panerai153

My bad!! I went to his website and the contact info said UK, so I assumed he was in the UK which I thought a little strange, what with all the customs problems that UK and EU folks are having.

I believe that what you are undertaking is going to be pretty difficult and expensive. if you were modding a TT 16610, I would say it's pretty feasible, as there are lots of parts floating around for the older subs. the newer ceramic, not so. First off they have only been out a short while, second, Rolex has really clamped down on parts. they have put the fear of God in the watchmakers that have parts accounts. I wanted to put a genuine crystal with AR in my GMT IIC, probably over 2 years ago. It took me a year and a half to find a genuine crystal, and it was 295.00 USD !! No telling what a Gold bezel w/ ceramic insert would cost, if you could find one.As others have said, even if the case accepts genuine parts which it may or may not (Don't believe those guys when they say the watch is 1:1 copied from a genuine that they disassembled. Very few are really 1:1 and even the ones that are really, really close require quite a bit of work to get them to accept genuine parts. I'm not saying that you cannot do it, because where there 's a will, there's a way , provided you have a big enough checkbook!! You can buy a genuine TT 16610 in pretty nice shape for around 5k. That's not a new ceramic, but it's genuine. I have a rule when I start a build, I try to get a rough idea of what the parts are going to cost first. In most cases, if the price of the parts plus labor is more than 20% of the price of a comparable genuine, I back off. If you don't decide what you want to do, plan a budget, and make a list of what you need and the prices, you are going to end up with a franken that's as much or more than a genuine. So what you need to do first is assemble a parts list with prices. use the high side of the numbers available, so you don't have any surprises later. Another thing to keep in mind, most of the modded watches at some time or another end up on the sales forum. Why? Well most of us are unrepentant watch flippers. We fall in love with a watch, but we also have a tendency to fall out of love just as easy, especially when another new one comes along that we think is "singing the siren's song to us" Another unfortunate fact is this. High end watches don't sell well at all. Most of the folks on the forum are very happy to wear a nice out of the box Rolex, Pam,or whatever. They have no interest in modding or modded watches. they are looking for the nicest watch that they can find for the cheapest price. That's a fact! So when you put up your 5k super franken 116610 w/ genuine movement, dial,hands, bezel,insert,crystal and solid gold bracelet, it looks no different than the one they just ordered from trusty for 398.00 USD. That's all they are going to pay, period. So when you look at the numbers, and see that we have 30k members, that's not really true, because the vast majority of those have come on and are long gone. When you sell a watch on the forum for 300-400 USD there is a lot of interest, because it's about the same price as a new one, but the big thing is you have already gone through the customs risks,also if there was something wrong you would have sent it back or gotten it fixed, so the buyer is pretty sure he's getting a good deal, For these watches there is a pretty big pool of buyers. When the prices get over 500.00 USD the pool shrinks some, over 1k it really shrinks, and above that when you get into the 2k and above, the pool which has already shrunk to a puddle is now just a small drop!!. I have seen some wonderful watches languish here on the sales forum for months, lots of posts, Beautiful watch, wish I had the funds, GLWS. tons of those, but sadly no I'll take it! in most cases, the seller ends up breaking the watch up and selling the parts to try to recoup some of his money. Remember this as well, no matter how many genuine parts you add, unless every part in the watch is a genuine Rolex part, it's still a franken. When you decide to sell, the genuine Rolex can be sold a multitude-of ways, Ebay, WUS TZ,MWR, VRF,, but your franken can only be sold here or one of the other rep sites. that narrows your potential buyer list exponentially My advice to you, before you spend a ton on a super franken, spend a little time here, wear the TT as is. make sure you really like it and intend to keep it at least for a while before you do anything drastic. in the meantime read some of the threads in the Rolex forum on Daytona builds, DRSD builds, Tudor 7032 builds and get and idea as to what the problems and costs that you might encounter. If i were starting out with watch like the TT, the most I would do would be a genuine crown/ tube, a genuine crystal and possible;y a better bracelet if you can find one at a semi reasonable price.

they do wear out. If you are a guy/gal who wears the same watch every day for years, it will eventually wear out, stretch, etc. Gold is softer than steel so it does wear out quicker. My wife wore out a SS/gold jubilee bracelet after wearing her datejust for probably 10 years every day. the gold links were paper thin and were stretching to the point that it wasn't safe to use.

Beautiful watch. The trip to the top of the mountain is fraught with many a misstep,rocky trails and dead ends, but man when you get to the top, you sure as heck can't beat the view!! Yours and Hike's are the best 7032's outside of gens I have seen

Give mymanmatt a PM, seems like he has a source for very well made TT and solid gold bracelets. He lives in the epicenter of Rolexdom, I'm sure there are about a million TT subs around him, Genuine bracelets wear out too, and I'm sure a lot of sub owners get sticker shock when they walk in to their local Rolex AD and ask the price of a new bracelet!!

I would have thought the same thing, probably tempered spring steel,It would seem like brass would be too ductile and once bent would stay bent. Freddy has a genuine HE valve on his DRSD, so I'm sure he could set us straight. Otherwise most of this sellers stuff looks pretty straight forward.

that looks like a great tool. I've looked at it a bunch of times thinking, man this would be really nice, but 150 bucks is a lot for a tool that will not b eused much at all. Most of my watches are vintage with drilled springbar holes, so a regular Bergeron tool with a pin end (6111) and a small fork end usually do the trick. I bought the Horotec Tweezers (MSA 10.306) for springbars, but i just can't seem to develop the manual dexterity to use them correctly!! It was a waste of almost 40 dollars for me. For leather straps, I use the same Bergeron tool 6111 with the largs bend fork end,it slips easily between the leather and the case, a little pressure, and the springbar is out.

deepest sympathies to both of you. Pick a cheerful name that makes you happy with your watches.

Freddy, the one he's looking at is not NOS, it's definitely used. I agree, I would be wary of NOS parts especially if they are 40 years old!! there are definitely some around, certainly some of the lucky guys who bought out old jewelry stores that were going out of business and old watchmakers who were retiring or had passed on. Problem is most of the guys who have any NOS parts aren't parting with them (no pun intended). they know that what they have today that's worth 500.00 USD will be worth 1K in a few years. Wasn't it you that said good old Rolex parts are worth way more than their weight in Gold.

If you go back and do some research, you will have a lot of your questions answered. Several members have posted very comprehensive threads with lots of pictures from past "shopping Trips" As others have said, the keys to the kingdom lie in finding someone local who is known to be your quide, otherwise you will never see the good stuff. General consensus of most who have been there, it's great to see and shop, but generally the prices are not any better than the trusted dealers, and the quality is usually worse.

PM me tooooo!!! here 's mine for Sunday

Have a great vacation, don't party too much!! I just sent and email to Spinmaster, guess it will be a while beforeI hear back!!

I'm truly glad that you guys are stepping up to the plate. We need new young guys to take over the reins when the older watchmakers retire or die off. From what i see around here, especially in rural areas lie whereI live, there just isn't much business for watchmakers. We have one guy in a small town about 12 miles away, he isa second generation watchmaker, Omega trained and certified, probably in his early 50's. i have taken a couple of watches to him for repairs, and he's OK, but he isn't doing enough work to keep his certifications up and/or replace old equipment. His biggest source of revenue is changing watch batteries. I'm sure if he was in a bigger town he would probably do alright, but here, most folks wear Quartz watches they get at Walmart, and when they quit, if it's not the battery, they throw the watch away and buy a new one. I asked him about pressure testing, he told me he had and old pressure tester, but it had been so long since it was used, all the seals and gaskets were dry rotted!! I was probably the first person to ask about a pressure test in 20 years!! It makes me sad just to go in his shop, it has the aura of death around it. like a lot odf small businesses, it's just withering away. One problem with this fellow, he doesn't strike me as someone who has a lot of initiative either. I bet he could spend a couple of days a month going around the area and to some of the bigger towns and picking up broken watchs from jewelry stores, pawn shops etc. and either buying them for practically nothing and then fixing them up and selling them on Ebay, or charging the store for repair.. I bet he could make 10X what he's making now if he did something like that.

You must be planning to stay in Florida for quite a while!! Probably be better to get them from josh while you are in the USA.how about getting them back into Switzerland? Any problems with customs at the airport, or are you flying into another country and crossing the border by train or car? I'm sure if you are going to be in Florida for a while you could contact vac and possibly drop off your watch or mail it to him. Seems like he lives in the Lakeland area if I'm correct. you can shoot him and email andsee what hisschedule looks like. Here is his email from a couple of yearsago, so it may not be correct vac lume vaclume@gmail.com

Unless spin puts a big markup on the watches, I would think that getting something directly from him would save some time and shipping anxiety.DW is in the UK, Spin is in the far east, so if i get a watch from DW, I have to have it shipped to the USA and then ship it to Spin. my feelings about watches are the less they are subjected to the whims of the various postal services and customs, the better. i get nervous shipping one two states away to my watchmaker, much less across to the other side of the world.

I wouldn't worry, it's a genuine Rolex, so no probs with that. If they send you a letter, all you have to do is take the paperwork, copies of email correspondence with the seller, etc. and present that to customs. they may charge you duty, but that's part of the deal with them!! About the box, lots of nice ideas, but a genuine or good rep Rolex box is what I would use here are a few more http://www.ebay.com/itm/ROLEX-VINTAGE-1960s-1970s-LADY-DATEJUST-INNER-OUTER-SHELL-BOX-22-00-1-/221184265886?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item337f9c0e9e http://www.ebay.com/itm/Rolex-ladies-watch-box-tapestry-/261161228585?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_15&hash=item3cce6c1929 http://www.ebay.com/itm/OLDIES-ROLEX-INNER-WRISTWATCH-BOX-ONLY-2X-TAGS-/310586199626?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4850614e4a

I believe that those have been sorted out. Don't get me wrong, sometimes there are some pretty heated discussions over there ,one guy saysomething isn't right, may be after market, another one chimes in and says, you're wrong, that part is OK, and before you know it, they are off to the races. With common things like bracelets, they are all pretty much in agreement. So i believe that you are completely safe with this one. I've bought a bunch od stuff over there, including a couple of genuine watches and I have never had a problem. One thing you have going for you on that forum, like I said, a fair number of those guys either make their living or support their hobby by buying,selling, trading watches and parts. If you have looked at 300 1680's, you are going to be pretty good at spotting flaws, especially if you know you are going to get burned if you make the wrong decision and one turns out not to be what you thought it was. I doubt that you could fool one of those guys with anything we build over here, unless it was a 100% genuine watch built from parts, and even then, they could tell if the parts didn't match. I believe that the biggest controversies evolve from those grey areas like what was the last serial number 1680 that had a red dial? Some say 4.7M, others 4.9M but no one really knows for sure, because as soon as you come up with a hard number, someone else comes up with a watch with punched papers that is outside the date range. It's really too bad that Rolex SA is completely uncaring and unresponding when it comes to things like this. They have the records, they know the exact serial number of the last red sub, the last DRSD, whether or not there really were white dial 6542's, but they have never in the past and give no indication that they will in the future cooperate with forums or individuals by releasing helpful information.

I can just about guarantee 100% that the bracelet is genuine. There are a lot of guys on that forum who make their living buying and selling vintage Rolex watches and parts. They have a very rigid policy about rep. NONE ALLOWED!! AFA price, it depends on condition. I've seen 9315's for 500.00 USD all the way up to 1200.00 USD . If that bracelet is the one listed by derek, you don't need to worry, he has about 10 pages of positive references on VRF. Go to the main VRF forum search derek, you will get the results!! He's from hong Kong, has a watch shop there. AFA the price, I would shoot him and email and ask him if he's firm on the 990.00, he might come off a little. most of these guys are wheeler dealers. the bracelet looks to be in really nice shape, and the 380's are just what you need. Good luck

You shouldn't have any problems with customs bringing your watch in. Wear it on your wrist and pack anpother one or two in your carry on. most everyone on the forum travels with several watches and I don't think anyone has ever had a problem thus far. Depending on where you are located, the biggest problem might be getting your watch back into your country after it's been worked on. If you live in the EU, some countries are very, very strict and you stand thwe risk of having your watch confiscated by customs. Let us know where you live, and more specific help can be forthcoming.

Never going to find a really believable rep strap. some are pretty good, some are awful. here isa photo of a perfect watch for you, unfortunately, it's not a rep, but if you find a used one, it's not terribly expensive either. i have it on a blue crocodile Strap. The strap came from milano watchbands, they have an ebay store. The watch needed a little cleaning before the photos, it's dusty, but you wanted to see what a nice strap looks like. Ibelieve this strap was about 55-60 dollars

Rotor won't fit inside that case.

Freddy, it's more than "quite respectable", it's a knockout!!

All antidotal information, but in my 35 years of Anesthesia, ihave never seem a pot head tear up and ER, shoot someone,cut someone, break into and occupied dwelling,etc.. OF all the vices, i would way rather take care of someone who is blissing out on weed, rather than a crackhead who's high as a kite, or a drunk who's combative, belligerent, and then pukes all over everyone!! Zeleni my friend, i don't know where you're getting your research from, but I'm afraid it's flawed. Better not to smoke anything, drink anything or inject or swollow anything (Weed,tobacco, alcohol, pills. coke, etc.) but if you are picking the lesser of the evils, it has to be Marijauna. Long term use, would probably have the same effects on the body as tobacco, it produces tars and other toxic byproducts which are not good for your lungs. Having said that I would bet that over a 20 year period, the guy/gal who smokes one joint a day is going to have much healthier lungs than one who smokes a pack of cigarettes a day.

Man!! What are friends for? the wine I'm Ok, but my wife would definitely want her "Cut"!! Give me a shout if you get in a bind and want to sell the 7032. I have a couple of projects going right now, but maybe room for one more in the watch box!! Which one of those Walla Walla Valley wines was hiding under that lid?

Where did this one come from? It looks very nice. maybe you need to open another bottle of that nice wine and mellow the bride out a little!! Or send me the watch and the wine for safekeeping.i promiseI 'll send it all back when she cools down!!