panerai153

Andy, I'm going with the Swiss ET. I ordered one from Ofrei yesterday. i'm not too sure about the A7750's. iseem to remember at one time Ziggy wouldn't work on them, possibly they have improved and are more reliable now . The watch I'm building is a pre-Daytona 6238, so I'm wanting to put a good movement in it, as the rest is still costing me a good bit.I'm looking for something to keep for myself.

Very good little cartoon explanation. Just because your pressure tester onl goes to 5-6 atmos.,and your watch passes, doesn't mean that that the watch isn't WR to more than 5, that's all you can test for. however, it may be on the verge of failure at 5 atmos, and you go snorkling and at 15 feet, your watch floods. What I'm trying to say is anything you do with your watch at depths beyond the pressure test limits are risky. A flood in fresh water if taken care of quickly may not be catastropic, but if it floods in salt water, lots of damage can occur before you get the caseback off and get it rinsed out with fresh water. One pproblem is, lots of us have tools ,etc at home that we use to open casebacks, but how many take a caseback opener on vacation!!

thanks Andy, That unfortunately was what I was afraid of. i think the best best is to do as you said, sell it, chalk it up to stupididity for not reading and doing my research before buying. I have already ordered a 7753, hopefully it will be on the way in a couple of days. they aren't cheap, that's for sure!!

I'm not a poster over on this forum, the only IWC I own is a white dial 14k gold genuine Calatrava. I've had several including a fleigerchronograph, which looks very much like the 3717. Since I don't own anything that takes a 7750 movement, therein lies my dilemma. I recently bought a Swiss ETA 7750, not realizing that the registers were in the wrong position. I really need a 7753 which has the registers @ 3,6,9. The 7750 i have is 12,6,9., which won't work for the build I'm doing. I have a couple of questions as I suspect most of the IWC chronos use the 12,6,9 configuration, you guys would know the answers.First is it possible to change the subdial positions, at a reasonable cost, or would i be better off just selling this movement and buying a 7753 "tricompax". And second is their a market for a brand new 7750 to use as a build to replace the A7750's

I would like to know too? I never knew there were any differences in the 1680 cases, from Red to White.

Great job!! Just wear the heck out of it, over time it will vintigize itself. And, it will all be natural.

There are lots of 19mm bracelets around for quite a bit less than 20mm models. There is a reason, they don't work on watches with 20mm lugs. The 19's are for non sport models, Daytonas, Datejust, and other Rolex watches with 19mm lugs. Save your money and get a proper one that fits your watch.

this dial looks like it was printed crooked on the blank. I don't think that this dial is fixable. Andy, being and inveterate modder, I have to agree with a lot of what you said. First off modding just for the sake of modding is " fools gold". Every modder should have a reason and a specific goal in mind. Some watches can be greatly improved by modding,some of the Rolex models benefit greatly by case guard shaping,gen crown and crystal and a gen or good aftermarket insert. On the other hand some watches are unmoddable, simply because they are so far of from the gen its unfeasible, others cannot accept gen or aftermarket parts , or mods would be prohibitively expensive. Before one starts a project, its always good to have a plan and a budget, something that is hard to explain to someone until they have gotten burned by a" black hole" project.

I like the Lange, but I LOVE the Patek!!!

I sure hope the Ipad app for "the Submariner Story" is better than the Iphone app for "100 Years of Rolex". When I first got it the app worked Ok, but when I upgraded to the Iphone5, the app started crashing, and would go back to the first page every time I tried to look at the photos. i even tried removing the app and re downloading it,no better! I went to Apple's app store and found that they had a newer HD version out, but at a considerable price. No possibility of and upgrade if you owned the older version, no discount if you wanted to upgrade, full price for everyone.I decided that I really wan't going to take a chance on the HD version, still use the old version, but it's still buggy.i believe that it's pretty rotten on the part of app designers to sell one version and rthen stop supporting that version and skip ahead and then charge everyone full price for the newer version.

There has been some talk that Tudor will reintroduce their watches in the USA. that could well increase Tudors exposure and base. Frankly, the new ones that have been introduced in the past few years don't do anything for me. I'm a big fan of the vintage models, but the contemporary ones leave me pretty cold. I certainly see your point about the addition of another brand section. i believe that it would be easier to justify if it were a completely seperate brand, rather than a watch "family" within another brand. If brand forums were opened without a great deal of consideration, i could see the forums brand section 2 pages long with 50-75 brands. What happens then is very evident on WUS. Practically every notable (And some not so notable!!) brand is represented in either the official brand or regular brand forum. Problem is some of the less well known brands may have just a few people who post on a reguar basis, and then usually when a new model is released. Case in point, I went to the Ocean7 forum on WUS last night,the last post htere was 10 days old. Sometimes there is a flurry of activity when a popular new model is announced or about to be introduced. once it's out and in the hands of folks within a fairly short time, the posting goes back to the routine of a few posts per week. Pretty hard to justify a brand forum if it's not going to be utilized any more than some are over on WUS.

April Fool Lollipop !!<br />

Perfect!!! Only problem, only older readers will read this, the noobs are all trying to type in "who has the best AAAA++++ Sub" on 5 forums !!

lollipop came from justasgood I sent it to ziggy who vintage lumed the dial/hands. The handset came from classic watch parts

My question? If everything else about your watch is the"real McCoy", why not get a gen dial to replace the one that's in it now? I bet you will pay almost as much for a minh dial as a gen Tudor dial, then you would enhance the value of your watch rather than degrade the value.

WOW, This old thread brings back memories, not all of them good!! So RBJ is back, hopefully those folks have heard enough of the stories to stay clear of him. It's hard to realize in the past 7-8 years how far reps have come. back then you had to mod the hell out of a good base rep to get a 90% believable watch, now they are 90+% out the box and with the right mods they are 97-99% If hindsight were 20-20, most of us would have stocked up on parts and even watches. back then Tudors were not very popular at all, a good condition Tudor sub could be had for the price of a 93150 bracelet now!! Here is a MBW 1665 DRSD that first went to RBJ who really messed it up andZiggy was able to get it right. i can't remember what all the mods were, but I know the CG's were reshaped, I believe it had a gen crown/tube, Swiss ETA movement (didn't they all back then!!) and the rivet bracelet was genuine. Here is my present one, I've got about 3X the money in this one, but It's probably more believable. Gen mvmt,DW, crown,tube, insert, bracelet endlinks anda much better dial.

No Easter Eggs today, raining cats and dogs, but no bunnies!!

Great tools. The belt sander is a really nice addition to anyone's shop if you do any type of metal removal. We have a couple of custom knife makers in the area, and that's probably their most useful tool for shaping blanks and then finally polishing. The ones those guys use is pretty big and sturdy, but for shaping watch cases, I bet the Harbor Freight model will fill the bill!!

Seems like a good idea to me. Here are mine 7924 big Crown 7016 with "lollipop" second hand 9411/0 Gen

Unfortunately, one of these days while in the throes of a micro orgasm little kim is going to thrash around and hit the Red button by mistake. He will get his wish, then it will be too late to say and after the dust clears from Little kim will be riding around on this instead of his Mercedes limo

Must be a pretty boisterous bunch at your club. Folks should realize that beer and other spirits are for drinking, not for throwing!! Toothbrush, soap and water will clean it like brand new. If the water resistance is suspect, I wouldn't rinse it with running water, just rinse off the toothbrush and wet it a couple of times, then wipe the watch with a cotton towel or cloth, strap it on and head back to the club, Oh! Don't forget to brush your teeth when you finish cleaning the watch!!

Very good points. What you are saying is absolutely true. When a real pristine watch comes up for sale, I can guarantee you that whomever found it, if they don't want it will make a couple of phone calls or emails to their friends and it's gone!! Every guy that's been on the VRF for any amount of time knows what everyone else collects, If you find a wonderful Daytona, you call a Daytona guy, he gets first crack at it, and then on down the line. Very seldom, unless you are in the inner circle will you get a chance at a true 100% original, impeccable provenance watch. as you said, we get the leftovers!!

maybe those guys have come to realize that they aren't going to be able to keep their watches in pristine, just like the day I got it, forever. Rolex isn't concerned about all the older watches, so folks have to scramble for parts, if you want to combine one gen case with a different dial, different movement, who cares, just as long s you have full disclosure when/if it's sold. That's no different than the guys who pull Red sub and DRSD dials and replace them with cheaper white letter dials, sell the watch, and then sell the dial, probably get more by selling separately than if the dial was on the watch.

I believe it's too good to be true!! First off the photo is "suspect" second why would he sell a genuine on Ebay, he could post that on the Vintage Rolex Market for about 5X what it's selling for. On the other hand it's got 8 days to go, already 7 bids, so it may fetch a lot before it's over. Sure looks like it's in nice condition though. I would put it on my watch list on Ebay and see what it does over the next few days.

Guys, I believe that the OP already owns the watch. What he is trying to find out is primarily is the clasp correct for the watch? to me the watch engraving looks good, The serial number circa 1969 would indicate a Red sub dial. Is yours a red dial? the chamfering on the lugs is normal and should be sharp, they are subject to some confusion however as a good polisher can retain the chamfers, but every time the case is polished it takes away metal, so while the lugs retain the correct chamfer, the lugs get thinner and thinner. Recently there was a good discussion on the Vintage Rolex Forum about a member there who sells watches that are always "perfect, untouched, etc. The accusation was he is having the cases laser welded to restore metal and then reshaping them to look like new cases. The clasp looks OK however it is not original to the watch. A VD clasp code would indicate a clasp built in 1979, so your clasp is 10 years newer than your watch, which is not unusual. If the watch went to a RSC for service, the bracelet /clasp or just the clasp could have been replaced. Remember back them these watches were worn every day in every condition. The first owned could have been a Diver, Farmer, Rancher, construction worker, who knows. But they were definitely not safe queens. Most folks owned one or at the most two watches, and this would have been his work watch, so it would have been used pretty hard. back then the Rolex Sport watches were just well built, rugged ,dependable moderately priced watches. They were not "Cult" watches back then. In fact in my opinion, it's a testament to their durability that so many of these old watches have survived in the good condition that they are in. Photos of the dial, insert, bracelet, end links would be helpful in determining the degree of originality of this watch. Hope this helps Just read cc33's comments again. Are you looking to buy this watch are do you already own it? If from cc's comments the seller is who I think it is, I would pass on this one, unless you are in HK or near there. If you are in the USA, I would buy a watch from one of the dealers from USA if possible. Much easier to move watches around within a country rather than send one across the pond if you aren't happy, or it turns out not to be as described. The vintage watch market is a minefield, and honestly, before I spent a lot of money on a genuine Rolex, I would do a lot of reading and research. you might not become and expert, but you will be knowledgably enough to not get skinned on a deal.