freddy333

Ditto. Diesel has it exactly right. Watchmaking, in general, & constructing frankens, in particular, require patience & drive. There are always unexpected problems & you have to just accept them as they appear & know that they WILL get solved. Just keep the target in sight & you WILL get there. By the way, the watch, even with the loose hand, is a beauty. Do Not let these minor issues deter you from reaching your goal, which is close at hand. You WILL get there (if you want to), trust me.

try this

The 13th is 1 of those red leather days

Welcome (back) jtb.

Beautiful watch with a great history. Nice way to begin a Monday wristie. The usual for me

I saw it demoed on tv over the weekend. It is essentially a mini iphone on a strap. Strikes me as just another 'look what I can do' gadget that I do not need. And if you are tired of having to listen to other peoples cell conversations in restaurants & on airplanes, just wait until people start having to shout at their wrist instead of into a handset next to their mouth.

The problem is that the reverser wheels, which transmit the rotor's oscillations to the movement & spin at relatively high velocities, will get worn out from frequent manual winding. Removing the rotor does not help here if you leave the reverser wheels in place. On my vintage A7750 Daytonas, in addition to the rotor, I remove all of the components (including the reversers) connected to & contained in the auto-wind module bridge. This effectively turns the movement into a pseudo-manual-wind & eliminates the wear issues related to the auto-wind components.

Excellent pics, Nanuq. But it looks like you have a bit of bezel overhand there yourself (on the left). Compare to I am guessing it is the same model. Did you by any chance ever measure the case (without the bezel)? I am just wondering if the case, itself, is the same as the ROLS176 I used for the 6542? The stock bezel on ROLS176 does not have that overhang.

Or down here in the sub-arctic And working hard to keep it that way. p.s. Nanuq - More pics of that phenomenal timepiece please.

Yes, exactly. And because of that along with the question of bezel overhang discussed earlier, I decided to spend the extra cash & just get another ROLS176 (instead of the cheaper ROL224) since I know what I am getting with that 1. Now, the l-o-n-g wait begins for Silix to actually get the watch shipped (as I recall, the last 1 took nearly 2 months to arrive). But, on the positive side, since the insert is metal the bezel will fit perfectly onto the case & the only grinding required will be the case sides (to flatten them), which is easy.

Outstanding work, Stilty. I cannot wait to see the finished project.

If the movement is properly serviced (unless you have a watchmaker service it, your rep comes with an unserviced movement), I see nothing wrong with manually winding a stopped watch to get it started. However, I would not recommend manually winding an auto-wind movement on a regular basis as this can prematurely wear the auto-wind components. Ziggy has articles on this that you can find via the Search.

Manny got there before I did with the birthday suit line, but I hope you both enjoyed the day.

Here is ROLS176 as it arrived (but I think I may have installed my half-modded handset for this picture) The Silix bezel looks very much like an early 6542 bezel, which is why I ended up using the Silix instead of MY's bezel (which I WILL use for the 6536 project) And here is ROLS176 with the 6542 insert & crystal

It does look like a mixture of old & new Rolex parts, but, at $850, even if you lose on the watch, you win on the movement..........assuming it is in good condition.

Ditto.

All DW Daytonas, regardless of the movement, share the same middle case (the 7750 caseback is taller, but if you remove the auto-wind rotor, you can fit lower caseback) & these will accept a gen movement (though some cases may require some modding), crystal, crown/tube & pushers.

While most of the pics of gen 65xx series Subs in my archive are of the rounded/polished variety (like the pic I posted above), a small number are similar to the flattened caseback in the Maron pic (which I also have) & my gen 6542 back Judging from the overhang of the bezel over the crown, I think you may be right about the bezels being wider than the case. Here is 223 Here is 224, which is the 1 I will probably order (the case is the same as 223, but, even though I will not be using them, the insert & dial are more appropriate for an early 653x Sub) Here is ROLS176, which is what I used for my 6542 project Oddly, ROLS176 is described as having the smallest case dimensions of all of Silix's Subs &, yet, if the bezels are all the same (which I believe they are), 176 may turn out to be the largest after all & will be the 1 I need to use for this project as well. I may have to order both 224 & another ROLS176, just in case. Update - After giving this a bit more thought & measuring my bezel (38mm OD), I think both 224 & 176 cases are the same, only the bezel (on 224) is larger. Silix is probably measuring the case width using the OD of the bezel, which on 224 is probably 40mm. While the bezel on 176, which does not overhang the crown, is probably 38. And since my 6536 bezel/insert will be made for a 38mm case, I suspect that it will fit the case just fine.

Great review. 1 thing to keep in mind is that we (here) neurose over the merest of minor details, all of which go right over the heads of the typical gen (non-collector) owner, let alone the average non-Rolex owning guy on the street. Additionally, these minor differences are only noticeable (to non-WIS types) when you know what to look for, have rep & gen side-by-side for a close-up direct visual comparison & are sufficiently sensitized to the differences to care. The GMTIIC, even with its slight warts, is a magnificent creation & remains as 1 of only 2 modern Rolex models that I would even deign to wear (the other being the Daytona).

Read Ziggyzumba's reviews of the secs at 6 7750 movement, which is used in the modern Daytona reps. You may need to upgrade your membership to gain access to Ziggy's section (click the small blue 'upgrade' button at the top right corner of the page or contact 1 of the Mods/Admins for details). There are also scores of threads detailing the positives & negatives of modern Daytona reps that you can find (without upgrading) via the Search. But like the previous posters said, best to buy from the Collectors listed in the Collectors sections to reduce the risk of problems.

Yes, it is. All - Thank you for the kind words. As always, very much appreciated. I suspect I may need to pick your collective brains along the way, so stay tuned.

The case for the 6542 project came from the more expensive silix-prime site, because, at least until I was sure all of the disparate parts could be made to fit/work together, I needed the ETA 2836-gmt that ROLS176 came with to keep costs as low as possible (after I was sure everything fit together, I swapped the 2836 for a slow-beat modded 2846, which itself will be swapped for a gen 1036-gmt with the proper roulette date wheel as soon as I locate a 24-hour wheel). However, since the 6536 project will be gen-powered from the start, I only need the case (which may also get swapped later for gen parts). I have not done a thorough search for cases on watchsilix since before I began the 6542 project, but I recall that Silix uses many of the same cases for their cheaper counterparts (powered with Asian movements). So the cheaper watchsilix is definitely the way to go if I can find the correct case. I just (while I am writing this) did a quick perusal of watchsilix's Sub section, but I do not see a CG-less case of the correct dimensions (the gen 6536 is 37mm x 13mm & the watchsilix cases all appear to be 40mm x 14mm (ROLS176 is 38mm x 12mm, which was just 1mm larger than the gen 6536)). So I may have to use the ROLS176 again to get a nearly correct case dimension. Here is a gen 6536 caseback All of Silix's CG-less cases appear to have the same (wrong) caseback that ROLS176 came with. If you know of 1 that looks like the gen pictured above, can you provide a direct link to that model?

This watch is an obvious fantasy, so no rules apply. You can customize it however you desire.

No CG shaping as the Silix case is CG-less, but I will have to smooth the case area around the crown to remove the slight dimples the Silix cases have. I had to do just a wee bit of grinding around the inner face of the case where the dial slides down against it, but the stem aligns perfectly. But, to be honest, 95% of the modding work I had to do on the Silix case (for the 6542 project) related to reducing the height of the vertical ring portion of the case that held the crystal in position. You can Search out my original tutorial/journal for the details, but, basically, the ring's height had to be reduced to allow the flat-bottomed Plexiglas 6542 insert to sit low enough in the bottom of the Silix's bezel to keep it in position, so I do not remember exactly what the minor mods were. If any of these ETAs are copies, that 1 is for sure. But I removed & sold it, so I cannot verify the source 1 way or the other.

Mingquay, another Vietnamese seller (same as NDTrading).