freddy333

Just to keep the story alive, I would definitely be in for 1 of the NDtrading 1665 DRSD cases at a reasonable price. That is, something below $500. At the price Phong is currently selling it for, I would/will stick with my MBW. The Vietnamese cases have more accurate looking backsides & their (working) HEV is more accurately located slightly above dead-center (it is dead center on MBWs). But their CGs, while nice, still need modding to match a gen DRSD. All in all, I think the pluses of the Vietnamese cases exceed the MBW's minuses, but not for $1,200+. Note -- I am aware of 2 different versions of the Vietnamese DRSD cases. 1 is the earlier 'Patent Pending' & the other is the 'Rolex Patent'. Personally, I think the latter is nicer & a bit less rare so it would raise a few less (knowledgeable) eyebrows if worn 'in the wild', as some of us are known to do.

Just take the broken springbar to any local watch, watch band or watch repair shop & they will sell (or give) you another. These are generally stock items at most jewelry stores (if they sell watches). Any shopping mall that has 1 of those watch band kiosks will have them as well. You might pick up some extras since the springbars that come in many reps are of questionable quality & limited lifespan.

Ben -- Welcome to RWG. The answers to your questions are no & yes, respectively. My advice, if you want to avoid looking like you are wearing a 'fake' Rolex, skip the gems altogether.

Great to finally get to see them altogether.

I used Moneybookers 1 time (and had to provide my SS to set up an account). Like WU, the process is long, obtuse & a major pain. Although the sale ultimately went without a hitch (once I got all the I's dotted & the T's crossed with Moneybookers, which did take some time), I still regret having given them my SS & would/will never do it again if a similar situation presents itself & another payment proxy requests it. In general, with the exception of the government, your employer or health care provider (doctor, hospital, insurance company), it is not a good idea to give your SS out to anyone.....especially a 3rd party payment proxy like Moneybookers (or Moneygram or anything similar). If the seller does not offer another payment option, try another seller.

You mean someone actually spent the time & money to produce a 'hardcopy' brochure of a GTG? That has to be a 1st!

I think that if you can tell the difference (and you care), spending extra for the gen makes sense. In those cases where you cannot, then a good argument can be made against it. But some may also want to factor in resale value & serviceability since reps tend to require more frequent servicing (& the pool of repair options is smaller for reps) & have little or no (legal) resale value.

Daytona beater today

Gen today

It looks all gen to me. But, judging by the amount of polishing the case has received (there is barely anything left of the crown on the clasp). it has probably been 'knocked around' quite a bit

A bit expensive ($218), yes, but sourcing is easy. You can pick up all of the necessary HEV parts here. If you are going to go through the trouble of breaking out the drill & drill bits, why not do the job right?

I beg to disagree with you -- that ain't no stinking rep.....it is a franken, which is a very different animal. And, yes, get that HEV done. At this level, it would be criminal not to.

I think your creation looks too good for that datewheel, but I think the owner should be very pleased. Good work.

Thanks RG. I love this place.

Yes, this is what I had to do with 1 of the DW Daytonas. Not only difficult, but dangerous since tiny metal shards are flying around your eyes at very high speed. Even with eye protection, still a pretty nasty task. During the work around the rehaut, I thought I had killed the case. But after filing & sanding down the rough spots & installing the movement, it all looks perfect. Unless you use a loupe & know exactly where around the rehaut the problems were, you cannot see anything. It is kind of amazing that the damage you see through a loupe, caused by dremeling, is often completely invisible to the naked eye when you put everything back together, even at close inspection

Ziggy -- That makes sense. I assume the outer ring you are referring to is this 1 (you removed the 3 screws in the red circles) I will have to give that a try if I have problems getting the 1570 to fit my MBW case. Thanks, and again, great work as usual.

A NOS Ebel movement just went for $1,350 on the bay a few days ago. I posted an alert in another thread, but I do not know if an RWG member got it. This was only the 2nd 1 I have seen for sale in the past year.

Something modern on hand today

Thanks Ziggy. Now I can see that it is a standard MBW DRSD case. You should consider adding a working HEV before returning the watch to its owner. It would be a shame to leave that etching on the side of the case after all the other work. I am curious about the work you did on the movement to get it to fit into the case. Specifically, why did you choose to remove metal from the movement instead of the inside of the case? Compared to a working 1570, an MBW case is worth alot less, easier to replace & generally easier to work on (since you do not have to worry about where the metal shavings are going while you are working on it). And if you were not planning to disassemble & clean the movement (after modding the plate), how can you be sure you did not get any metal bits in the movement during the metal removal? I had to remove a good bit of metal to fit 1 of the V72s in 1 of my DW cases and, at the time, I considered modding the Valjoux's plate instead of the case. But I could not figure out any way to keep the metal fragments from getting into the movement during the grinding. At the same time, I figured that any metal bits left in the case could be easily washed out after I finished modding the case.

Ziggy -- It is difficult to be sure based on the pictures you posted, but I do not think the hands are gen either. Here is a comparison of gen vs aftermarket hands.

The earlier non-Oyster case Daytonas used 6mm Twinlock crowns (single line below the crown), the later Oyster case models like the 6263 used 7mm Triplocks

In this case, I think it says more about the importance of having good, clear pictures than the difficulty of telling gens from reps. But as reps get better, the differences become less clear.

I guess they got inundated with requests for the catalog after the pictures hit TZ & then raised the price. I still think it is a must have.

Every rep Triplock I have seen looks exactly like this 1 does. The biggest giveaway are the wide, flattened dots. Ubi posted a set of pictures comparing gen & rep Triplock crowns early last year (or maybe the year before). It is worth searching out.

I went through that stage myself & it makes sense with some watches, but not Daytonas. Vintage Daytonas are thoroughbreds, as pure as a Ferrari Daytona. As you learn more about these iconic watches & your experience level increases, you will change your mind. Trust me on this, I have been there. And just about everyone else who has been there will tell you the same thing.