freddy333

Balancing accounts, so steadfast & reliable is the order of the day

It is the same nice, but 100% aftermarket dial (from the same source) that was discussed here & here.

Applied as indicated, it will not migrate to any other parts and as long as the watch does not ingest any moisture, it should maintain its lubricating qualities for many years. I doubt JLC would use it in one of their most expensive watches if that were not the case.

I have never seen any of those dials or any other Rolex or Tudor watch that contained both names on the dial. However, when it comes to Rolex, as I have learned many times, never say never. I would expect that you would get a similar response on timezone, but someone there may be able to give you a more authoritative & final answer.

I assume this is the watch you got Unfortunately, this looks like a picture of a gen Daytona 6263 (or one of Avitt's 'twins'). Many scammers use pictures of gens on their websites & even though they promise 'The pictures you see are of Actual Replica Watches, You will get exactly the same watch you see in the Pictures', that is rarely the case. You may or may not have an ETA movement, but, more likely than not, since you say all of the chrono functions work, it is probably the same standard Asian 7750 that all of the collectors here sell in their watches (for considerably less money).

Do not use a spray. That contains a liquid medium, which is just the thing we are trying to avoid here. The powdered form usually comes in a small plastic tube. I got this one from my local automotive parts store, but you can probably also find them online from many different vendors Again, I cannot emphasize this enough -- powered graphite is VERY messy & a vapor thin layer is all you need (or want), so it would probably be a good idea to wear gloves when working with this stuff. Otherwise, you are likely to end up with black, slippery fingers for a few days (graphite embeds itself into the surface of whatever it comes into contact with, which smooths the surface making it sleek & slippery, and because of this, it is very difficult to remove from clothes or skin -- soap does not do a very good job).

What tmg said goes for me. Outstanding job.

Ziggy, like the 2 other watchmakers whose opinions I respect, did not feel it would work & they may be proven right over over time. But, for now, I think this is something that merits further examination & I hope others will give it a try. I just do not work on enough of these to be able to justify a solid claim either way. But, as in medicine, when demise is a high probability & the orthodoxy have nothing to offer, you have to start thinking out of the box & be willing to go against the grain. So all I am saying is that if you have a boat anchor that you paid good money for, this solution is definitely worth a try. What have you got to loose?

Daytona beater today

You are welcome, DuDro. One caveat I need to add -- It may have been something I did inadvertently or a quirk of the Asian 7750 design, but sometime while I had the movement apart, the chrono hour totalizer became afflicted with the same 'creeping' problem that I have had on 2 others (when the chrono is OFF, the hour totalizer hand runs). In the case of my watch, the problem began after I just uncased & recased the movement, without touching anything other than the sides of the plate. The problem is definitely related to the reset mechanism (just a spring & a couple of levers & gears) and I have rebuilt them so many times that I could do it in my sleep (believe me, I have), but I am still not sure what causes the problem in the first place. My guess is that the nylon brake that is normally in contact with the hour totalizer gear (when the chrono is OFF) is either in marginal condition when it leaves the factory (even though it looks fine) or one of the levers is shifting in position during casing & that is moving the brake off the gear, which then allows the gear (and subdial hand) to move when it is supposed to be held in place. The point I am trying to make is that while it is theoretically better to apply the graphite when the movement is new (before any wear/grooving can occur), you run the risk of ending up with a 'creeping' hour totalizer, which effectively causes more problems. So you need to take that into account when considering this. But if your watch is already dead, presuming the dry gearing has not damaged the pivots too badly, this procedure is definitely worth a try. After all, if you have to freeze anything, I would rather freeze the hour totalizer hand (which would leave the watch looking absolutely normal when the chrono is not in use, which is 99% of the time) than the running seconds hand.

For the record, this was 1 of the 2 watches that inspired me to finally get off my ass & get to work on mine. How about some new pics of the twins, Avitt?

Please note - I am unable to provide this service to members. Last weekend, I may have come up with a possible band-aid (temporary fix) for secs at 6 7750s that die prematurely as a result of the drag & friction/wear caused by the additional gearing required to relocate the running seconds to the 6 o'clock subdial position. At least, those movements that do not have badly grooved pivots. For some time, I have been toying with the idea of using powered graphite (a dry lubricant used to lubricate locks, control cables, etc.) instead of the standard oils normally used in watches or clocks to lubricate the plate & pivots for the extra gears. As Ziggy pointed out in his excellent reviews of the Asian secs at 6 7750 (if you own or are considering a watch with one of these movements, these are MUST READS), these movements usually leave the factory without any oil being applied to the gearing used to relocate the running seconds from the 9 to 6 o'clock subdial position. This is likely done because the natural surface tension of a liquid (oil) adds a significant amount of drag even while it is lubricating. So the factory apparently chose to assemble this section of the movement completely 'dry', which of course leads to premature wear & breakdown of the movement, as many owners have reported. Ultimately, the only proper remedy, as Ziggy also suggested, is to jewel the pivots on which the gears run. But that is not a realistic option due to the amount of work & costs required to retrofit a movement this way. But for some time now, I have felt that an alternative workaround might be to use a dry lubricant, which would add little or no additional drag to tax the already overtaxed secs at 6 7750 engine. Powered graphite, being a dry lubricant & one that is often applied as a very thin (1 molecular layer deep) film, seemed just the ticket. The epiphany moment came when I recently read that Jaeger-LeCoultre engineers use powered graphite in the mainspring barrel of their new Master Compressor Extreme Lab, the world's first 'lubricant-free' watch. So I decided that if powered graphite is good enough to be used in this JLC, it is probably worth a try in our dry 7750s. Anyway, last weekend, I was asked to see what I could do with a friend's 3-month old Daytona rep that recently stopped running. To be sure the problem was related to the extra secs at 6 gearing & not something else, I removed the extra gearing for the running secs & the movement sprang to life. When I reinstalled them, it ran for a bit & then came to a sputtering stop. So it was pretty clear that the extra gears were the problem. Upon closer inspection, I found that some of the gears had actually ground grooves into the posts they are fitted onto. Of course, this is what happens when you have 2 dry metal parts grinding against each other over a period of time. So this watch already had additional problems beyond the inherent design shortcomings. But, still, since I had the thing disassembled & it was little more than a pretty door stop in its present condition, I thought it was time to test my premise about powdered graphite. So I removed all of the extra gears, cleaned the surface of the bridge with denatured alcohol & then applied a very light layer of powdered graphite to the areas highlighted in red, paying particular attention to the posts (marked with blue arrows), which is where most of the friction & wear occurs (note -- this stuff is EXTREMELY messy & VERY difficult to remove from anything it comes into contact with -- a curse & a blessing -- so be VERY careful when you apply it) Now, as anyone who has ever used this stuff knows, the trick with powdered graphite is that you only need a vapor thin layer to create a very slippery surface. So after I applied the graphite, I used a soft Viva paper towel to remove as much of it as I could. Are you getting the point here? The layer of graphite left on the metal is so thin that it will not 'bridge' between the plate & gears the way oil does, so there is no additional drag on the motor caused by the lubricant itself, as is the case with standard liquid oils. After reassembly, the watch ran. And, according to its (happy) owner, has been running without a problem for the entire week. Here are a couple of quick pics I just took of the graphite test watch next to mine just minutes before the happy owner left with his (still running) watch Of course, it is much too early to suggest that graphite is a permanent solution or one that will fix every dead 7750, since some of these movements will start to run for awhile after the plate & gears are cleaned. But I would definitely encourage others to try powdered (not liquid) graphite to see if they have the same results. ____________ By the way, those of you with black dial Daytonas, this black strap with white stitching looks quite fetching on this watch. It is the first (and, so far, only) strap I have seen that looks good on a 116520. I might have to pick one of these up myself.

Just curious -- what do you mean by 'gen redial' & did you pay less than US$2.5k for it?

Thank you & how can anyone not be a Magritte fan?

Wore this to dinner Wore this earlier today & now

What you heard is correct. My 1st DW was a nightmare & the 2nd was a relative breeze (you should be able to search the numerous threads I posted that detail the construction details & problems with these watches). I do not think the factory that makes the cases has very good quality control. These kits are NOT for the faint of heart.

THE PLAN: Take 1 of these Out of 1 of these Cover it with 1 of these Throw on a set of these And put it all into 1 of these THE DILEMMA: This dial has been discussed recently in another thread, but now that I have it in my hands I can add a few more details for anyone else considering one. The factory did a wonderful job on the text -- the 1st time I have handled a non-gen DRSD dial that could have fooled me (at least from the distance of the length of an arm, which is my benchmark for success). Where they faltered (and they always screw something up) is their use of the usual, weird yellowish color that is supposed to mimic 'age' or 'patina' on the index markers. The 6 & 9 markers are also just a bit too narrow. Not so narrow that they stick out as being wrong when viewing the dial through a T39, but they could do with having more meat on their bones. So, to pull the project all together, the color of the hands will need to match the color of the index markers on the dial, and, if possible, the 2 slightly narrow index markers should be pumped up a bit. SOME OF THE POSSIBILITIES: The index markers are actually a slightly darker shade of yellow than they appear in the picture -- a shade that most of the older members will be quite familiar with. I guess if the hands matched them, the watch would be passable. But I have never seen a really accurate man-made patina, so I would prefer to stick with white (or off-white/cream) index markers. My preference (as always) is for white over simulated 'patina', but changing the color of the hands sure would be alot easier. So I need to find a way to darken the hands to match the existing dark yellow color of the index markers on the dial, or whiten the index markers on the dial to match the hands. I have considered 3 options Re-lume the dial with either Night Color or Bergeon lume paste (the latter would provide a more realistic color and weak lume glow). Maybe (I have not tested this yet, so, to the best of my knowledge, it is only a theory) bleach would whiten them? I was thinking that maybe if I dampen (not soak) a Q-tip with bleach and then lightly dab the markers, the little droplets of bleach might migrate into & through the granules of the lume and do what they do naturally -- whiten & brighten (remove color). Send the dial to the Zigmeister & let an artist practice his arts on it. Any thoughts?

Most vintage Daytona reps use either a standard self-winding Asian 7750 or manual-wind Lemania/Venus movement. Between the 2, the latter is probably the better choice since the gen watches were manual-wind. But the vintage gen Daytonas all had what are known as an asymmetrical pusher layout, meaning the 2 pushers were unevenly spaced relative to the crown that lies between them So no matter how accurate the watch is otherwise, having symmetrical (evenly spaced) pushers is a sure give-away that the watch is a rep to anyone familiar with Daytonas (a very small subset of the general population). However, if you are willing to pay more, you can purchase a rep from DW that has the correct asymmetrical pushers. You can check his Daytona ad in the Supporters Trade Area (you must be a Supporter to access this section of RWG) or contact him through his ioffer store.

I am not sure about the date font (too much space between the numbers & font may be incorrect for this vintage) & if you trim the CGs (they cover a bit too much of the crown) & replace the crown/tube with a gen (the rep crowns are too wide), the picture would just about fool me.

Joshua is a reliable collector & I have considered getting one of these also. Unless she does not like Rolex watches (many women do not), your wife should love it. As an alternative, you might consider getting the same model but with the mother of pearl dial. Women tend to prefer that one for some reason. I would avoid getting a watch with jewels because women can usually tell they are CZ, which makes the watch look fake.

Plexiglas hides fingerprints better, too.

My advice is to take a trip to your local Rolex AD and try 1 or 2 Daytonas on your wrist. Do not worry that the AD does not have the steel models in stock.......you are just trying to get an overall impression of the model, which will be the same throughout the Daytona line. The purpose here is just to familiarize yourself with the way the watch fits & feels on your wrist & its overall appearance (the glass-like quality of the metal finish, the clarity of the printing on the dial, etc.). Specifically, note the appearance of the caseback and location of the subdials at 3 & 9 relative to the location of the 3 & 9 o'clock index markers. When you get home, go to rolex.com and look at the pictures of the genuine Daytonas again. Then open Silix's site & compare the rep Daytona with the genuine Daytonas. If you have done your homework, you will then begin to see some of the many differences. If you feel lucky, check out Joshua's Daytonas & compare those to the Silix model.

I have only used dots one time & there was some adhesive on them that broke down during the following summer and migrated onto the movement. Not a pretty picture. What Ziggy described is exactly what I have found to be the case. Once the watch is assembled, the dial gets sandwiched into place between the case & movement & does not move around as long as the movement is properly held in place.

What is missing on the inside of Phong's caseback? It looks fine to me.....I see it even has your custom serial number engraved on it.