panerai153

Replacing that crown will make a world of difference, and would be my starting point in the modding. There are genuine crowns all over the place. I would post a Want to buy in the Tools and Parts forum.There is a tall Coronet NOS Crown/tube for sale over there right now, but It's pretty pricy. i bought a nice used one with a Clark's tube for my PT 1680 a couple of months ago, and I payed around 50.00 dollars for both.You can also check the Vintage Rolex Forum's Vintage marketplace as well. they have lots odf genuine used parts for sale all the time.

It's been a long time ago, but I remember my first Sub was purchased from Hausmann's Jewelers in New Orleans. Around 68-70. I paid less than 400.00 USD for it back then. One thing about those folks, they wouldn't cut a deal at all on a straight sale, but the salesman told me that if Ii had something to trade in, they could really "Work with me" on a trade.Ii suspect even back then, Rolex was watching the dealers like a Hawk, strickly enforcing the MSRP. With a trade, they could work in a discount by upping the value of the trade. Another one that I distinctly remember was a 18k Day Date that I bought from a local Rolex dealer in 1982. I paid 4000.00 including all taxes. I believe the comperable model today is aroud 24-26000.00, around a six fold increase. I bought and sold several Subs and SD's in the 1980's and honestly I can't rememember ever paying over 500.00 Dollars for any of them. As I said, it's been a long time back and my memory may be a little foggy, but the prices really didn't start to shoot up til later. I do know that I felt the prices had gotten a little silly by the late 90's an I didn't buy another genuine til about 7 years ago when I bought a used 16750. looking at the prices lately, for the later watches of which thousands have been produced,prices have actually come down some. If you look long enough, you can pick up a fairly nice 16610 for around 3,000, maybe a little less if you are lucky and drive a hard bargain. Rare models, especially those in pristine condition, don't seem to be as vulnerable to price drops. When you look at Rolex prices, compared to everything else, I don't think their price increases have been that much out of line with other items. i bought a brand new Ford galaxy 500 (It was a full size Ford) in 1968. the sticker price was 6500.00 and this was "loaded", Air conditioning, power steering, Power brakes ,Windows, etc. I would gues that a comperable car today would be something north of 40k. I also bought a Ford F-150 around the same time, it was pretty bare except for A/C and power steering. It was about 3500.00 dollars.I priced an F-250 Diesel ,King Ranch edition a week ago. Sticker was 75,000 dollars!! Of course comparing 60's era cars/trucks to 2010 models is a little Apples vs Oranges, but as you can see everything is way,way more expensive today.

My most comfortabl by far are my Rolex watches 1. Genuine Rolex 16750 GMT 2. tie MBW Rolex 1680 and gen. Tudor 9411/0 (Basically the same watch) 3. WM(/BK Rolex 16610 v3 Least comfortable of my Rolexes, my DSSD the old Rolex bracelets have long been criticized for their flimsiness and "tinny" feel, but you just can't beat them for comfort

Sly, Go over to the vintage Rolex market place and Rolex forum sales. i just saw someone who had three or four Tudor dials for sale. a coupl;e of them were pretty nice.

WOW! There sure seems to be a lot of interest in 1665's around the Rolex forum lately. Maybe some of us have just given up on the idea of a nice modern SeaDweller (Read WM9) , don't like the size and "top heaviness" of the DSSD so our attention is turning back to the older models. Or perhaps it's just "plexi craze" after all. I have been doing a little research on the DRSD, mainly because I recently acquired one and have plans to mod it as much as feasible. One of the things that seems to be a pretty serious "tell" with lots of watches is the date wheel, color, number size, thickness, and actual correctness of the fonts. It seems as most of the 1680 Red Submariners have a silver datewheel with open 6,9 and flat top 3's and W's. The only one of the replica 1680's that has anything approaching the silver ,flat top 3,s and open 6's and W's is the PT 1680. But we're not talking about 1680's at the moment . While searching "Double Red SeaDweller.com" I came across two variations in numbers. On the early 1665's ,Pat. Pend thru Mk IV, the date wheels have rounded 3's with open 6's and 9's and all the numbers appear to have serifs. On the later MkV's the watch on the website had a date wheel with flat top 3's with the 3's and 5's having and exaggerated top line. So what I'm asking the experts, what would be the correct datewheel numbers for the 1665? Also how does the stock MBW datewheel stand up as far as correctness? I know that there were silver datewheels with the flat top 3.s and open 6's and 9's produced for a while, as they were sold by ETZ back before they disappeared.Is this datewheel correct for the 1665 or only for the 1680? Also were the datewheels different for the DRSD and the GW? I know that this is really getting into the minutiae of modding, but it's often the small details that make the difference.

Looks great. That doesn't sound like a NO drink though, Hurricanes for the tourists, G&T for the old guys and Dixie for the real diehards, Abita for the rest of us!

From the Rotor side, looks like the one in my 9411/0

This is digressing from the original topic of your bezel question, but what is your HEV mod? I tried to ask this question in the form of a PM, but your mailbox must be full.

It may be a genuine dial but something is missing The blank is real, however i believe that it got repainted and the restorer left off a few things. He also got some of the words out of order (Prince Oyster, not Oyster Prince) Where is the Tudor symbol, the tritium (T) and Swiss made at 6. Overall it's worth the price of the blank.

Diz, You're right, the only watches I would spend 1000- 1500 dollars on would be a vintage. Maybe a 1680 or one of the 1665's either a DRSD or a White. I have a wm9?BK v3 16610 and it's a great watch. the only genuine part is the insert/pearl, and that was pt on by the previous owner. Rather than trying to make a super franken 16610, i would sell a few watches like you're talking about and pick up and older genuine 16610. There are probably hundreds of thousands of them all over the world, so they are gonig to be in the depreciating mode for a while I believe.

Rolex is a very, very conservative company, as most of us know. they are closely held, so they don't have a lot of pressure from outsiders who want to add their two cents. I certainly can't speak for Rolex, however when the 42mm and then 44mm watches came out followed closely by even bigger and bigger watches,I believe that those in control concluded that the big watches were a fashion fad and would soon drop off the planet. Rolex isn't interested in being swept along and then dumped by a fashion trend that skyrockets and then fizzles out. They are more interested in producing high quality watches that have evolved over the years,and will be around for more years. Rolex's only concession to the fashion "bling" thing are it's watches with diamond and other precious stone bezels and dials. I agree 100% with Freddy, the big watch fad has come and is going or is gone. It would be interesting to see the sales figures of companies who rely heavily on big watches. I believe that quite a few folks have come to the conclusion that they can't pull off wearing the huge watches. I'm about 5'9" and weigh around 165. I've tried to wear, on several occasions, big watches liike the PAM 1000m or 2500 m Submersible both of these are pretty thick, and about 46mm. They are just too big for me. They look odd, and I bang them into everything I'm around. I feel like there are plenty of people like me that have tried and just can't pull it off. Maybe if you're 6'6 and 300 pounds you can pull it off, but not us "little guys". And remember folks from a marketing and statistical point of view, there are way more guys from 5'8" to 6' around that the guys who are 6'5" and above.

To answer a couple of your questions, The BK noobmariner is a pretty nice watch. I bought one several monthsago off the sales forum for my son. It has a clarks crystal and a better insert/pearl, otherwise stock. It is water resistant (tested to 5 atmos.) So I would say in the absence of the WM9/BK, it's that next step down, but at a pretty good price. As to the DSSD, i would have to agree with everyone here about it's "Wearability" . Once you get used to wearing conventional size Rolex watches, it feels big and a bit topheavy. As Watchmeister said that is probably due to the bracelet size (20mm tapering to 18mm) I have several dive watches that are as big or bigger than the DSSD, an OCean 7 LM-7 which is a Omega ploprof homage, ansd two Seiko "Tuna Cans". All of those watches have 22mm lug widths and the extra width bracelets/straps makes a huge difference in the balance of the watch.

I agree. If Rolex didn't control their spares with such draconian methods, they would probably be available for less than 100.00 USD. i read somewhere a few days ago that end links at an AD (Of course you have to bring your genuine Rolex in and they keep the old ones) are something like 20.00 USD. Which is probably overpriced for a little piece of SS stamping. I disagree on the knives. I fought with crappy kitchen knives for 30 years, because I didn't do much cooking. In the past 10 years I have gotten intersted in cooking, and cook a lot. I found out pretty quickly that a good quality SHARP" knife/knives was essential to fast, safe preperation. My favorite and a brand that I add a knife or two ever year , Shun Classic, Damascus S/S blade that takes and holds and unbelivably sharp edge.

You probably need to read a little about WM9 (Go to BK's sales page and real under SD order progress). Long story short, WM9 has produced some of the most amazing replica watches ever. I would say that the WM9/BK v1,v2, and v3 Submariners are probably the best "out the box" Rolex replicas produced.Unfortunately, WM9 started an "Ultimate SeaDweller project about 2 years ago and it has been beset by all sorts of problems. Delivery was supposed to start back in Arril of 2010, well, no watches yet, and lots of pissed off customers. I'm out about 375.00 USD as I paid in full for mine back about a year ago.A couple of months ago, WM9 deleted all the progress logs and info on replicas off his website, and now his site has expired and hasn't been renewed. So there is no WM9 at the present time. the only WM9 watches available are used ones that hit the sales forum. Now that new ones are not being produced, i would suspect that the older ones will fetch a real premium, and won't be on the forum long. i bought my WM9/BK v3 a few months ago and i saw it on the sales forum about 3 minutes after it posted.I bought it and the entirwe transaction including PayPal was completed before the posting had been up for 30 minutes. so if you want one, you better move fast if you see it on the sales forum. Don't quibble about price, because by the time you send your PM asking for a discount, it will be sold to someone else.

IMHO the Asian 3135 is rthe biggest rip off in replica watches. It is designed to superficially resemble a Rolex 3135 movement which is a very high quality in house movement manufactured by Rolex. As i said, it has a superficial resemblence, but anyone with any experienceat all with Rolex movements can tell at a glance that the Asian "clone" is not a 3135. Don't fall for that one, buy the Swiss ETA, if you like the watch, have the movement serviced, and while you have it at one of our really good watchmakers invest in a proper lume job . Thus far, and there are many reps that I have never seen or really knowabout, I have only seen one rep that has lume ,out the box, like a genuine, that's the WM9/BK 16610 Submariners. Mine has as good a lume as a genuine, andI have had both side by side equally charged to compare. My DSSD glowed great for 30-45 minutes, and then rapidly faded to black. I had it relumed and it is now comperable to the genuine.

Dannyboy, Make use of the search function my man.Although the DSSD has cooled off a little, there were pages and pages of reviews, comparisons, modding info, etc. back earlier this year. You will also find the same sort of stuff about the movements.Personally, I would recommend the Swiss ETA, only because of the quality control with Swiss ETA movements. having said that, I still have the movement in every one of my watches that I intend to keep long term, serviced. Clean lubricate and regulate and you should have a reliable timepiece for years. Another thing that I would warn you and, any one new to this game, just because your new watch looks like the genuine, IT ISN'T! quality control with most of the factories is non-existent, parts are put on incorrectly, Water resistant, generally a joke; shortcuts, everywhere they can take one; fit and finish, inconsistent at best. If you can accept all of this,and are patient and able to endure sending your money off to some person in China who you have never heard of and wil never meet, willing to put up with lack of communication at times and customs risks every time you order a watch from outside your country, then this is a fascinating game.However, if you can't answer yes to all the above, my advice to you, buy genuine watches at the price point that you can afford and save yourself the anxiety and frustration that comes with replica watches. Welcome aboard and good luck on your quest for knowledge

WOW. I hate to post mine, after seeing all those delicious Daytonas today. Just my pedestrian WM9/BK V3 Sub.

Like the two guys above, who are Rolex experts, and I mean they KNOW their Rolex watches, I would stick to something off the sales corner. Either a MBW 1665 with or without mods would be a great starting point, and if you are looking for a contemporary Rolex, the WM9/BK Submariner is hard to beat. looking at the new watches that are for sale, I really don't see anything that really shouts to me. As you said the DSSD is too big and bulky. Also I believe that with the construction of the watch and the crystal attachment, it will be hard to waterproof. I had mine relumed amd the movement serviced, and the watchmaker told me that it probably wasn't water resistant. Sure enough I put it in my tester and it failed. Leaked around the crystal. I say this because it sounded like from your post you're looking for a watch that is or could be made water resistant. As far as the rest of the modern Submariners or SD's, I know very little. Post a Want to buy and keep looking on the sales forum. These two watches, the MBW 1665 and the WM/BK Sub are both very popular, so if you see one, you better move fast or it will be gone.

Probably the only one on the forum that still has contact with WM9 is BK. It would be interesting to know if all of the BK TT orders were fulfilled. It seems like he ordered 80 - 90 kits from WM9. If those weren't fulfilled, I would have more reason to be alarmed. I'm into WM9 for the full price of a SD, so i stand to lose as much as anyone. Win ,lose or draw, I learned my lesson. I will NEVER put up a dime for a "future project, concept, etc, watch". If ones comes to fruition, I will gladly pay the premium, but only if the watches are in stock/production.

Diz, that would be like legalizing Marijuana. If they sold genuine vintage parts over the counter, what would all those Rolex technicians, who have been hoarding vintage parts they took off watches in for repairs, do with their parts? Half the stuff on Ebay would disappear!!

I have to agree about the "big logo's" . Sometimes I think Rolex and possibly all high end watch collectors should be grouped under the catagory "more money than sense". :bangin: Of course maybe they know something I don't !!

Man that is one sweet watch. :thumbsupsmileyanim:

How do you turn off compatibility view?

Here is another one long gone (Started this one in 2005, sold in 2007) This was a watchmaster 1665 (same as MBW) . It started witha DRSD dial and i got The Zigmeister to replace it with a white dial. Here it is,

Please more detailed photos.That is a seriously valuable watch. I would expect if it was correctly restored, and I mean meticulously and correctly done, it would have a value of somewhere north of 20K, possibly much more! It looks like the bezel insert was changed at some point in time from the bakelite bezel to a metal bezel. I would seriously doubt that Rolex would tackle one that old. The RSC's are not accepting any vintage models unless their is a documented service history at some RSC (Rolex Service center) and even with that, only watches that they still have parts for. You want to send it to someone who will do a loving restoration, and has a source for NOS genuine parts. This is NOT the watch you want to stick a Jewelry and Watch rep bakelite bezel on!! If you are in the USA, I would consider sending it to Bob Ridley in Arlington TX. He is a master watchmaker, and his specialty is high end Rolex, Patek, etc. He did a restoration for me several years ago.one of quite a few i have had him do, but this one was a Steel/Gold lady Datejust that was my late wife's watch. she had worn it every day for probably 15-20 years. She took it to a Rolex dealer who told her that it wasn't worth fixing, but he would trade it for a new one!. After her death, I wanted to give it to my daughter in law. I sent it to Bob and about 6 weeks later, i got back a watch that was practically indestinguishable from new. He did a wonderful restoration job on this one, as well as several others over the years. Lots of folks on the Rolex forum as well as the Vintage Rolex Forum swear by him. He isn't cheap, but his work is quality all the way. JUst saw that you are in Texas. by all means make a trip to Arlington and let Bob look at it. Even if you have someone else do the work, he can gcve you good sound advice on the way to go. You can google Bob Ridley and get his phone # and address. Here is a link to his website Bob Ridley