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Very nice. The 3 tick marks beside the date window finish it off nicely.

Here is what my Black Lung looks like. If you look carefully you can see the shadow and reflection of the underside of the seconds hand reflected in the glossy dial. Where it reflects off the orange surface is not as pronounced, and where it reflects from the black logo it is much more visible. The difference in reflection from those two colored surfaces shows you how glossy it is.

Very unusual they’d show the full 3 digit number on the case back. Anyone have an HH case and dial they want to sell? 741 here I come!

I love the tint of the lume. Perfect.

Yum, verrrrrrrry tasty!

The 1016 reference calls for differing lengths before and after 1963. It was 13mm prior to 1963, then 12.5mm during 1963 and 12mm after 1963. It all had to do with phasing out the closed chapter ring and introducing the open minutes track. https://rolexhaven.com/hands.html

Hey Stoli, long time no see! Great to have you prowling around again.

More chocolate yumminess

Lord have mercy. All hail the Ubimariner!

A prince among men. RIP.

Great ideas, Auto. Along those lines, Flitz metal polishing paste is a Godsend too. I like to smear it all around and into my bands, getting it well down into all the links, then wipe off the paste from the outside and wear it. It really speeds up the process of ageing a band so it gets more and more limber and silky. I've done that with a new Yuki 7206 and within a week had it as limp and soft as if it was 40 years old. Of course then starts the process of softening the visible surfaces to match.

Wow. Just .... WOW. This is amazing.

If you have a sacrificial caseback lying around try cutting a vertical groove across its male threads to make it into a tap. Then use that to chase the threads in the case and clean them up a smidge. You might even be able to heat it with a torch and quench it a couple times to harden it into a tool.

I cheated, I have one of those so I know it's supposed to look like that.

Very nice! You can definitely see the MBW heritage there. You say the back is cross threaded? Or maybe instead it was BRJ's "special purpose caseback thread locking compound, applied with new cloth" that has it stuck on there?

Minutes hand 3rd from the top? Is that for a 1016 build, fractionally shorter? I was going to say Sea Dweller hand next to the top because it’s curved but there’s another curved one below.

Well said. We are here to further the enjoyment of watches, and share information, period. Maybe Holo can make a pictorial essay out of this with step by step as the pieces come together? Lots of folks could use this as a tutorial as they try to achieve the same results. I know I was hesitant to try working on my watches and I made some costly mistakes along the way. This essay would have been a huge help.

Outstanding!! How about a Palawai with the outlined USD logo? For the sake of the owners of “real” Black Lungs you might consider adding a mark on the back that only you know about, to maintain the integrity of the originals. I know the Dark Lord started doing that a few years back so his negative relief dials can be positively identified from gen Rolex.

There’s just something about the Double Red. IMHO the pinnacle of 4-digit tool Rolex.

Beautiful. Remember the flat top cases like the Samui are 300T and the curved thin plexi crystal cases are the 300 no “T”.

Good advice Auto, to get the right surface curve I like to use thick chopsticks and pick the thickness I need somewhere along the taper. Push the stick inside the clamshell then press the outer surface against a rubberized edge to get a bit of bend. Then apply different bends along the chord of the semicircle until it fits. I had a heck of a time making a Yuki band fit my 6204 case. I had to grind out the curve where it touches the case between the lugs too, while changing the surface curve. In the end I got a good result. I made it a touch flatter than it should actually be, but it looks like a tinny cheap Rolex band all worn and pressed down over time. Just what I wanted.

Unless I forgot a step somewhere, I think those are the stock MBW hands it came with all those years ago. They were slightly sanded and shaped then relumed and aged.