panerai153

As a mod, I don't want to weigh in here and have folks Feel that I'm using that to sway the conversation. I can only speak from personal experience. Back a couple of years ago, I owned a couple of spin modified DW Daytonas.. They were well done, ran great and certainly looked good! Lately, he has modded a couple of my AP ROO's as well as my FC diver. Beautiful work and with Legend involved, I don't see how we could go wrong here. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Got ta know the prices at home to compare. One plus is no taxes. If you buy something, have them ship the box and papers to your home address, wear the watch, like you have owned it for years!! Congratulations and best wishes. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

This old Tudor "Big Block" today. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Hi there, great to see you back. We have missed you sir. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Blue Tuesday Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

1680 Today Happy Independence Day to all!! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Definitely need more and better photos. If one wants to sell and item, unless the buy/seller are doing a face to face deal, it's incumbent on the seller to provide good quality photos, unless of course his intent is to deceive!! Always buy the seller. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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Hello tribal, good to see you back around. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I have never seen one of these repped. Not that they haven't, but personally haven't seen one. As these were very special watches used for sailing competitions (countdown timer for race start) I would suspect that in the wild, genuine models are pretty rare. Might want to go over to the Tag forum and ask some of the guys who are regulars there if any reps exist. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Watch Station is the wholesale arm of Puretime. I feel sure Puretime has every watch that you see on Watch Station. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

1665 today Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

1680 today Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I have a JF 15400 white dial, bought probably 6-7 months ago. I turned mine over and looked at the engraving. The E in Piguet is exactly like the E in Audemars. Both E's have a downward and upward stroke to the ends of the E's. I could imagine if the stamp is done incorrectly, the E could look more like a B. I looked at the engraving through an 8X loupe to be sure. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

To this day, I have never had someone ask if any of my watches are reps. I do have a colleague who got a pretty crappy 16613 rep. Given to him by a family member who bought it on a trip. One day he saw my 16613 that Matt built or me. He asked me about the watch, and I went through the entire watch, showing him the gen dial, 18k aftermarket bezel, gen insert, crown and ST case and explained to him what it entailed and approximately what it cost. He was very impressed, but felt that it was too costly for him to build one like it. He is still searching for a good 16613 rep, but really likes the idea of a watch for maybe 10% of the cost of a gen. What this proved to me is for the most part outside of the purist that think that owning a "fake watch" is blasphemy, most people are impressed with the quality of reps and are accepting of them. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

6542 Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

JoeyB, I have to agree with you 100%. There are vintage watches that are not so rare that they can be worn at times, usually under what I would consider "non harsh" conditions. Probably later 1680's 1665's 1675/16750, etc. On the other hand there are watches that are just too valuable, too fragile and extremely hard to repair that probably should become "safe queens" I put the 6542 squarely in this category. A well made rep would make a whole lot more sense if you want to wear the watch. Sort of the same theory that folks who own super expensive jewelry espouse to. Keep the "real stuff" in a safety deposit box and wear the copies. No one will ever know!!! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Gotta get mine in here!!! 1665 DRSD MBW case Gen insert/Pearl Gen crown/tube Gen hands Dial from old member T-39 superdome 1570 movement Gen DW Gen Bracelet/585 endlinks Built with love by The Zigmeister!! 1680 MBW case Gen insert/Pearl Gen Dial Gen Crystal Gen crown/tube Gen bracelet/580 endlinks Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

There is no doubt that when watches were sent to a Rolex Service Center, parts were changed with what was available. At some point, Red letter dials were no longer available from Rolex so they were replaced with white. Because of this, there is no telling how many Red subs and to a much lesser degree DRSD's were "converted" by RSC's. One factor was back then, these were pretty much "tool" watches. There was no internet, very few watch collectors, and of course no one had any idea that these stainless steel everyday watches would become so collectible. For the most part, folks sent their watches back to Rolex when they really needed a service. They were thrilled to death when their watch returned looking like the day they wore it out of the AD. Most didn't care that the new dial had white writing instead of red. Only much later when watch knowledge became much more available via the Internet and many more began collecting, and participating in forums did it become really important to have watches that were original, or at least have parts that were in keeping with their serial range. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

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Well said sir. The only deviation from that is when you get into some of the Rolex vintages like the 1665, 6538 or the vintage Daytonas. While the genuines are really,really expensive, the genuine parts to build a franken have gotten out of sight as well. I'm just glad I built( had built) the ones that I have years ago, because I couldn't afford to build them today. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I pretty much agree with most everybody. I have several pretty high end builds, the most expensive was my 1665 DRSD. I probably have close to 4K in that watch, but it's not going anywhere. Same with my GMT IIC. I try to keep my costs at or around 30% of the cost of a gen. With Rolex, as vintage parts get scarcer and scarcer and prices keep going up, it's getting harder and harder to build these super franken vintage Rolexes and stay in budget. I was lucky, because several of my builds were done back 6-8 years ago or longer when parts were a bit more reasonable. As was said before, better really like what you build, because it's a very rare watch that will sell for what you have in it. These are a labor of love not a source for profit! As many of our members have found out, sales in excess of 1k eliminate a huge number of buyers , and when prices get up in the 3-5k range, the buyer pool is tiny and the buyers get pretty darn picky.

I agree with muleplay. If there were no damages from shipping (Although to be honest I have had watches arrive DOA from members a couple of times. Well packed in bubble wrap and inside a hard box. We worked out a deal to split the costs of repair 50-50 and everyone was reasonably happy.