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Thanks! Yeah... the wait was long but it definitely paid off!

Some of you may be familiar with these projects, especially one of them... Around August of 2011 I caught the GMT bug, because that was the year of GMTs, much like this year was the year of 1016s. I saw some of the work done by members here and knew I had to have one, but couldn't figure out - did I want 6542 or 1675? Call me crazy, but I always felt the brighter colors of the 1675 Pepsi bezel too garish, and the black inserts too boring. I decided I would go with the 6542 and its beautiful understated acrylic Pepsi goodness... And thus the project started. I had an old Silix rep sub from when I first got into reps which was horribly inaccurate, so I used it as the donor case. I sourced an Ingod dial (black, as I didn't want to draw too much attention to the watch) and a small GMT hand. I decided to use a DG3804, because from what I read here it was a very reliable movement with cheap replacement cost should thing a go south. I also obtained a rep crown and tube and an insert from JoeyB. Gleefully I packed it all up and mailed it to PBDad. He did a fantastic job in a pretty short amount of time (I was impatient) but unfortunately my cheap side came out and I had him not relume the dial, as all of the line from Ingod had rubbed off, leaving the bare dial plate. I figured it would be cake to lume the dial from the top down if he left the crystal unglued. Anyway, one bottle of glue and some messed up hands later, my lesson was learned too late. The watch sat in a pile of gluey parts for the better part of a year, a monument to my frustration and sadness. Around that same time I became fascinated with a custom 1675 which was created for the Transglobe Expedition. Oliver Shepard, leader of the expedition, had wanted a 1655, but felt the dial was too busy and illegible in harsh conditions, but that a GMT would be too fragile with its moving bezel. He had Rolex swap a 1675 dial and movement into a 1655 case, resulting in one of the coolest looking watches ever - the fixed, brushed bezel of an EXP II with the easy to read handset of the GMT Master. Anyway, I set about collecting parts - a Josh 1655 case, a gen 1675 dial, and a Zodiac GMT movement and gen spec hands. I had done some reading on this site and saw that at least one person had made a watch using that movement, as it had gen spec hands and a DW which turns in the right direction. What followed was three long years and five modders later, as each one I sent it to would give it a go for a few months then give up, as the modding of this movement is unlike any other. These parts bounced their way back and forth, doing more globe trotting than I did in two years, before finally ending back up with the modded who started it all - JMB. He tried his best to get the Zodiac movement to work, but in those three years I realized the movement was not to be. Finally, I agreed to a 2836GMT movement swap. At the same time, he was working on my 6542, which he described as a mess (mainly due to my attempt to glue in JoeyBs insert) and convinced me to use a 2836 on that as well. He crafted an amazing roulette DWO and a new insert (the glue had partially eaten away the old insert) and we were in business again. Anyway, long story short - three years, and some of JMB's magic later, I have two very amazing watches. Thanks to all the members here who helped out - first and foremost, JMB, but also the other unnamed members - I'm sure you know who you are... One doesn't usually forget headaches! Haha And now, pics:

Looks like a bad rep - pretty wokky and the crown, rolex, and OPD are wrong font and in wrong place.

No prob. Good luck on your build, and definitely post pics when you're done!

Haha - mostly gen parts with a few Russian parts mixed in...

I don't think anyone has a good 93150 bracelet - have to go gen but seriously, you will never go back! The cartel is Josh of Perfect Clones or Andy of Trusty Time...

Haha - JMB - if you get one setup you'll have like 5 orders from me alone!

Yes, it will.

Oh, I forgot about the NAWCC... I joined them back when I was building out my pocket watch collection and when I started with wristwatches never looked back. Will check them out again. Thanks for the tip!

@automatico: where did you get the replacement markers? I have a gen dial which is missing the 12 marker... Also, what did you glue it on with?

That's what I thought... Wonder if he just sources cases? Also, is there any other source for better cases or is this pretty much it?

So, with my first 5514 complete but one lonesome COMEX Whoopy dial left over, I need to start another project. Since HH is out of cases (and it seems like everyone that has one is reluctant to get rid of it... for good reason!) I'm forced to turn to the Cartel. Of what's out there, who makes the best cases, as far as thickness is concerned. I know one of the biggest problems with 5514s is the fact that you usually get a repurposed 1665 case. How are either of these cases? http://www.puretime-asia.com/product/vintage-submariner-5514-comex-yellow-lume-dial-a21j/ http://www.puretime-asia.com/product/vintage-comex-submariner-5514-best-edition/ All I really want it for is the caseset, so not really concerned about movement or dial or anything like that...

I am curious too - I just pulled mine off by hand... Haha

Yeah, I went overboard with the staining the first time around (the bottom pic) and had to dial it back... The top pics are the best I could do. It's still not perfect, but I agree - that's high on the "upgrade" list! haha Yeah, for a rep dial I'm pretty happy with it! Thanks for the comments!

Yep - that's one of the things I like about it; it has a very "gen" feel to it... Anybody know if you can still get Trevor cases? I'd like to finish the original build and need a new 5514 case...

Thanks! Wow - so you got one of the elite case sets! Let me know if you want to get rid of it...

Yeah, 1665 or 1016... Dang... And why are 5513/5512 so cheap?!

Wow... People talk about going back to the '60s to pick up watches... Apparently the '90s wasn't bad either.

Thanks! Next best thing to one of your cases, I imagine...

Yeah, I'm not sure why the pearl is knocked out but I've been toying with the idea of replacing it with a tritium pearl...

I was resisting posting these to the forum because we've seen so many COMEX builds over the past month, but I couldn't hold out. Build specs: Trevor 5514 reshaped by Ephry73 with working HEV (thanks mate!) Gen-like serif dial with already clipped feet (also supplied by Ephry - possibly Vietnamese but unfortunately not gen) COMEX unnumbered but stamped back Athaya 702 crown and tube Clark's hands aged and baked Cobbled together 93150 (soon to be replaced with gen from Whoopy) ETA 2879 NOS I originally got this case from Ephry to build out my Whoopy COMEX dial (it's normal to start a build around a dial, right?) but when I saw the gen-like serif dial that came with the case the build changed to a non-logo COMEX build. The serial and the dial combo put this at a '72, so I can always swap in the other dial later and still be accurate. Anyway, on to the pics: And with its PCG 5513 friend:

Yeah, one of the pros of this forum - no constant bickering like TRF or VRF...

Hands and dial appear to be aftermarket too... To my eye at least.

Haha - next time count me in... I'll even buy the beers...

The bracelets came today - the clasp is shittier than the last version, if that makes people feel any better. However, while they don't accept gen springbars OOB, they can still be modded (the same way I outlined modding them in one of the other threads.) It's a real pain, but at least they work. Oh, also - the clasp on these wouldn't even close properly when I opened the package; I got to mod that just like the endlinks. Oh well, comme d'habitude in the rep game. Why must there be one error for every thing they get right?