Mendota Explorer

And they are available! Wooohooo!! Great

Glad to hear it. It really is a great base for modding. You can even use a gen dial with these cases. Not that you would put a gen red dial in here, but a white certainly could work.

I love these pics!

Hi guys. With all of the expertise in the vintage world here, I wanted to ask you all for some advice. I'm looking at a bunch of vintage 6517 and 6516 lady dates for my wife as a gift. They are all from somewhere within the 1960s based on serial. Some are completely original with rivet or folded, a few have an Oyster, and others are head only. I'm not too worried about that because I can get a nice croc band and Rolex buckle for it if I were just to get the head.

I have no idea what the service history is, but the inside of the casebacks all show the typical WS markings from servicing. Some have more notes than others.

Of course the dials and hands all show some degree of aging and patina, which is part of the character, but overall they seem to be pretty good for a 50 some-odd year old watch. The stretch also doesn't appear to be too bad. A spa trip to Michael Young can always remedy that.

Are these lady auto movements pretty robust? What would you guys look out for when eyeing these up? I've never really done any research on these, never at all, so I feel like a fish out of water a little bit.

I suppose I could always flip it if she doesn't like it, but I'm kind of hoping she will have a fondness for vintage pieces like I do.

Anyway, I just thought I'd reach out for some general broad strokes input before I narrow it down.

Oh, they are all under a grand, too. So they are previously loved. With that in mind, would an all gen franken also be a good option in this case or is that price range low enough that just getting the complete watch is the way to go?

Thanks in advance!!

The chapter ring itself measures 26mm in diameter. It fits the Tiger2 case quite well. Hard to see in my pic, but the 'SWISS' shows completely, not cut off at all.

dial.JPG

That looks awesome. Maybe it was the V1 case then or the Raffles dials that were being used? It was a big conversation piece about a year or so ago, if I remember correctly.

Very nice improvement!  It looks awesome.

Tiger case takes a 28mm dial.  Members over on Homage Forum have said you can shave down the dial to make it fit, but the only issue is then with the chapter ring being closer to the rehaut.  There are pros and cons to all of the case options! 

Very cool.  Well worth the viewing!  Thanks!

^ That one does look nice.  I would hope so for the price! 

I think DVNE was saying that If you find a 1500 for that price you should go for it.

Ok so any ideas guys on what tube to go for. I managed to source a 603 crown. JMBs case is on the way, as is the 14270 dial.

 

Yeah, I know. I just meant that I've seen some cheap ones but they are still a bit over a grand. Getting a gen for a grand or less would be sweet. I have found quite a few lady dates for my wife for under a grand, though.

 

Yep.

 

case came with the tube $350

dial $250

NOS crown $150

 

That's awesome.  That's a better deal than I thought would be possible.    Would a Yuki 3135 fit in there or are the dimensions off?

Wait. You found a gen 16200 case, gen dial, gen crown and tube for less than a grand?  All in with ETA movement and hands is still under a grand?  That seems like a good deal.  The gen 1500s I've found are over that.  Not by much, but still more than that threshold.

Then again, some of these frankens can be cheap, too.  I just found a gen 1500 case with crown and dial for $300!  With an ETA, crystal, dwo, and smooth bezel it could be a great little franken build.

Is that a rep bracelet or did you go gen with it?  It really is a nice looking build.

 

Question that I am considering - is it better to build a franken 14270 or buy a gen vintage 6694 or 1500?  A lot of these vintage gens are cheaper than these franken builds.  I dunno, I'm really leaning towards vintage gens now and then building a JMB 1016 and rocking my 114270 rep.

That's a bummer.  They must have used the best pic they had for the listing. It looked OK in their pics. 

I use the free version of tapatalk.  I also use my free photobucket account.  If I am just posting pics in someone else's thread or in the daily wristies thread, I use tapatalk. If I am creating a thread with pics that I want to have control over, then I will use my mobile photobucket app to upload the pics from my phone to photobucket. Then I get on my computer and create the thread that way and just use the photobucket links.  

 

I hate the swyping and typing ordeal on the phone, so there is no way I could create a full thread that way.  I need to do it on my computer.  Then I also have control over how I post the picture links.

 

I'm just wondering if eventually tapatalk will purge those images that everyone is uploading through their servers.

Maybe this is an odd question, but where do the pictures get stored when using Tapatalk? I use it for Android and it is so flipping easy to post pics. Whenever I post pics they just go right from my phone to the forum. It shows up as a Tapatalk link, so it must be on their server somewhere? Will these links expire someday and the pics will disappear? I can't find anything about it in the app help.

Very nice indeed! 

@DVNE - that looks really nice.  Really nice.  Yes, what crown and tube did you use?

You chose wisely. 1680 for the same price = no brainer. Can't wait to see it.

Also, the 3,6,9 indices on the 214270 are solid metal. The 3,6,9 indices on the 14270 and 114270 have a tiny, thin white interior with metal surround. That's another really easy way to tell them apart.

You are a rock star! Thank you for your generosity!

true gentleman! great A.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Absolutely. He is such a generous person. I've always admired his builds and aspire to learn and develop skills to be able to put together a masterpiece on his level someday. Very class act!

Just PM'd you about an insert! You are amazing!!

Very nice piece!

A guy over on RG recently shipped a watch wrapped in a couple sheets of paper and then put it in a bubble-lope. OF COURSE the watch arrived hosed. When the buyer said WTF and showed pics of everything the seller claimed it wasn't due to packaging and even blamed the buyer at one point for the damage. Mods got involved and in the end the seller refunded almost all but kept 10% back. Moral of the story is over pack!! Bubble wrap is cheap! I always just save the packaging from deliveries so I always have some on hand.