dublinlad

I've got one I don't want. Been sitting in a box for the last 4 years or so.

If there are any still up for grabs I'll take 3 of em

Is that not because the minutes are 10 after the hour?

I could be wrong, but I think the Commando was only 31mm, which is small even for a womans watch these days. Also remember reading somewhere that they were mostly sold at Abercrombie and Fitch stores as watches for "boys", maybe one of the intermediate Datejust cases would be a close match sizewise - but would anybody actually wear a watch that small?

I'm sitting here with my gen dial ...looking at the dial feet, snips in hand and I'm saying - will I, won't I, will I, won't I, will I.......................................... should I, shouldn't I ???

The #2 appears to be the one all right, http://www.ebay.com/itm/Movement-Ring-ETA-2836-others-fit-Size-2-/160663472018?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item25684a0792 Bought one of these myself for a 2836 also fitted to a 16030 case, quickly throwing together a mock-up it looks like a little bit of filing/sanding is needed to reduce the OD slightly, nothing too drastic, only a few minutes with a file/sandpaper, the height may need a bit of work as well or maybe just filing out a couple of notches for the movement tabs, other than that it seems like the way to go. (Don't forget a couple of tabs/screws, to keep it all seated, if you don't already have them)

I've gotten a few watches from Mary - and seen lots of QC pics posted on various forums for opinions etc. - I have found that with almost all of Marys QC pics the Dial Text/Date Fonts or the likes of the ROLEX rehaut engraving are always much bolder looking in the pics than they are when the watches arrive, either her camera is crap or she is doing something to the pics in photoshop messing up the sharpness or contrast or whatever - almost everything in your second pic from the bezel print to the minute markers look bolder/thicker - its to her own detriment because they are always better on delivery than in the photos. Great dealer though, better service & quality than I have gotten from anyone else. Edit: Don't kno what exactly which one is correct but the pearls in both pics are totally different & the endlinks in the first one appear to fit much better.

Honestly, its even too late for that, I was going to take a pic of the thing, but decided against - just to save myself the embarrassment, it really is that bad, I can't even think of anything to compare it to. Put it this way, once I was finished I had to replace the original caseback with one from a noobmariner because the original was now too wide and was showing through under the "guards", I seriously don't know how I messed it up that bad, if I was drunk at least there would be some kind of excuse.

I'd be interested in buying one if you have it to spare, once the midcase is good I dont care about anything else. I totally F'd up an otherwise decent effort by "reshaping" the crown guards - reshaping meaning the total destruction of anything that remotely resembles anything Rolex ....or even swiss for that matter. I had a Clarks dome installed, nicely aged bezel, clarks friction washer, markers and hands gently aged - just to take a bit of the edge off that yellow "vintage" look, gave the dial a light mist of matte lacquer, drilled out the lugholes and aged the bracelet for a decent vintage look, replaced the stuttery DG with a nice smooth brand new movement and even went as far as fitting a gen 702 crown and Yuki tube.... and couldnt just leave well enough alone and went ahead and had a go at the crownguards, now its just a pos with a Rolex dial, if I just had a midcase to drill out the lugholes, re tap it for the 702 tube and then leave it be it would be perfect (again)

I honestly haven't got a clue what I used for the first one, I looked through my box 'o' spares and found a brass ring that was just the right size with a tiny bit of filing for the tabs, dunno what I will use this time around - Ken @ rafflestime has 2 different movement rings for eta movements they are pretty cheap so I ordered both sizes, I'm hoping that at least one of them will fit even if it needs a bit of filing or whatever, if that doesn't work I'll figure something out then.

Got mine from A&E on eBay, the first one I bought was a Buy it now Offer of $155 for case+crystal+crown (no bezel) the silver linen dial from the same people was $90. Sealed Eta 2836-2 from Ofrei $150, cClarks hands $12 (I think), Cheapo Raffles Jubilee was $20ish (& seems good when compared to the quality of the age approiate Rolex ones which weren't that great anyways) The second one I bought parts for was from the same people (A&E) in an auction this time round - case+crystal+crown+linen dial+springbars+bracelet & endlinks (no clasp) total was $258 (they usually list them as buy it now @ $750). I made an offer on a $59 Buy it now/best offer engine turned bezel from Jewelerstools & got it for $35. Gary Clark kindly sent me a free set of hands, I told him I had trouble with the first set being too tight and needed to be broached, he said that should not have happened and sent me a gratis set....nice one, great guy to deal with. Both linen dials are spotless, no scratches, with good print and look good as new, cases have been gently refinished and are in good shape with no dings, crystal on first one was a bit wavy the second one looks mint. Patience is the key with these, there are still some decent deals to be had, I've been very lucky with lowball offers.

I just bought almost all I need to build my second DJ, Gen case, gen linen dial, gen plexi, gen bracelet (without clasp), gen engine turned bezel, gen springbars, Clarks Tudor hands.........so far all I have spent is $290 and I need a clasp, datewheel overlay (If anyone has a noobmariner overlay to spare I'll gladly buy it), and an eta 2836 to finish it, so around $500 should easily see all the parts needed.

The numbers on the bezel insert are almost touching the bezel in watch A... A gen insert would be a vast improvement on whats already very very good

Clorox Clean Up works very well too and might be a bit safer.....regular Clorox Bleach never worked for me either

Cases are up on eBay every day, I paid $150 for mine without a bezel....I think thats about average, the asking price was $300, I offered $150 and got it, didn't expect to get it that cheap to be honest. I used a 16030 case/back/crown Gen linen dial Gen? fluted bezel Clarks Crystal Clarks "for Tudor" hands Datewheel overlay from a noobmariner New sealed Eta 2836-2 from Ofrei Pair of Clarks springbars One of Kens cheapo $20 Jubilee bracelets....he was out of the better ones, this one seems fine though, except for the clasp. Dunno what I used for a movement spacer, found a ring in my parts box, it fit perfectly with a bit of filing for the tabs. Total cost was $485 including the new Eta, which I think is ok, couldn't see doing it for much less than that.

I don't post much here, the search function always turns up anything I'm looking for so I don't have to ask the same questions everybody asks over and over again, so hopefully this might help someone else out. Back in July Lhooq posted his franken DJ and soon as I saw it I wanted one for myself, bought all the parts, put it together from all the information I got both here and on the other rep sites...Jubilee was on order so I had it on a leather strap...Perfect as far as I was concerned, even kept looking at it all doe eyed and self congratulating myself on how awesome I was putting it together with such ease.... Then!!!!! The cheapo rep jubilee arrived, put it on and one thing became glaringly obvious, the dial was crooked !!, I knew it was a bit off, didn't seem too noticeable on leather, but once on the jubilee the center link was there as a reference point it made the whole thing look awful. Stripped it down to start over.... The only real work I had done before this was a replacing a crapped out movement in a $98 5512 which worked out great...and "modding" a noobmariner...that I totally F'd up, so this was the first real attempt by me to do any serious watch work that had a bit of $$$ invested in it..... The only real difficult part was getting the datewheel overlay to line up with the Rolex dial, trial and error....eyeballing the Rolex dial to be centered in the middle as well as lining up with the date overlay both left/right and top/bottom, there are no dial feet so it is a 3 handed job....as well as the fact that the epoxy I used is slowly drying and fast approaching the point where its about to set......The first time around the overlay was off by a fraction, so I lined up the date window on the dial to make it centre and as a consequence the dial had to be rotated slightly to make it work. THE TIP: I (like probably most people here) had a junked NoobMariner from my previous "effort", Asian clone movement, so the dial feet are spot on to the Eta I used..... Use the Noob dial ...with feet still attached ...to line up the date window with the overlay, makes the job a lot easier than trying to eyeball the dial as straight and the positioning of the window is exact to the Rolex DJ dial. Before & After Pics: In this pic the dial is straight, but the watch is as crooked as a rams horn And with the dial fixed: Job Done, now I'm all about scanning eBay to find all the bits and do it again, now I know why everybody who makes up these franken DJs always has more than one.

Ordered a Ladies DJ from Mary @ Watchinternational last week, got the QC pics today. Am I being too picky because looking at the endlinks and the position of the engraving on the rehaut it really doesn't look like a $300+ rep, I also ordered a Ploprof and that was perfect in the pics, am I expecting too much for this one or could there be a better one out there? The reason I went with Mary was because I thought she picked out the individual watches herself, as I know quality varies from watch to watch, these aren't very popular in general but do you guys think there are better ones out there or are they all this bad?

I must have lucked, bought all the parts up in a week and everything only cost me $480 including a brand new sealed Eta, yours was the inspiration for the linen dial I put into mine.....so thanks again for that. I was going to see if I could squeeze in a cheapo DG2813 or similar to make it an even more cost effective build, I have those movements in a couple of my reps and they work perfectly, keep good time and the sweep looks ok to my eyes on anything vintage - I may be wrong, but ignorance is bliss!!!.... Although I did find that the ones that come fitted to the reps as standard are useless, I bought replacements from Ofrei for $15ish and swapped them out, they seem to work much much better although there does seem to be a break in period with the Rotor which at first feels a bit like a helicopter is trying to take off on your arm but seems to settle over a couple of months. Would be nice if they did work though, could put a nice looking almost gen vintage DJ together for around $300.......I'd build myself a collection of them if that worked. There must be slight variations in the cases/dials for these, I used the 2836 in mine too and with the ring and dial as standard the stem lined up perfectly first attempt, the only thing I ground down was the datewheel before fitting the overlay, if I ground down anything more my stem would have sat too high in the tube, it must be a case of fine tuning as you go along.

Very nice looking DJ you have there, congrats. I just finished one of these myself a week or so ago, 16030 case,fluted bezel and silver linen dial Really happy how it turned out, couldn't have done it without the knowledge I have been picking up here over the last few weeks of research. Can't post pics as I haven't reached the minimum needed to attach pics. Was wondering though, maybe the experts will know.... I had to put a bit of bend in the minute and seconds hands to clear the markers, the plexi does a good job of distorting the only angles you can see it from so it is not noticeable at all. I know there is a way to raise the height of the hands by changing out the cannon pinion(?) for the minute hand, the seconds hand would probably be ok as it is. The question I have is, would it be easier to drop in a complete movement including overlay from an asian Eta Sub because from what I understand from some posts I have read the hands on the Subs with the Eta/Asian Eta sit taller/higher than a standard Eta, is this correct? The movement/date overlay from the Sub fits perfectly under the Datejust dial, I checked in a mock-up I did before installing the Eta and it was spot on, all of the dates were centered left/right and top/bottom. It would make things much easier to build these if that was the case, might cost just a little bit more, but would be worth it.

Its one for the ladies.......

You will probably find part of the post still attached to the seconds hand, the exact same thing happened to me with a 5513 a few weeks back, I ordered a new movement from Ofrei, I think it was $15 and a set of hands from Ken at Rafflestime I think the hands were $3.50, but the shipping was twice that, hope that helps you out.

From what I can see of your first pic, the one of the dial, you might want to take a another look at your old second hand, if you still have it, I think there might be something still attached..............