franken beater back then, which is now old enough to qualify as vintage itself Great catch, JoJo. Not only a beautiful watch, but in truly excellent condition & on a 9315. Did you get any of the watch's history from the previous owner?

My usual beater (left) today (Thursday)

Beautiful motor, Euno. How about the container?

Mr. Slimeball has aftermarket discs available, which might fit until you find a proper part.

Unless someone has an extra lying around, ebay is your best bet. They come up fairly frequently, both gen & aftermarket.

It seems to me that you could probably construct a pretty accurate rep by combining the best of the 2 best versions. Of course, that would double the purchase price, but, as they say, the 1st 90% towards perfection always costs you alot less than the last 10%.

Although they have been known to act like pipe bombs when crossed, they are tubes in 1 of my Futtermans.

Get another job, sell your blood & sperm as often as possible & try to limit your food intake to the essentials. Works for me.

Wednesday

1030 = 28.5mm dia, 5.85mm height, 18kbph 2846 = 25.6mm dia, 5.05mm height, 21.6kbph 2824-2 = 25.6mm dia, 4.8mm height, 28kbph It can be done, but, depending on the case, swapping movements will require some combination of spacers &/or case modifications to make things fit/line up correctly. Unfortunately, due to the case-to-case inconsistency of most aftermarket cases, there are no hard & fast rules to this game. In my (limited) experience, you pretty much have to custom make parts to fit the ETA to your particular case.

Paloalto sells very overpriced gen parts (mostly used). Again, I would check with Stan (see link in previous post above).

Rolex Service in UK (London) is much more customer service oriented with respect to vintage owners. If you wish to keep your dial & handset (or insert), simply have that written into your service request (make sure it is clearly stated what you do not want replaced). As long as the lume is not falling off of the dial or handset (which can cause damage to the movement & is why Rolex may suggest replacements), they should not give you any problems. If you want, just ask them to service the movement & replace the seals.

Yes, the Silix ROLS176 is the only rep I have found with both the correct bezel & case dimensions for use in vintage Rolex projects (my 1st 6542 currently resides in 1 & I have a 6536 waiting (since January) for the other to be shipped). The trouble is that Silix is slow to the point that I have finally been forced to seek assistance of the Mods in getting him to respond. After repeated promises (since early February) that 'we will ship your watches this week', all I have received are excuses & apologies, followed by more of the same. Until further notice, I would deal with Silix ONLY as a last resort & ONLY with money you are willing to gamble with.

Ah, the old '25 Jew' movement - these do not work on Saturdays. It should work, but you probably just need to unbend the set lever & be sure the set screw (that goes into it from the other side) is threaded into it when you reassemble. This is a very common problem with ETAs. You have to use the proper (black jewelers) screwdriver when gently pressing the stem release button.

Riveted rep bracelets are crap (when they work, which is not often) & you resize (in theory) by either moving the pin in the clasp to another hole or, if that does not provide enough latitude, by unscrewing the screws near the clasp, remove links & reassemble. While the theory is simple, the reality is often anything but. These bracelets are usually assembled with stripped or broken screws & other parts that do not fit correctly. If you are able to get the screws out, you may not be able to get them back in. I always toss these bracelets in the rubbish & replace them with just about anything else.

Nice.

I would go ahead & invest in the TZ toolset. They are good, quality tools & the set is designed for the beginning watch enthusiast or budding watchmaker. As your skills & knowledge level increase (assuming you stick with it for a long time or work on alot of watches), you will develop your own preferences. But, for now, I think the TZ kit will make your life alot easier.