freddy333

Wearing the steel '39 today

Needs some genuine wear to make it look vintage, but well done.

Wore my oldest (living) rep (& 1st franken) today (purchased in 1987)

I hope all of you know the seller is our old friend with the crazy prices, J&W.

Be careful when taking a rep into a 'jeweler' (call them 1st to be sure they are NOT also an AD for the gen brand), because the guy who is complimenting you on your nice rep 1 minute is on the phone giving your name/contact info to the gen's lawyers the next. &, believe me, you do not want that kind of attention.

I do not know of any way for a non-professional restorer to touch-up a dial without making it look 'touched-up', especially when you have to match 60 year-old paint. Your only options are to leave it as-is or have the dial professionally repainted.

Any chance the gen is manual wind?

I would refer to the seller's Return Policy, which is usually described on their website. If the seller says it takes 5 weeks to return, but it has already been 7, I would ask him how much longer do you need to wait until he just assumes liability & replaces the watch? Once alerted, I would give the seller 1 additional week to research/locate the shipment. After that, if he fails to offer a reasonable solution, post the seller's response (along with the his name - NOT his email or shipping address) in this thread

TZ, VRF or any of the other gen Rolex sites should have plenty of pics of NOS &/or mint watches. Frankly, when it comes to tool watches, within reason, the more (natural) wear the better. A DD, DJ or any polished-case (formal) watch looks best when pristine. But a vintage Daytona, Sub, GMT or any brushed-case (sport) watch usually looks best when it shows its age & wear.

You are likely to get varying answers to this popular question. My experience has been that a good winder will not damage a movement in good, working order. However, a low-end winder or a movement in need of routine service can suffer accelerated wear when constantly wound. Because of this, I have come to the conclusion that winders are best used only on watches that lack a quick-set date feature & that you actually wear on a semi-regular basis. Having to spend 20 minutes winding the watch through many 24-hour cycles on a monthly or bi-monthly basis to set the correct date is probably going to cause more wear than a winder. But keeping a watch you wear regularly (at least once/week) on a winder may be accelerating wear that would otherwise be avoided by simply casing the watch when not in use.

Unless your CGs extend beyond the crown, there is little that can be wrong with 40+ year-old CGs. Remember, nearly all of these watches have been worn, polished & abused for most of their lives, which leaves the cases looking different than the way they did when they left the factory. As long as the case edges are not perfectly crisp & minty, you are better off obsessing over something else (dial, crown, bracelet, etc).

Wore my DRSD today

A good, clear macro of the rear would be helpful, but, based on what I can see, it looks like a genuine 703/704.

Looks good. Just be sure you keep it in a secure (& undisclosed) location.

Wrapped (704 is the solid version).

The stem is always matched to the movement, regardless of what watch/model it is in. You need a stem for a 2824 movement.

I think your 703 is actually a 702. The 703 (like the 704) has more space between the bottom of the coronet & dots (the closer spacing indicates a 702) There are a number of old threads that discuss the differences/variations that you should be able to locate via the Search.

1-4 weeks depending on your location, the speed of your local post office, the speed of customs & the speed of the Chinese post offices. Generally, tracking within China only updates after the package has been delivered. I would give it 1 more week & then contact the seller to see if he received it.

Who says you cannot find good stuff on Canal Street.

A watch is worth whatever YOU are willing to pay for it. Phong sells alot of nice aftermarket parts, but he also sells alot of highly questionable parts at near-gen prices. & there is little consistency to them. His pre-assembled watches tend to look pretty good (not 1:1 exact copies of gens), but, from those I have seen, they tend to be of shoddy condition with missing/broken/worn screws, missing/broken parts epoxied together, etc. Unfortunately, the same can be said for just about any other pre-assembled franken from any of the other 'high-end' sellers. This is not to say you should never buy 1 of these frankens, but it is important that you do YOUR research on the gen & know what you are getting into before you click the buy button. This is a good case for the old 'if you want it done right, do it yourself' adage.

Read the articles atop the Introduction forum (including the Forum Rules).