freddy333

Not sure which is more beautiful -- the equipment rack or the woodwork. :cloud9:

I thought there might be 1 or 2 other serious hi-fi nuts around here. There is also a matching Model 10 tuner & I used to run them into Marantz 8s or 9s (mono tube amps), but sold them to help fund a business years ago. The guy I got the equipment from (25 years ago) still had all of the original sales paperwork & sales brochures he picked up during his pre-purchase shopping trips. I even got the unused warrantee card that came with the 7. Unfortunately, he had had a custom cabinet built to store most of the equipment in, otherwise he probably would have kept the boxes as well.

UB7 -- Early 1970s, a 1680 & that $203 price was usually discounted further by ADs because they were unable to move Daytonas any other way back then. Amazing but true.

Most of the reliable sources tend to agree that if there is any truth to Mayer's story, it is limited to the black Newman non-Oyster dials, which I believe were only ever (officially) released in black & white anyway. I think both Antiquorum and Dowling have confirmed this. And anyway from what I have seen during my 20+ years of collecting watches, if anyone ever produced a rep/repainted dial that was good enough to fool these authorities, someone here would have found it before they did.......and I would have them in my watches. But time will tell. In the meantime, you might find the 1st part of this mildly amusing.

Mayer & others have been touting this story for about a year now. There may be some degree of truth to it, at least where the black Newman dials are concerned (I believe Rolex produced 3-color white dials, but only 2-color black Newmans until the release of the Oyster case dials). The 3-color dials have been described in Rolex dealer guides going back as far as the early 1960s (I had a relative who was in the watch business back then). But as with anything relating to vintage Rolex, it is impossible to say with any degree of certainty whether this story is true or not because there are nearly always exceptions to every Rolex rule & Rolex is rarely willing to open their archives to the public.

A lawyer opened the door of his BMW, when suddenly a car came along and hit the door, ripping it off completely. When the police arrived at the scene, the lawyer was complaining bitterly about the damage to his precious BMW. "Officer, look what they've done to my Beeeemer!!!", he whined. "You lawyers are so materialistic, you make me sick!!!" retorted the officer, "You're so worried about your stupid BMW, that you didn't even notice that your left arm was ripped off!!!" "Oh my gaaad....", replied the lawyer, finally noticing the bloody left shoulder where his arm once was, "Where's my Rolex?" And since this is a wrist check thread, here is the watch I am (still) wearing today (modeled by a friend with a much prettier wrist than mine)

I came across 2 vintage sales brochures that might be of interest to some of you (along with a few new watch pics since I had the camera out anyway) For you fans of high horology (take note of the suggested retail prices) And for you fans of high fidelity (take note of the suggested retail price)

Yes. Tachymeter bezels can be used to measure the rate of speed of an object for a set distance. For example, suppose you wanted to measure the average speed a car was traveling. You start the chronograph function when the car passes the starting line and, then, stop it after the car travels exactly one mile. If you note that the chronograph hand stopped at the 4 o'clock position (i.e. 20 seconds have elapsed), you would look at the tachymeter number adjacent to the 4, which is 180. This means that the average speed of the car would be 180 MPH.

That is a real beauty. If only it was 10mm smaller........

Since this is supposed to be a collection of wrist shots, here is another one hot off the presses (as you can see)

A rainy beater workday

Thanks, Archi. I almost did. A few months ago, I bid ($900) on a black gen 116520 dial (I wanted white, but beggars can't be choosers), but it ultimately sold for around $1,900, which was well into the range of irrationality, even for me. But, now, after doing the dial swap from Josh's watch (this is the same model that By-Tor recently reviewed), I am very glad I lost that bid because (from an arm's length, which remains my yardstick for gaging the accuracy of a rep watch) this new rep dial not only lacks all of the visible warts that afflicted previous dials, but it comes so close to the gen as to make another dial upgrade (to the gen) seem silly. Yes, the gen's subdial rings are a bit more matte, the printing is a tiny bit sharper (when viewed through a 4x loupe) & the white gold index surrounds sparkle better than the polished steel surrounds on the rep dial (the differences between polished steel & white gold are quite obvious in the case of larger components like bezels and dauphine hands, but not with tiny parts like these). When viewed in the wild (and not under store display lights), I just cannot justify the additional cost & trouble for the truly meager improvements a gen dial might provide. Unfortunately, the cases on these new Daytona reps are still pretty inaccurate. The CGs are too wide and misshapen (though these can be improved), the rehaut is too deep & the case body is noticeably thicker than the gen, which makes the watch sit too high on your wrist. My case is still thicker than the gen, but only by a mm or so, so the watch looks quite normal when on my wrist (Josh's case on left, mine on right) I should also mention that the movement is slightly different (more finished/decorated) than any of the 3 previous secs at 6 Asian 7750s I have worked with (so this may be another upgrade since Ziggy's last 7750 review update a few months ago). But since my original movement is one of the few that are still running (and keeping COSC time), I decided to keep this new movement as a backup. But it is definitely a looker compared to the movement in my watch (though I did swap the rotors since that is not likely to affect the movement's longevity & it is almost a dead-ringer for the gen rotor (except for the single fixing screw (there are 3 screws in the gen's rotor)) (Photo from Josh's website)

Thanks and wishing you the same in return, By-Tor. And, by the way, it was your brilliant review of Josh's (Stephane's) watch that finally convinced me to do the dial swap. So thanks for that, too.

Great stories, but I am surprised to hear someone at Rolex acknowledging -- let alone telling -- a customer that their watch is a rare model. Will wonders never cease.......

Thank you & I think you are right.........at least I hope so.

A fine collection, Corgi.

This is a fairly common problem that affects alot of rep and non-high end movements. You will probably find that there is a bit of 'play' in the stem/keyless words and this is the source for the apparent non movement of the hand sometimes right after you set the time. Generally, you may find that if the last movement you made to adjust the hand was in a clockwise direction and you did not have to do any back-and-forth fine-tuning, the hand should run normally after you press the stem back in. Actually, I may have that backwards -- it may be counter-clockwise -- but I think you get the idea.

After ruminating for some time over the idea of upgrading the dial in my 116520 Daytona with one of the dials that comes in some of the newer reps (these have more accurate fonts & subdials), I finally broke down & ordered a new 116520 from Josh about 10 days ago. The watch arrived yesterday and after an uneventful dial swap, I think my 3.5 year old 116520 (with low profile case, modded CGs & gen crown/tube/pushers) now lacks all the obvious rep sins & I could not be happier with the results. So unless someone spots something that I missed, I think I may be pretty close to done. Opinions? For its coming out, the 2 of us attended a Christmas party last night

Yeah, me too, but for a different reason -- I have to get one of those cameras. Canons new point and shoots take truly amazing pictures.

From last night's Christmas party

What happens when someone hands you a camera at a Christmas party & asks you to take a picture (of them)? You take 1 picture of the person that handed you the camera & another couple of your watch (which just underwent a dialectomy (installed new dial) hours before)

Merry Christmas everyone

The additional gearing required for the secs at 6 Daytonas causes additional drag on the movement whenever the watch is running - with or without the chronos. My oldest is about 3.5 years and still runs great, but I think the key to its longevity is that it is rarely worn. I wind it fully (40 turns) once/month or so just to keep the lubricants from gumming up and that seems to have worked since none of my secs at 6 Daytonas have stopped running