freddy333

Never good to hear of others misfortune, but at least it resulted in RWG falling back into its proper hands. Hopefully, you are able to work things out in a way that is beneficial for both you & RWG.

Heading into the weekend with the Big Kahuna

I think either the AD was misinformed or you may have misunderstood them. Any certified Rolex watchmaker with a parts account should be able to work on your watch. Generally, only for vintage pieces, where a certified watchmaker is unable to verify a Rolex's provenance, might the watch have to be returned to a service centre. However, these days, due to cost-cutting, many ADs no longer maintain an in-house watchmaker of any level. In those cases, the watch would need to go the service centre.

There is some seriously heavy metal on this page, gentlemen.

Welcome back, Luca. I do not know the details of your experience with the other member, but it is too bad your return was spoiled by an apparent deception. I know in the old days (when I was a member of the mod team), reports of abuse or questionable trades would come up from time to time & were ALWAYS taken seriously. But, unfortunately, you have to remember that private transactions between members are just that -- private. So there is really little RWG staff can or, really, should do other than to listen to both sides, if both sides are willing to accept a mediator. But, in the end, it is ultimately up to the 2 parties to sort things out, either between themselves or with the help of the payment agent (eg bank, paypal, etc). Good to hear you did finally acquire your grail.

Sorry to hear you have had to deal with so many health issues, but glad to hear they have finally begun to abate. Get well soon.

Update -- After nearly 4 months of nearly daily driving, the Big Kahuna continues to exceed Rolex's specs -- running within +/- 1 sec/day! On my Timegrapher, in all positions, it returns no more than 2 secs deviation with 0.1% beat error and an amplitude of between 285-310. Typical rates for a modern, well-regulated 4130-powered Daytona. Because the fashionistas are now fixated on the latest, ceramic-bezeled models, these more understated, all-steel classics tend to fly below the-radar, which is more my style. & values for white, APH-dialed Daytonas (not counting the racy chrono sweep hand) are once again heading for the stratosphere.

This is the kind of creative spirit that made RWG famous.

I am not accepting any new work, but if this is a gen, why not have a local watchmaker with a Rolex parts account handle this?

Since a few people have messaged me asking about the rubber strap, here is a link to Horus rubber straps.

Yes, it looks like they installed a 16520 dial in a steel-surrounded, ceracrom bezeled 116500LN. That dial was never my cup of tea.

The 2023 Platinum Daytona (ref 126500) becomes the 1st sport model offered with a display caseback. It also has an updated 4131 movement. The 4131 is supposed to have a few less parts, but I do not know which parts were removed or why. What I do know is that the new movement is now decorated (not to my liking) & fitted with a skeletonized, yellow gold rotor & 'improved' ball-bearing system. I was not aware of any general problems with the 4130's rotor bearing, so the 'improvement' may be in manufacturing process & not the movement's performance. But, since they greatly increased the number of balls in the bearing (it looks like they went from 7 balls in the 4130 to 30 or 40 in the 4131), I am not sure about this? Rolex says 'the self-winding mechanism is also more durable thanks to the optimized ball bearing in the Perpetual rotor'. Rolex is now surrounding the ceracrom bezels with metal, which I imagine is designed to address the increasingly common problem of shattered bezels due to side impacts.

Condolences on your dad's passing. He had great taste in watches (I have the same model).

The movement is 1/3 of the chase. The movement & dial represent the other 2/3. But, however you look at it, no 1 part is useable without the other 2.

Good points. I still have a 23-300 with dial/handset that has been sitting on my bench for years awaiting a Patek case -- at this point, almost any Patek case that fits -- but none are to be found anymore. As automatico said, most have been sold off for their melt value &, even with inside contacts, Patek, like Rolex, will no longer sell or permit parts transfers out of the mother ship & its satellites.

I feel your pain (but the suffering is worse because I lack such an extensive collection of new/NOS Rolex crowns). If I gave an AD $10k for every time I have hidden an important Rolex part from myself, I would have enough to merit the privilege of buying a 116500 at retail.

Still wearing The Big Kahuna (116520)

Most likely. Click here

I have no recent experience with Phong's watches, but, back when I was more active, I had some (repair) experience with a few of his Rolex frankens, which varied from satisfactory to nightmarish (worn parts cemented in place, etc.). As I recall, Ziggy posted a number of threads detailing some of what he found inside these watches. At that price level, I would either buy a 2 or 3 hand gen or educate yourself on the parts required to build a franken, gathering them yourself & having a local professional watchmaker assemble everything for you. Another option would be to consider 1 of the recent high-end Patek reps that contain gen-like movements. As is the general rule with reps, avoid the more complicated models & those with 'gems' & you should not have too many problems. Unfortunately, these high-end Patek reps are somewhat rare (I tried to purchase a Calatrava recently, but the factory ultimately said the watch was not currently available & had no ETA when they would be), so you may need to spend some time & effort to track 1 down.

As usual, nicely done.

Looks good Tribal.

Still a beauty & it may be the camera angle, but it looks like the index markers at 3 & 6 may not be straight.

Looks beautiful. Based on the way the watch sits (close) to your wrist, it looks like you bought 1 of the 4130 clone Daytonas, which has the proper bezel & caseback profiles. Correct?