freddy333

Once you remove the hands, manually wind the movement through a couple of 24-hour cycles to get a good idea of EXACTLY where the date changes over. Then, once you know about how many manual turns of the stem it takes to get close to midnight, turn it VERY slowly until the split second the date changes over. STOP. Install the hour hand & run it through another complete 24-hour cycle to be absolutely sure the hour hand is pointing where you want it to when the date changes over. Do not be surprised if you are off by a few minutes, which means you need to remove the hour hand & repeat the steps to find the exact point of date changeover. Once you have the hour hand where you want it, install the minute hand & run it through another 24-hour cycle to be sure both it & the hour hand line up at exactly 12 when the date changes over. Once you are happy with the positions, install the seconds hand (I would not worry about its exact position since Rolex specs allow for 30 seconds +/- of midnight (you can neurose over it all day trying to get it exact, but if it is within +2/-1 minutes it should be fine).

That symptom is typical of a gummed-up auto-wind module. There are 2 additional gears as well as the bearings in the rotor itself. I would remove & disassemble the module & clean all of the individual parts (including the rotor) in the ultrasonic using a mixture of 1 tablespoon of plain ammonia + 1-2 drops of dish detergent (not dishwasher detergent). Run them through at least 2 complete cycles (10 minutes each). Afterwards, rinse & dry well. Then re lub according to ETA specs & reassemble. That should eliminate the rotor spin during manual winds as well as significantly quiet the rotor during normal (auto) winds. Should you still need replacement parts, try julesborel.com

I seem to recall that Andy's Daytona dials were the same 1s that Phong sells, so you might look his over & then check with Andy to see if he can get it for you at a more sane price.

Either Logan's procedure or this 1 will work equally well. As long as you are reasonably competent with a drill, it really is not difficult.

All aftermarket dials contain inaccuracies & many of the inaccuracies tend to shift or vary (in their location, severity, etc) over time and/or from version to version, so it is difficult to say whose dial is best. But, given that, DW's generally tend to contain the least objectionable compromises to MY eyes. Someone recently posted a picture of DW's 626x dial selection elsewhere in this forum (use the Search function). You might scope out some of DW's more salient competitors - NDTrading, Andy & Phong.

I consider myself quite fortunate in that both my 5-month old CHS (correct hand stack - referring to the order/placement of hands on the center pinion being an analog of the gen GMTII) GMTIIC & more than 4-year old, 1st generation seconds at 6 A7750 movements have beaten the odds. Not only have they been running without mechanical incident, but they continue to run within COSC timing standards (accuracy within -4/+6 secs/day). Not bad, I say, for a pair 'fake' Rolexes

Gary Clark is highly recommended. Good stuff, fair prices, prompt delivery & honest.

MBW case is good. Gen crystal & crown are both available (ebay & other sources) for around $100+ each (plus a bit extra for a gen tube). (The items in this picture are NOT gen Rolex parts - they are for illustration purposes only) Gen bracelets can also be had for between $400 - $1,000, depending on which bracelet you decide to use (folded link, riveted, solid link). A gen dial WILL make the watch, since that is what you spend most of your time looking at. For a 1680, I would expect to pay no less than several hundred dollars & on up from there (depending on condition & the condition of the seller's finances). But I would save yourself a huge wad of cash & have Ziggy relume your MBW dial, or try an NDTrading dial, which improves on some of the MBW's more obvious faults. Unless you go with a gen movement, I would (& do) use the MBW datewheel. It works for me (Although this is a SD, the MBW datewheel in the 1680 should be similar)

I told a friend, once, that I was wearing a fake Rolex. He looked me up-&-down, chuckled & said, 'Yeah, right'.

Get the TZ kit. It is the best investment (if you plan to work on watches) you can make. You might ask the TZ gods if you can swap the Bergeon screwdrivers for a Horotec set, or, at least, get a set of Horotec driver refills since they are better made (last longer) than the current Bergeons. If I remember correctly, I think they let me make a couple of substitutions when I took the course. But the rules may have changed since then.

I think the suggestion about posting pics (before & after, as well as detailed descriptions of work requested vs work performed) are the answer. The key, however, is that such info is only useful when there is a sufficient track record & a prospective customer does HIS homework before any work is contracted. And, like I always say, you have to be detailed about what you want (or do not want), get the work itemized in writing (including a realistic ETA) & DO NOT ASSUME ANYTHING. I think that if you purchase modding services using the same buying guidelines you might use when making an ebay purchase, there would be far fewer problems. On the other hand, I know from experience that when dealing with personal possessions, especially those which people have strong emotional attachments to, even the best of intentions can result in broken hearts. After all, to paraphrase the old saw, if you want it done right (according to YOUR take on what 'right' is), do it yourself. To modders I would also say (& I am certain that the Zigmeister would back me up on this) 'To thine own self be true'. Do not take on work that you are not 100% certain you can complete. That means accept only work that you have performed (successfully) multiple times on the same watch/movement. I think that is where many modders run into problems. You mod 1 thing & something else - that you may or may not have had direct contact with - breaks or reacts unexpectedly. Watches are complicated devices that often have minds of their own, so you MUST always have a backup plan when the unexpected occurs (&, in my albeit limited experience, the unexpected occurs with frightening regularity). For this reason, I am VERY selective about the work I accept (when I actually have time to take in new/additional work).

Sorry, but I have no idea which Mod does the moving since no one ever alerts me. Both sample 1 & sample 2 are Rolex-related, so I thought they would be of greatest interest to the Rolex community that habits the Rolex forum. Maybe I should have said something at the time, but I did not think it important enough to make waves.

I have never been a big fan of Mullers, but those pictures are Outstanding. I have actually been switching back & forth between my daily beater & my Tudor. At present, the Tudor is wristed

While I understand the reasoning behind (primarily) picture threads being moved (usually without notice to the original poster), I think it is a bad idea & for the reasons Pho cited. I can only speak for myself, but my main draw is the discussion & technology involved in reps, not the pictures (although I love to see them, I tend to go to TZ, VRF or Google when searching for those). So posts relegated to those sections generally get ignored. And, based on Phoband's comments, apparently, I am far from alone in my browsing habits. And while on the subject of moved threads - It really bugs me when Mods begin picture threads in the Rolex forum (it may also happen in other forums, but I rarely visit those) just a day or 2 after a similar thread that I started was immediately (& quietly) relocated to the black hole that is the Photography forum by the very same Mod. Not a biggie, but it does feel kind of double-standardish to me.

Once you have taken the TZ course or have disassembled/reassembled a watch, pick up a copy of Donald de Carle's Practical Watch Repairing.

I think it is a great idea. But what is your goal? How gen do you want to go? If you are willing to accept a rep with a few gen parts (crown, crystal, etc.), then that is relatively easy. But finding a gen case or dial will be both costly & time consuming. Of course, there is also the cost of a gen 1520 or 1570 movement that has to be factored in ($1,000-$1,500 +/-). And are you going with a gen bracelet (another several hundred for a 9315 or 93150) or an aftermarket strap?

Nothing is ever carved in stone as far as watch collecting goes. When I 1st got into watch collecting (mid-80s), the hot prospects were vintage Pateks (surprise, surprise) & the Rolex Prince (the originals from the 1930s). 20 years later, Pateks are still breaking records in every auction while the Prince is rarely even talked about anymore. Rolex even released a beautiful updated version of the Prince, but it has failed to live up to expectations. That said, like the stock market, generally speaking, over time, Rolex prices always trend higher (even the Prince sells for more today than it did at its height of popularity 20 years ago). You just have to weather the occasional storm.

It sounds like more of the same old chs GMT malfunctions that roughly 50% of owners have been reporting. Since even Ziggy refuses to work on them, the only thing I know of to do is what you have probably already done - pull the stem out to the time-setting position & slowly run the hands through a full 24 hour cycle. Check it again. If the GMT hand is still off, pull the stem out to the 1st position & slowly run the GMT hand through a 24 hour cycle & check again. Most of the time, this procedure seems to reset the GMT hand.........at least for awhile.

I have never owned or purchased a quartz-powered rep, but many high end Swiss-made quartz watches rely on ETA for their quartz movements (retail on many of the movements is under $25). I just recently replaced an ETA in a $400 Swiss Military diver's watch & my cost for the movement was $12 (I charged my customer all of $20 for the part)

Waiter, there is a hair on my Comex! All joking aside, a beauty you got there, JoJo. No hair on this old Comex And I will make sure there is no hair on this (upcoming) new Comex either (bezel insert shown has been replaced)

On 2nd thought, maybe we should skip the drinks.

$499 is definitely pushing the limits (for now - I think I paid $150 for the last NOS 702), but I like the watchdog (& watch - it looks like we got the same dial ).

Nice sighting. Alot of those parts look as though they may have been discarded (because they are worn out), but if the lot can be gotten for a good price it might be worth a gamble to see if you can assemble a couple of nice vintage crown assemblies out of it.

Whoa, Tanto. Let us not throw the baby out with the bathwater. As an ex-E-Type owner/restorer, I think I could make an exception for an XK8 owner (Not 1 of mine...........sadly)