panerai153

Crystal coronet is smaller and further from the edge on genuine. i believe this is a rep crystal.

The only birth date subs that were around when I was born were real submarines. Rolex subs were over ten years away.

I'm not surprised. China is still and export driven economy. When the rest of the world is hurting, sooner or later the hurt will trickle down to them.

Well, the grey hair is gone, never cared for Cadillacs, but have a Lincoln (Wife's SUV) I drive a pickup! But same story, never, and I have worn my Rolex reps into jewelry stores that sell Rolex, never had a second glance. I did have a guy walk almost across a restaurant in Destin FL several years ago, staring at my PAM rep, he got up to my table, and asked "Where did you get that beautiful Alligator strap"? It was a rreally nice HKTan Dark Green Gator. I Showed him my watch, he looked at the strap, I told him how to find the seller, he thanked me and walked off.I don't believe he even noticed my watch! I have said it before, and here goes again, If you look like you can afford the watch on your wrist, there is hardly a chance that someone will say anything. If you are delivering Pizzas for Domino's and you are wearing a Rolex 6538 on your wrist, or a Breguet, then you may elicit some curiosity.Most folks can't tell a Rolex from a Timex, and furthermore they don't care. unless you are a WIS, a watch is a watch is a watch. Shiny case, Black/White dial, keeps time that's all they care about.

I agree 100% with woof. Unless your son shares your hobby, handing down reps could end up being a real embarrassment to him later on. Of course who knows what lies ahead 30-40 years from now. However if you are my age, and leaving this old orb is much closer now than coming into the world, I wouldn't leave my son any reps unless we had a long talk about what they are, and what he could do with them later if he wants to get rid of them. Fortunately for me, my son knows about reps, wears a rep SSD and is very happy with it. He knows that he can't sell it on Ebay!! By all means get a nice old 16610 take care of it and at some appropriate time, pass it on to your son. Hopefully he will share your love of watches, and appreciate it as a treasured gift from dad.

Unfortunately, Rolex will always be in demand, even though their buying pool may shrink because of the higher prices. What they have done is a marketing ploy, along with every other "luxury" brand. What they convey to the public is with a Rolex on your wrist, you are somebody, you have arrived. The lack of one conveys the connotation that your ship has not come in and in fact is probably out at sea leaking and about to sink.That's why Rolex spends millions on advertising, almost all of it promoting upscale sports like Polo, Auto Racing (and not NASCAR!!), Yachting, etc. All of this in slick glossy magazines that appeal to us wannabes who are trying to elbow our way to the Champagne and Canapes!

I haven't had a TC sub in my hand, but from what I read, the legacy is the WM9 sub, which was a pretty darn nice watch. i had one before I sold it to buy a genuine 16610. Putting them side by side, they were pretty close. Sure you could see differences, but for about 99.9% of the watch buying/wearing public, they were indestinguishable. Another thing, it's a very good base to build on, a part at a time if you want. slap in a genuine crystal, crown and insert/pearl and you would have one fine watch. Another consideration is down the line, if the Rolex clone movement I saw in another thread is for real, you could slip one of those in and you would have a real franken. Especially if it's set up to take genuine hands, WOW you would really have something. One of the big problems with building a Super franken 16610 was the cost of a genuine movement, which was the only alternative if you wanted to use genuine hands.

Freddy, you are right my friend, I have been a dues paying contributor to the "Great" Society for a long long time. We who are productive producers have to pay for our ticket,plus the free tickets for the consuming non producers, of which I'm surrounded every day!

Genuine spec older Rolex movements would be a real plus for all of us who are modding vintqage watches. A 1570 and a GMT version would be wonderful! look at all the 1680's.1665's and 1675's that are out there just begging for a better movement.As one said, the patents are surely expired on the 1570 series, so it would not be a patent infringement to copy the movements. Keep up the good work

Indeed this is pretty handy. What is amazing the prices from 1957 to 1970 hardly budged, and then that started the march up almost on a yearly basis.

If you have most of the parts, then you are probably correct in saying that it would be more costly to sell everything and buy a genuine. On the other hand for those that are starting out from scratch, genuine 16610's are all over the place, WUS, Rolex Forum, Ebay,etc. I bought one a year or so ago, "P" serial with lugholes for about 3.5k in mint condition. So for most rather than a uber franken, gen would be the way to go. I pretty much stick to the 20-25% rule when it comes to reps. That is I won't spend more than 20-25% of the genuine price on a rep build. So a 4k gen watch, max would be 1k.

If you are new at this game, they all look 1:1 until someone knowledgable points out all the flaws. I have to agree, by and large, the reps are getting better, but all this 1:1 reproduction is pretty much marketing BS

I would never carry anything valuable in checked luggage. there are tons of horror stories about bags arriving at their destination and upon openiong, they had been pilfered. Several years ago, my wife traveling back from Europe had several bottles of perfume stolen from her checked suitcase. It took about 3 months, but Delta sent usa check for the stolen perfume. Big problem is the airlines are only responsible up to a certain dollar limit for lost stolen or damaged baggage and contents. So If you get a few watches stolen,the airlines reimbursement isn't even going to come close to replacement value. As far as traveling internationally, I don't think they care how much you stuff into the carryon, but if it's the least suspicious they are going to open your bag and look around, even take items out and Xray them indidvidually. Lots of foreign nationals, as well as US Citizens who have family in Europe, or other parts of the world routinely go home with loads of stuff for family and friends. My wife left last week for her home country, she had 2 Iphones, and Ipod touch, 2 cameras, three watches (2 personal and one gift), a Stereo mixer, and a microphone as well as all her personal jewelry. Suffice to say her carry on went through Xray twice, and the stereo mixer was Xrayed seperately. the folks were very nice and polite, and she was early so wasn't any problem with her flight. I wouldn't heasitate to take as many watches (3-5) as I wanted, but as Freddy said, if you bring a bunch of Rolex watches back into the USA, it probably would be wise to have some sort of documentation that they were yours before your trip. Also proving that they were yours before, could certainly save you some hassle with customs. It would be really sad to bring your own watches back to the USA, and have customs hit you with a genuine watch tariff.I'm not talking about 25 watches, because that will probably raise a bunch of red flags.

The only ones who saw those expensive watches was Monica, from eye level!!

Thanks again for the advice Freddy. I understand that unless you use all genuine or genuine aftermarket parts, there are going to be some compromises. i agree with you i like JoeyB's lexan bezel insert very much. Great product and a great guy. Thanks again

Thanks Freddy, I see your point. I'm planning to use either a DG3804B or an ETA 2846. If I decide to go the route of the puretime watch, it comes with a 2846 movement. one of the other cases such as the Rafflestime case I would probably use the DG movement. What concerns me is the upscale cases,yuki NDT and JW all use 26.5 (genuine size dials) the other cases use larger dials, with the larger dial, how does that affect the date window placement, or the date wheel position relative to the window? This is probably a moot point, as I really don't want to spend a ton of money on this project, and after my 1665 I know how easy to start off with a budget, and half way through, the budget is shot to Hell ! I really love your White dial, that's what I'm shooting for. I also very much like JoeyB's White dial version as well. One thing about one of those, the big dogs on VRF already figure every White dial out there is a fake, a redial or something someone put together from Rolex parts, so I'm not going to to fool anyone! Around here, about 99% of the folks really dopn't know a Rolex from a Timex, so it's no big deal if it's a little off.

Make about a hundred of those, take em to the Superdome, i bet you could sell every one of them. Put a little Saints Sticker on the back or a Fleur de Leis on the dial, sell like hotcakes. Now if you could only find a Purple and Gold insert?

I'm in the very early stages of putting together parts for a 6542. I have had some very good advice from a couple of members here, but we never talked about the Yuki case. I looked at the phong case, but at 1.5k it's out of my range.I have also looked at the puretime 6542 as a basis for my watch, as well as a case from Ken at Rafflestime. Looks like there are advantages and disadvantages with each of them. Probably the only advantage of the puretime, is the watch is complete. If the wonky rehault could be fixed , which would reguire a bigger diameter dial,correct, you would have everything. With the others, you are getting a case, bezel,insert, caseback,crown and crystal. Yuki is around 750.00 for the complete case, plus 50.00 USD if you want your serial numbers. I'm not real sure about the insert, as the photos are all pretty small. I would prefer it without the insert and use one of JoeyB's Lexan inserts, but i don't think that he will sell it with the bezel and no insert. Before I do anything foolish,I would like to hear form some of you who have used the Yuki case. i do know from reading, several members have been less than thrilled with some of yuki's parts. I wouldn't spend that kind of money without really good photos of my case, as well as a deal that if it's not right, i can send it back and try another one. Thanks in advance

That;s why we have a sales forum here! It's not like you are selling it on the street. I believe you are going to have a long frustrating look for just a case. most of the dealers, either don't have access to or don't want to fool with parts. DW, Yuki NDT and phong all the sell cases and parts, but they are pricy, and there still isn't any guarantee that your seagull movement will fit. As others have advised, better to sell the one you got and find another one with asymetrical pushers. It's going to cost you some but probably a lot cheaper and lots less frustration in the long run.

Are the changes consistent across the whole series, or is there variations within the series? i'm not sure if Rolex produces their dials inhouse, or outsources them. If that's the case different dials from different manufacturers. Who knows. Rolex is the most close mouthed hush hush watch company out there. you can't get anything official from them.

I'm not a Daytona expert at all. I've only owned one and I kept it for a couple of months and traded it even up for a Seadweller. As alligoat said, they were not the most popular watch in the Rolex line, no date and manual wind were a pretty big turn off to a lot of folks,including me. The thing about back then, dealers, AD's possibly even RSC's swapped out stuff when watches came in for service, and the owner was none the wiser, because there weren't many Rolex "Experts" back in the late 60's and early 70's. i believe that most people were thrilled to death when their well used Rolex went off for service and came back looking like a brand new watch. Just imagine how many Red sub and DRSD dials were changed at RSC's for white dials. Probably to a lot of owners, a dial was a dial,and a new white was better than a dreary Red. I absolutely agree with Freddy, that was then and today is today. There are lots of very, very astute Rolex aficionados, and anything out of the norm will have a negative affect on the price. The owner may like it just fine, but should he try to sell, then the questionable part/parts will have serious consequences.

That would be a very handy list. Probably save a lot of folks some money, ordering parts, hoping they fit, and then, if not you're stuck with another part for your parts bin. Not too bad, because you will probably accumulate a bunch of parts, but not so easy on your pocketbook.

All I know is what I read on the Omega Forum on WUS. This has been probably about 8-10 years ago.There are some pretty snooty, basically A**hole AD's out there. I would imagine the buyer ended up with a replacement watch, but he would have to threaten to sue the store and the manager. Certainly not the right way to do things. With stories like this, you never know the whole deal, the guy could have come in waving the watch in the air screaming at the sales person demanding a new watch on the spot.There are usually at least two sides to every deal, and we only got one side.

Here is what I believe: 1. the rep manufacturers don't give a whit about the major companies i.e. Rolex, Swatch group, etc. Until the Chinese govt really cracks down, nothing will change.Oh, they will have a few raids. a few websites will close for a day or two, but business as usual. And with the Chinese economy starting to stall a bit, don't look for any real crackdowns that affect jobs. 2. They make them like they do because they can! They don't need them to be perfect to sell. As someone said above, they sell watches to folks on vacation. I would bet that there are more reps sold in Chinatown NYC in one average month than all the reps bought by forum members in a year. So the law of averages works here, they are selling a lot more to a buyer group that are by and large pretty ignorant about watches. They do make v2,v3,v4 ,etc. but I believe that this is just a normal progression. 3. possibly there are some small shops in China sort of like the small watchmakers here, that do give a fair amount of attention to detail, but i would suspect that they are in the minority. 4. Quality Control is pretty non existent. I'm sure that there are some folks over in China who are assembling watches, that are very talented, motivated, and have great pride in their work, others are just assemblers. Maybe last week, they were putting together cell phones or Laptops. Because of this there may be a great deal of difference from one watch to the next. the biggest reasons are simply the manufacturer doesn't care, there is no recourse. Do any of you know the toll free number of a rep factory, email address, even the location of the factory, right, no one knows any of these. the manufacturers work deep in the shadow economy, and no one really knows where they are

That's a nice one!!Nice and complete with a nice bezel. looks like the Doxa prices have stabilized. Scoop up that BOR bracelet from nanug. Those things are absolutely as scarce as hens teeth. If you need to bracelet up another one later, as nanug said, the 600 series bracelets will work. i bought a couple from folks and used them on some of muy older 300T's. You may have to do a little filinig on the end links to make them fit, but they are SEL bracelets much sturdier and pretty comfortable. Most of the old BOR beracelets are in pretty sad shape. I found that the rachet adjustment in the clasp was usually so worn, they wouldn't stay adjusted. Good Luck with it and please post some photos when you get it all together