panerai153

Great looking watch. the 1680 is probably my favorite vintage Rolex. I have that ones brother on my wrist right now. White letter version. Hard to beat the old school MBW's as a modding platform.

AP

Your story would be really funny if it weren't so sad. It is amazing to encounter the incompetence of people who work for companies that rely on good customer service to succeed! This makes you wonder how this woman is able to find the FedEx facility where she works every day? maybe her father or husband drives her to work and drops her off. She sure isn't smart enough to take public transportation, if it requires more than one bus or train change.Looks like FedEx is at the forefront of the "hire the handicapped" program, except that this type of incompetence is and affront to the handicapped! They are dipping far, far down into the barrel of human competence, skimming up the dregs to work their counters.

@scarass,

The area around the HEV is not indented, what you are seeing are sunlight reflections which make it look like it's sort of "Scalloped".I almost didn't include that photo in the review, because i thought the way the sunlight reflected would make that side look distorted. The HEV is slightly indented, which I have seen on probably a hundred photos of genuine DSSD's I've looked at. I agree with jkay, that photo is a photoshop image from a real photo.

I was wondering if anyone had made the movement swap in a PAM GMT? I have a couple of 2893-2 movements, that I bought specifically for a Rolex GMT IIc swap, but it's looking like that it's really difficult due to problems with the hands not clearing the markers on the dial, as well as the date wheel too close to the underside of the dial.

Several years ago, I had a PAM 29 GMT that came with the 2893-2 movement. They were available for a little while, and then they started coming standard with the modified 2836-2 movements.I might be interested in trying the swap in a PAM GMT if it's a "drop in" and not too problematic.

I would agree. It seems to wear smaller than it looks. It is thick though. my wrist size is between 6.5 and 6.75 and it doesn't look or feel too big. i have had several watches that were the same diameter and some just looked too big, this one doesn't.It's a really nice watch, I feel like it will be in the keeper catagory for me, depending on the quality and wearability of my WM9 SD that's on order.

Here is a wrist shot of mine.

the date wheel is off or was it the angle?

EZ qc getting bad to worse..

I'm not sure you read the review. Here is a direct quote."It looks like the date wheel is a little off in this photo, but it's not, it's dead center of the opening".The camera was not centered exactly in that photo. As far as the QC, I'm pretty happy with this one, but I've seen others that the QC is not as good. Unfortunately, with most reps, what the dealer gets, he ships to the buyer. There are some exceptions to that, but by and large the dealer is just moving merchandise down the pipeline. It's been said a million times here and on other forums, if you want top of the line QC, get a genuine.

I would do what SEleven did. Call the courier's customer service number and give them the tracking number. Tell them it was shows unsucessful delivery, even though someone was home that day to accept the delivery. They can trace the package and tell you exactly where it is. It obviously is in their system, because a delivery attempt was made even though it may have been a "Drive by" attempt! Unfortunately, as our population gets lazier and lazier, and the work ethic fades into the distant past, more and more folks seem to try to cut corners and slack on their job. Your dilema is not the first time a similar incident has been posted on RWG. If it were me, I would make sure that the customer service representative knew how unhappy I was that the driver made a bogus delivery attempt.

Thanks for the review. The American pocket watches were iconic in their era. Amazingly accurate for watches that were built in large numbers. unique part of American history.

That's a very nice TT. I'm not much of a gold person either, but of any that would "do" for me it would be the TT sub.I bet this one would look good on a Blue Alligator Strap as well. If you decide to sell instead of parting it out, I might be interested.

panerai153... as you know I have been following your journey on the DSSD for a while now.

I just wanted to say it's fantastic that you finally received it, and I can tell you are

as happy with it as I am with mine. Sure we got them from different places but who cares,

main importance is we get to enjoy them!!!

A big congrats and enjoy it often brother!

Thanks very much G. I really like it a lot. Mine is off to get the lume job as well as a movement service and have the HEV valve epoxied shut. It will probably be away for a few weeks, but it should be about as nice as you can make one of these when it gets finished.

I agree with drolson. no one here is going to be saturation diving with a Rolex Rep, so the HEV is totally superfluous. Sealed up it will never be a problem, left open whether correct orientation of the valve or not it is a potential source of water ingress. Salt water inside, it's a paperweight! Why take the risk?

The Zigmeister is the MAN!! His dials are the best around, no doubt. That FM Crazy hours dial really looks nice, looks like it might drive you insane luming it, but when it's done, it's a knockout.

I wrote a review a week or so ago about the newest 2010 model DSSD from Eurotimez. What I didn't realize at the time was the HEV works opposite from the way the genuine works. the genuine opens with pressure from inside, thus water pressure outside will create a tighter seal, the Rep HEV on the other hand opens with pressure from the outside. This particular model doesn't have a particularly strong spring either, so it takes very little pressure to open the HEV. This is a recipe for disaster. i would imagine that washing your hands and having your watch under a hard stream of water could cause a flood. certainly diving into a pool,etc, would be dangerous.

I would recommend to anyone with this model or other spring loaded HEV models, check to see if your HEV will depress from the outside, if it does, you need to seal the inside of the HEV with epoxy to insure the water resistance of your watch. The best course of action would be to seal the HEV and pressure test as well before getting the watch wet. I'm sure most all of the older members here who are Rolex owners are aware of the replica HEV problems, but I would hate to see a Noob ruin a 400 dolllar watch because he thought the HEV operated like the genuine

Beautiful job. Ubi, as usual, your generosity and skills exceed all expectations. i'm sure ronin will be thrilled with this one.

Have a Speedy Recovery, Get Well and get back on board here, we miss you

Very, very nice! I think that the Daytona is probably the only Rolex Sport model that looks good on a leather strap.Yours looks really good.

I agree. I have never owned one, never liked it much. compared to the GMT, the GMT wins hands down, not only because it's a much better looking watch IMO, but with the ability to time a 3rd time zone, the GMT has more utility.

When I first got into reps, I was more into modding everything. movements, crystals, relume, bezels, inserts,gen crown/tube. As I've gotten older and more reluctant to part with my hard earned money, I am leaning more and more toward watches that are pretty good "out the box". I really don't have the time or the tools to take on anything serious. I can change/adjust bracelets, springbars, pop off bezels to change inserts, but as far as getting into the mechanicals, I'm out of my league. At this point, I prefer watches that will only require lume jobs, possibly replacing the crystal and having the movement serviced. I am willing to pay more for a higher quality rep that only requires the minimum to get it where it should be.

Deciding what is a "permanent" keeper is a pretty hard choice. In the past I have sold watches that six months or a year before the sale, I vowed to keep forever. I have kept a couple that at first I wasn't too keen on, but they have grown on me. There are some that in my early years, I sold because I needed funds, or sought after another one that I thought I would like better. Some of those would be quite valuable now, but who could see into the future 30 + years.

I have thinned the herd down considerably over the past few years, primarily because one can realistically have only so many watches in any rotation. I find that I tend gravitate to a few (4-5) and these are my daily wearers. I am one that tends to love the latest arrival, and consequently it gets a lot of wrist time at first.

Here are the ones I will probably keep, the genuines to pass along to my son & daughter, the reps, because I like them.

Genuine

IWC Calatrava -The consumate dress watch, thin, elegant and really correct for a formal occasion

Omega Speedmaster Pro - It gets very little wrist time, but one that I wear at times and really like. Not having date and manual wind are the only minuses that keep it out of the regular rotation

Omega X-33 - No longer sold to the public, it's about as funky as you can get, but if you want functions, it's got 'em

Rolex GMT 16750 - This is probably my favorite watch, comfortable to wear and GMT is a useful feature to me.

Doxa Pre-Sub - This one is as rare as hen's teeth, only one to surface in the modern era. Definitely not in the rotation, but it's not going anywhere

Replicas

A for sure keeper is my Rolex 1680 - Lots of genuine parts and a nice watch

Rolex SD WM9 16600 - Doen't even have it yet, but I really like SD's, and I have a feeling this one is going to have a permanent home

I have a couple of other genuines and several other reps, mostly Rolex, and while I like them, and they comprise almost all of my daily wearers, I couldn't say for sure that any of them will survive the test of time.

Thanks very much for posting this lani. If you can read this and not have a tear in your eye, then perhaps you need to step back and reevaluate why you are here in the first place. This is a wonderful example of mans kindness to fellow man.

I believe that if you live your life with the premise that when you draw your final breath you can truthfully say,I did my part however small to make the world a better place, then you can go peacefully, knowing that your life was a success.As Lani's plaque says,You only pass through once. Life is not like a movie, you don't get a "Take 2". You have to do it right the first time, because there isn't a second chance.

Rolex has always been conservative to a fault at times, but it's hard to fault the business model of a company that produces the most recognized watch in the world. Rolex, as someone above posted, sells every watch they produce, without having "fire sales" or discounting (at least at a company level). If you read the history and time line of models such as the 1680 and 1665, visually they have changed very little since the 1960's-70's, however they have made many small changes both externally and internally, but all of these have been evolutionary rather than revolutionary, although to some Rolex fanatics, these changes may appear to be revolutionary.

Rolex has always touted the sports models as being the most rugged and durable watch that you can buy. And, as Chief stated, outside AR on a dive watch used for diving will get scratched. Even though statistically, probably less than 5% of the Rolex Subs and SD's are used for diving, Rolex sells them with the intention that they can be used for diving, even though they probably won't be. So why take the risk that watches will start showing up at dealers with scratched dials and dissatisfied owners. Maybe some day, if enough folks in Rolexes' R&D department can be convinced that they NEED to apply AR to their crystals, they probably will, but I believe that until they reach a point where they need to from a sales prospective, the status will remain Quo.

Garrett,

I'm sure if you search enough you will find someone who will do a duplicate dial. I believe that the bigger dial refinishers such as International, Jurgens, etc. all have a pretty strict policy of only refinishing/restoring genuine dials and then only back to what they were originally. I know jurgens in their advertisements says this: PLEASE Don't ask for upgrading any Brand : Your dial must have the same name and design before , we do not print a red sub ( as a sample ) when it is a other dial.

Hi,

Could you tell me where I can find a bracelet like the one on the Tudor? I think it looks very nice.

Thanks,

Catalin

Catalin,

That is a Rolex oyster bracelet 93150 with a Tudor clasp. It is old and stretched some. You can pick these up on Ebay (Be careful of copies here), all of the Rolex forums have sales pages and these come up for sale pretty regularly. try the sales page on the Vintage Rolex Forum. Also occasionally fellow RWG members have had these for sale, so keep and eye out on the RWG sales forum.

Wearing the latest arrival, DSSD 2010. Excuse the lint and dust in this poor shot!

In my previous short review of the DSSD 2010 model from ETZ, one of the respondents asked if this was the new "316F" stainless steel? I don't know to be honest. I didn't ask, and there was nothing on the ETZ website to indicate the steel used. It seems like in a recent very comprehensive review, one of our fellow members did a series of metallurgical tests on a watch that claimed to be 316F, and his conclusion was that the steel was not 316F.

No matter what the steel number is, I believe that most members want the steel to look and feel as close to the genuine Rolex steel as possible. What I did here was do a side by side comparison of the DSSD with two genuine Rolex watches with genuine bracelets. I was pressed for time, so I took these outside in direct sunlight. If I have time this weekend I will try using my light tent to see what they look like using artificial light.

These photos were not "photoshopped" except to reduce the image size. No color enhancements color corrections, etc. Just as they came from the camera.

Here are the side by sides.

Bright direct sunlight. The bracelet on the Tudor is at a different angle, so reflectivity is different, but if you look at the cases and the end links on the bracelets on the lower side of the photo, they all look pretty close to me.

Bracelets and cases in direct sunlight

Watches in the shade. It looks as though the Tudor steel is darker than the other two, but slight differences.

What do you think? IMO, the steel is similar enough in appearance that no one would be able to tell whether or not this was a replica or genuine, just seeing the watch alone on your wrist, based on steel color alone.