thewightstuff

agreed, i think the seconds hand on the LVs are as per the regular submariners.

make sure you get them in while you can. its not long left until its gone for another month loving the old school snaps festival though, youve got a beautiful collection there and you havent even brought out your non crown guard masterpiece yet. ive only got one date model so thats me spent. aw shucks, couldnt resist anyways....

i like that watch alot and on the nato too but i found those zulu natos to be too chunky for my liking also and threw mine out and replaced with a regulation one. the rings on that type being thicker made my watch feel just like you are with that version. try picking a normal one out to try instead. i think you will be glad you did and it should make it excellent

haha, its my favourite one to look at the good old 4. now if only mine had been to the bottom of the sea and had red on it id be a happy bunny

another couple since the camera was out and all

im going to combine my thread from below with this since its almost the same theme. well ive been eagerly waiting the arrival of the 4th for no other reason than its my favourite date numeral aesthetically. if thats not a sure sign i need to diversify my hobbies and get out more im not sure what is well since its short lived and will be away again soon, though id get a photo up. anyone else get excited by such things, what makes your month watch wise?

i'm all excited as its the 4th today and its my favourite date numeral to look at. looks like theres quite a few favouring bonds and natos today

haha, that gave me a good old chuckle. where the blazes are you getting these from. do you run them over out there in the snow or something up there or pull em up in crab nets? its always beauties and always beautifully worn which suggests a less than conventional route to sourcing. im supremely jealous, mostly for the stories that im sure go along with acquiring and are both interesting and create a real bond with each new addition you bring in there. wear it well

haha, though if nanuq came into my shop id call the police on him.....

mine is exclusively divers and shows that im living a good 40 years too late in essence. i guess that makes me some sort of a romatic timetravelling frogman wannabe though my transitional 16800 arrived today from 1984 which i guess makes me less living in the past than yesterday.

you know, thinking on this some more. its rare that he even knew what you had and its value though great that he did or enough to know he had just made a big boo boo. sadly many dont take jobs in high end watch dealers out of a love of watches. theres a scant lack of history and appreciation and opportunities to chew the fat with staff with a love of watches are rare.

absolutely fecking brilliant

as far as i know its to do with friction. dial up places everything centred in its respective holes and allows smoothest running with least friction. sideways position increases this causing slight drag though my crown up and crown down would make a difference to this is unclear to me. i sit my 5512 crown up at night when wearing it during the day and it keeps almost bang on.

for me yes, reps unleashed the monster the rep world opened my eyes to watches and fueled an interest way above what i could ever have imagined. i went from having not even worn a watch for atleast 10 years to having a parts box littered with bits and pieces as i picked up reps, learned a whole load i didnt even think anyone thought about prior, i learned how to take apart and rebuild watches, learned about miniscule details and tells and feverishly tried to get them as accurate as possible. i found myself drawn into vintage watches rather than moderns after the first few but no matter how much i worked on them, how good they got for me they just couldnt scratch my itch. id got to the stage where i was discarding almost the entire rep, replacing with gen parts and sinking alot of $ into a watch that would never be more than a wannabe. perhaps its my personality but rather than pride im my work i just found myself noticing all the little things everytime i wore each. i finally just bought the bullet and picked up a couple of gens instead since the price was accesible at the time. i havent given up on reps altogether though, the price of entry for models im interested in is now often prohibitive sadly and so reps allow me to expand my hobby when this is the case, such as with my 6152 project. beyond that i find a genuine enthusiasm and depth of knowledge amongst many on the rep boards that sadly lacking from the gen world, now filled with many treating them like stocks

can i ask who this watch was from? that double caseback is something i actually quite like anytime ive seen it tbh. is it plexi or crystal on the front?

the rapid rise of the price of vintage models is now suddenly making sense haha

haha, the idea of the cyclops is living on the edge enough for me. what can i say, im a conservative guy.....or miserable. cant decide yet

i have been looking at a 16800 actually, theres a cracking matte dial one im being offered but im jut not sure ref the sapphire. ive almost bitten the bullet but keep stalling just as i do for some reason. ive been rethinking a gmt vintage too after your posts since that covers date and gives me something different. an all black one might be nice. if you see any for a good price id appreciate a heads up.

tmg, from just a glance over the parts it looks like its going to be very nice indeed when its done. heck if you just put it together like that without any movement it would still look nice on a wrist. im hankering after a gen date to add to my collection like you wouldnt believe, im jealous you are going to get to build one. whats your thinking ref hands for this with the dial and insert dot being aged? im at the same crossroads with my 5512 rep build. clean off the tritium exposing the white markers and easily matching hands, keep the character and just suck up white lume hands, get out the coffee bath, what?

oooh, i smell 1680

they are actually the current RSC 19s, very top hat shaped like the 1680 though not quite so proud. i think the photos are exaggerating somewhat, the side one for example makes it look like a mega dome but its just the lip at the far side playing up. talking of nice, hows that lush gmt doing with keeping a smile on your face? alligoat, agreed ref the sense of using vintage parts at the prices they are on the market just now. i was lucky to have both these dials in here with no use or homes for quite some time having come in used parts bundles. you should be able to pick up a modern triplock tube and crown easily i would have thought. they are pretty common and being current arent subject to crazy prices either. im stuck between the 1680 and the 16800. i tend to not have much love for sapphire but they for some reason keeping talking to me along with the less careful attitude one would require

thanks for the reply. ive actually got a pile of lume dots here and will put them in at the end, 5514 definately and 5512 most likely too. im not done yet and this is for the final stages when i cant knock them out and loose them im not set on those inserts yet as ive a few others too. im sort of sucking and seeing at the moment. well spotted ref the lugs, its a combination of the gens being worn down somewhat with age, the 5512 is 67, 5513 is 66 so over 80 years between them (my 5513 is thicker though the nato covers it) and the cases for this shape used by rolex being longer and thinner in profile than the 1680 shape which is used as the basis for all the vintage rep models. the 5512/5513/5514/5517 case is a different shape from the later 1680, i guess its a sort of transition between the flatter non CG models and the chunkier later types but its something thats always overlooked by the rep makers atleast. ive worked these down some but its still somewhat noticeable. theres no way round it save using gen cases, theres just not the room to eek out an exact shape match when viewed in profile. i think i may try working away some of the outside edge of the rep cases to simulate years of polishing and to see if it cant help them appear longer. the 5512 dial has its original and slightly shrunken tritium on there so it seems a shame to cover it up with lume i think though it does make hands matching tricky. the best options are to wash the tritium off the dial exposing the white plots underneath or age the hands. i havent had time to look into either yet. i have got a spare set of gen rolex tritium hands here but at over $1000 a set at the moment, if you can get them, i think i will pass sticking them in here lol. as i said in my main post itself, a nice alternative would be to replace this dial with a white lume gen 5512 service issue dial. you can, if you are lucky, pick them up for about $500 or so and it would match the hands shade and be mint. this is something i was tempted to do at the onset and havent ruled out still but theres no way id see either the cost or the enjoyment back out the other end and the point was to use as much as i had here where possible. maybe its something i can offer to whoever wants to buy the 5512 as i know where theres one sitting i can get my hands on pretty easily and swap out. i dont plan on keeping either watch when they are finished as im about to add a 1680 or a transitional matt 16800 to my collection and so these reps wont see any wrist time. it was just a project to see what could be done really and driven by the lack of quality of reps of these models. as for dial options for your build. you can pick up relumed dials or the later tritium with white gold surround 5513 dials for around the $500 region give or take and they can be found though not daily and to be honest i hate the look of the 5513 with WG surrounds. a good condition non WG with original tritium is going to hit you for quite a bit more though and there will be a queue of people looking for these.

posted on the other forum in the absence of rwg (where did it go to?) but hope no one minds putting it here. those of you with long memories may remember a project id started to look at quite some time ago with the idea of using up much of the surplus parts id aquired as parts of my spares collection for my gen 5512 and 5513. often id been forced to buy lots in order to get one or two parts i had actually wanted and had worn bits and all sorts kicking around though nothing that valuable. anyways, theres was a lot of gen vintage parts, many worn out plus a stack of new service parts so i decided to build a 5512 and an early comex 5514. once i began i decided to do it properly so picked up some additional parts for this like the new tubes and tudor hand sets that i felt were worth the expense. anyways, heres where im at so far. had a bit of a spurt on as im really want this out the way. still got tidying to do and final case sanding and polishing done. most of these early 5514s had no comex logo on the dial and also had no issue number on the back being divers tools first and foremost. it was only later that they started marking outside the caseback. i wanted to go for this as i much prefer the understatement of these earlier ones and the lack of a hulking great comex logo. i tough watch for a tough job. 5514. eta movement, unknown middle case, correct and functioning HEV valve (not engraved as on mbw), correct 5514 engraving and serial between lugs, lug holes drilled out to accept gen spring bars, crown guards modified, sourced caseback with correct external engraving and 5513 engraved inside along with date stamp. gen rolex 5513 dial which has been redone/relumed at some point and had ticks repainted. gen tudor hands set. genuine rolex 703 crown and case tube, gen rolex vintage 5513 bezel assembly and crystal ring, genuine rolex crystal, worn insert (assumed genuine) with lume dot to be added. heres some quick pics. the 5512 is here also. eta movement unknown middle case correct 5512 engraving and serial between lugs, lug holes drilled for gen spring bars and crown guards modified. sourced caseback with 5513 engraving inside and date stamp. gen rolex 5512 dial which was partially redone in the 70s, still got tritium though. gen tudor hands set, gen rolex 703 crown and case tube, gen vintage 5512 bezel assembly and crystal ring, genuine rolex crystal, used insert (authenticity unknown). heres a couple of pics, nothing fancy as im still waiting for a stem and some finishing. couple more quick ones with my gens. thought it made a nice shot and would also help for comparative purposes think thats about it for now. whats my own thoughts on them? on both theres the usual issue with case not being quite correct in shape for this and having more in common with the 1680 as is sadly the case with all the vintage reps though its not too obvious on these. the 5514 bezel is slightly rough to turn being well used. though all in all im pretty happy with this. may rethink the dial attachment. with the 5512 the bezel action isnt great either and in some ways it would benefit from the dial being replaced. i did think about it as i had access to a genuine rolex lume 5512 dial that would have matched the hands perfectly. it wasnt cheap though and not only would have pushed the value of this watch somewhere stupid imho but sort of beat the whole purpose of using up bits i had accumulated. in a way i like the character of the redial. id always take a redial over the terrible rep dials doing the rounds for this model thats for sure. a redial just says redial even to experienced rolex eyes, a rep dial just screams fake. anyways, i'll post up more once i get them fully finished up and tidied though there wont be much more to see. just leaves the issue of what to do with them really !!!!

couple more quick ones, moving forwards slowly.

i can definately see the beauty in the newer looking vintages, many of them are still in great condition but i personally just find myself drawn to the more beat up end of the scale for some reason. who knows why when you say thin font, are you meaning the type face on the dial itself or the numerals? im definately going to take marco up on his offer ref vintagizing me a dial. i love the look of his watches. they really are inspirational. i agree definately with strap choices, theres a few people making great ones, and many doing home made ones that look stunning. i really like my crazy horse but agree that it looks much more the part on modern ones like the 1950. ive got a solid caseback here that i got from marco that doesnt fit my case. i'll send it your way to see if it helps with yours. im sort of screwed ref options with mine. with it being a 1950 case as the foundation davidsens dont fit and neither do any of the other alternatives ive seen