panerai153

Totally agree with watchmeister, I always try (Key word,TRY) to use the 20% rule of thumb when putting together a franken. Probably could revise that to 25% due to price increases,inflation, etc. So, in this case if you were building a franken of a 10k watch, the most you could reasonably spend would be around 2500 USD. Here the movement alone will blow your budget. If you stick pretty close to the Rule, you probably won't get burned too badly when you decide to sell or trade your watch. Worst case you can part it out and get most of your money back. IF you spend 6k building a 10k watch, you better plan on keeping it for a long,long time!!

Congratulations Sir, that is a really, really nice 1675. I stand in awe.

I went over to VRF marketplace, and their aren't any bezels for sale. one fellow has a bunch of GMT bezel inserts, but the last bezel/insert was for sale a couple of days ago, and it went pretty fast. Wouldn't hurt to put a Want to buy up over there, but frankly,From what the prices look like, it's going to be pretty expensive. Why doesn't he try to get a genuine bezel from a Rolex dealer? From what I read, the 1675 and 16750 bezels are interchangable, so they should still be available.

Beautiful! Man I am envious. At one time, I guess about a year ago, BK was going to offer this service with either a complete watch from him or a build with the customer providing the parts. He even had a post or two showing the hand conversions. I suppose it didn't work out to make this a commercially feasible project? I have the GMTIIC as well as a 2893-2 I bought from FXAndy, but thus far I haven't been able to find anyone who would do the conversion. Guess I'll shoot BK a PM! Anyone else have any suggestions as to who could do the movement swap, I would like to know?

WOW!!! One beautiful watch. Congratulations on an awesome build.

IF you are looking for a 16710 (older model GMTII) Pepsi bezel I saw one for sale on the sales forum just a few minutes ago. It's a noobfactory version that has been modified. Great looking watch. It's more expensive than a new one, but all the correct mods have been done. AFA putting a 2893-2 in a GMTIIC (Ceramic) model, a couple of folks have done it, but it's a very difficult fit and the tolerances are exacting. I wanted to do it with my GMTIIC and The Zigmeister wouldn't do it, as it had too many compromises. Pretty much all of the latest GMTIIC's are nice watches, and the prices are reasonable.

I bought one from offshore about a year ago. it's a great addition to your tool list. The only problem is if you don't have the knowledge and tools to tear watches down, the tester is only that, a tester. I would have much preferrred having a watchmaker nearby who was willing to test and then fix the problem, if there is one. Unfortunately there are none. About 50 percent of my watches passed a 3-5 atm. test. my tester goes up to 6 atm. but the manufacturer advises using the maximum pressure sparingly as it has and affect on the seals. Most of the watches I thought would pass, passed. Even though most of the dive watches passed at least a 3 atm.test, I still am hesitant to take them in the water. I know that a fair number of members take their reps snorkeling or Scuba diving, I don't. I suppose if they passed a 10 atm pressure test, I would be a little more comfortable taking them underwater.

Please disregard the above post. I realized the photos I was trying to download were way too big!!

When the site was redone, my avatar was lost (along with my Platinum membership-now fixed) I tried several times to download a photo, old avatar as well as a couple of others, none of them worked. Got message "failed to set photo" What is going on?

I certainly agree. He is one of the best. A definite asset to the community.

Hi' My Platinum status has disappeared as well. Thanks panerai153

Check the Vintage Rolex forum Sales forum. They come up occasionally. Snowflakes aren't cheap, Mercedes hands are fairly reasonable.May want to post a WTB over there. Don't use the word replica anytime over there though.

Beautiful watch, The case and dial are really,really nice. Probably as Ubi said, it got broken off. Not a deal breaker since the watch is in great condition. vintage Tritium pearls can be had from folks over on VRF., or possibly some of the guys around here have a spare lying around they would sell. Here is a photo of my DRSD 1665 with a genuine Tritium pearl.

We truly have come a long way. But in some respects it's still one step forward, half a step back and two steps to the side. Why does it take 5-6 editions of a particular watch to get it 98% right? I sort of skimmed through the posts, but it's sort of sad to me to see the names of so many folks who were very active back in 2006, who are no longer around. I suppose this hobby like all others is cyclic, folks come and folks go. lots of enthusiasm at first, and then at some point it starts to wane.

Lots of posts back about a year ago to six months ago some on BK's page look at the SeaDweller thread, as well as other posts on the forum. He's gone, got off with a fair bit of money from all the folks who put down deposits as well as full price for the SeaDweller that never was. You can forget about him. If you want a WM9 Yachtmaster, I would keep on the lookout in the sales forums here and on the other sites. You may also post a Want to buy on the forums. He made some excellent watches, and they really command a premium and usually don't last long when they come up for sale. Of course a lot of them have been modded which adds to the cost.

Mine has a genuine 1680 w/ tritium pearl. bought it off the VRF a couple of years ago. Fits the old MBW bezel fine.

I agree, these are scarce, and even with a service that's a good price.

Beautiful watches. That Comex is really special. If you want a 8mm brevet w/ tube, ND sells as Natalies passion on Ebay, they have the crowns/tube set up with a "Make and Offer" I offered 125.00 USD for one and got it, you might start out a little lower and see what they do, but I know you can/or could get it for 125.00 USD

Just can't type fast enough. You answered it b4 i could get my answer typed, course donerix answered it correctly. Nice watch though, but not a 6538.

I believe that all the 6538's were 200/660 is that not correct? This is a 100/330

Genuine today Ocean7 LM-7 Ser# 007! Sapphire bezel with nice lume.

First off, I would never assume a rep is water resistant. Some are, some aren't. I have a pressure tester and tested all my Rolex Reps to 4-5 atmospheres, which according to the rukes is NOT even enough to be safe swimming in the shallow end of a pool. However my tester only goes to 6 atmos.About 50% of them failed the pressure test, and some of those were pretty nice reps, so never assume water resistance. Quality control with reps is nil. Watches are shipped with no gaskets, dry gaskets, casebacks barely screwed down, you name it, it's been seen here.If you want a watch that's water resistant, and all you have is 100 bucks tops, I would find a nice inexpensive genuine and buy that. at least it will have a warranty, so if you take it swimming and it floods, you can take it back and get it repaired or replaced for free. That is not the case with a rep. If you have a rep sub for 6 months and it floods, you have a nice paperweight.

I cannot believe thus thread!!!! First off, why in the world would you ever take a problem with a member here to another forum. Do you think those guys over there have any influence here. Second, the member you are for all intents and purposes slandering, is a very well respected and trusted member of this forum. I don't think they would have made him a moderator if there was a scintilla of doubt about his honesty, integrity and knowledge. You obviously don't know squat about genuine movements. If you go back through the past 50 years of watchmaking history, you will see that every manufacturer of "mass produced" watches, had endless variations within a model run. If you don't believe me, take yourself over to the Vintage Rolex forum and read some of the discussions there about variations within a model. I can tell you from personal experience with Doxa watches, from the 1970's and 80's that the company used whatever was at hand to finish out a model run. Do you seriously think that because a company introduces a new model, they throw away all the old parts? NO they don't, they are used up before the new stuff gets used. What you are basing your entire argument on is the appearance of two blued Screws and a rotor that doesn't look like your photo. Come on, how many rotor patterns do you think Tag used over the lifetime of that movement? As far as the screws, how many times has the movement been torn down and serviced? Would it not be feasible that a watchmaker changed the screws for some reason? As far as the labor, I believe that Andy is perfectly within his rights to charge you for labor. After all he used his valuable time to work on your watch, didn't he? He performed the work exactly as you requested, and then you weren't happy with the results. I can promise you, all crafts people work that way. If I take my car into a repair shop to have the brakes worked on, and they change the master cylinder, but the brakes still aren't right, and they then have to change the slave cylinders to fix the problem do you think that are going to take the new master cylinder out and put my old one back in even if it's perfectly good? NO they aren't they are going to charge me for parts and labor on everything they put in. I believe the moderators here have been exceedingly patient with you and allowed you to carry this thread way past the point of reason. If it were me I would have locked it and given you a warning. If that didn't suffuice, then, you know the next step.

First off you would need to know the dimensions of the movement. also what are the sizes of the hands. (Will ETA hands fit?) possibly there are members here who have tried those particular movements and could wrigh in as to the possibilities. Another question, does the GMT hand on the Zodiacs "track" like the GMT hand does on the 1675 and 16750, or is it adjustable and jump like the ETA 2893-2 ?

Well someone must have noticed what all of us noticed, it's been removed!! maybe the watchdogs over on the Rolex Forum, no couldn't be those dweebs, they couldn't tell a Tudor from Timex. Don't know who, but someone got it yanked. Good thing, I hate reps being passed off as genuine to the unsuspecting public. Too bad the public at large just hits the "bid now" button, never stops to do their homework!!