lello

Kruz, by your words it seams that the only reason why we are seeing some gen pics around with polished sides, is because this is the latest 2007 version..., is it right? I'm also not so sure I would like it more with polished sides, but at least on the rep, the brushed finish on the sides doesn't look fantastic..., don't you agree?

Two years look a bit long time to me to be already the latest version... Maybe it's the opposite and the latest has polished sides. On the pic Chiefs attached, the serial # is higher than the one on the rep Gen : 3156527 (polished sides) Rep: 3111388 (brushed sides) But to know how the story is, we should see the serial of a gen with brushed sides....

If you are right, what would be better: Having the better looking polished side, but older version, or keeping the less nice brushed finish, but having the latest version? :cc_confused:

Definitely polished even on this last pic! You wouldn't see those high contrasted reflections and you wouldn't see especially the skin texture so clearly reflected on the upper lug, otherwise. I agree with you Jakub, the brush finish on the sides, it's no so good on the rep. It will look surely much better with polished finish. We just need to find out which one is the right finish, on latest production. Do you know if the serial # can be indicating a certain period?

No, Jakub means that he saw on a couple of video commercials of IWC, that the case side is polished. I went to see one of these videos on IWC site. The side is shown polished there, but it is a 3D digital animation and not a real video shot to the actual watch..., maybe this is the reason... He hypothesized that the latest production might have been changed from brushed to polished... Personally I will believe it, only when I will see an actual photograph about it, as on animations, they can make it different, or by mistake, or just because it was looking better... Sorry, I just realized that he is talking about having visited an authorized dealer...., mmhhh..., this is becoming enigmatic

Thanks Don! I'm going to show these pics to my relumer and I will warn him that I want it this way, otherwise better nothing on bezel.

My printer will make the re lume on mine. But I'm not sure yet if I will send him also the rotating bezel though... I don't have idea if The Zigmeister really make these, but I have to trust what Dluddy says. My printer in Italy charges around

Lucky you Don... You just ship the whole watch to the mod's master. I know that Rob makes really great re lume works. I'm actually a bit afraid that these nice and crisp numerals could be damaged by the re lume. Can the Superluminova be so shiny? Do you have any pic of your Cousteau new lume?

I have mine for two weeks and I have checked it out carefully. Personally I didn't get it from anyone who promised me a custom QC. But so far it doesn't have any trouble..., only a very slight misalignment of swiss made type, but very slight, something like 0,5 mm off. No problems on the pushers at all and rotating bezel is very smooth and sounds a nice click every minute I can't believe somebody here is thinking bad of this rep! This is a very good piece indeed. Of course there are the same old mods to make, as re luming, new AR coat and ETA DW. But I also can't believe somebody saying it has a good enough AR. The AR on this one it's totally CRAPPY!!! It just gives some blue tint on reflections, but the reflections strength is exactly the same as on non coated crystal. Anyone here knows how to disassebling the inner bezel? I'm thinking to send it out for re lume as well. Actually I already shipped the dial & hands, as in beginning I thought I could stay without lume on bezel, but today I saw the video on IWC website and it looks great with the bezel lumed! What do you think..., any tips to remove it?..., or would you stay with it as it is?

Stilty, so you need to glue the overlay, directly on the wheel when it is in the movement, to test it in the dial date window. The dots you are talking about, are just used to place the glue in a well balanced way and avoid micro movements during the drying..., right? I'm sure that for several people, this will be a quite easy and exciting job to do. If you will post a tutorial, this will help too. But there will be also people who won't feel to do it and will need to ship the watch away to be done. But I'm not sure if we would have the alternative to let my printer printing the overlays, when they are already glued on wheels, because as part of the numerals will be positioned outside the wheel internal edge, this might create the impossibility to print them properly, because of possible deformations during the print. Let's decide about it, after we will be sure the cutting is solved. Just one more thing: I noticed Archibald saying that the internal diameter is 14 mm. Yesterday I communicated to my printer that it was 15 mm. Should I correct this data before he will be ready with the cutting tool, or would it work fine anyway?

You are right Brian, 0,07 mm it's a very thin stuff..., almost as an onion skin... You make me wonder about something: If as I'm hearing, these overlays will be glued on 2824 and 2836 wheels, which both have the outside diameter of 23 mm (as the overlay) and internal diameter of 17,5 mm and this means 2,5 mm wider than the overlay. This means that this thin film, will be jutting beyond the wheel inner edge, as we can see on this image: If this is true, it means that there will be a 1,25 mm all around which doesn't lay on the wheel, but it's jutting on outside..., is this correct? Can anyone let me know the exact measure from center axis of dial and center of date window?

I think you can really count on the shiny radial finish, as this person who would make these overlays, is the one who any watch reseller in Italy and sometimes from abroad as well, call when they need to restore a dial, or DW on genuine watches and he made already these vintage DWs for gens. If you are also sure that cutting the 0,07 foil, won't represent a possible problem, then we would be almost done with the "Holy Grail"! But I want to hear that from my printer mouth... Let's keep our fingers crossed.

Thanks William! I don't think there won't be any problems to fit this (eventual) overlay on your 2824-2, as 2824 and 2836 DWs have exactly the same size, except for the extruded ring that the 2836 has on the bottom, but this doesn't affect the overlay issue at all. I hope I will have some more news tomorrow, or on monday. As I said, now it's just a matter of the 0,07 foil don't getting deformed during cutting... I will keep you posted. You know what?..., if this project will succeed, i will definitely buy an MBW 1680 for myself too!

I think the diameter sizes are fine, as I really don't think that a 0,1 mm could make any difference, however, my printer is going to make the cutting tool for OD = 23 mm and ID = 15 mm. It's a shame that the genuine movement are turning the DW counter clockwise, because my printer has the clich

Thanks Brian! well, I don't think that a 0,1 mm could make a big issue on these overlays anyway... So, I'm going to communicate : OD = 23,0 mm and ID = 14,9 mm If anybody thinks this is wrong, please say it right away! ---------------- Ok, I just spoke to my printer and gave him these sizes. Now he is going to build a temporary cutting tool and he will try to cut a foil of 0,1 mm Then, if the cut will come out fine, he will order a proper tempered cutting tool and a 0,07 foil. Are you sure guys that a 0,1 mm, wouldn't be thin enough?

Some updates about this overlays: I just spoke to my printer. The good news is he is going to try making these overlays. He perfectly knows how to make the radial brushed effect, as this is something he makes quite often to restore original Rolex vintage date wheels. He also knows very well which material to use and he talks about brass foil which will be made silver, by a galvanic process and then brushed by this radial technique, which has an exact name, but that now I don't remember. No problems at all for the radial brushed finish and the print though. However, what he is not sure yet, is if he will be able to cut these rings so thin, because he is a little afraid that this thin foil could get deformed during the cut. He will need to order the special tool to cut these rings (overlays discs), which he will put on a proper machinery. In order to make this tool, he needs to know the exact size of these overlays. As I was told they should be OD = 22,5 mm and ID = 14,5 mm But Stilty yesterday talked about OD = 23 mm and ID = 15 mm Please, I need to be TOTALLY SURE about these sizes, as this tool will be quite expensive. So please let me know asap about the actual size. Before to proceed, he will need to get assurance from the tool maker, that a 0,07 brass foil won't be deformed during the cut process though. So let's keep fingers crossed! ANd please let me know asap the size, thanks very much!

Please forgive my ignorance on Rolex... What's the difference between the overlay for the 1680 and the 1665?

The member who first asked me to work on this one, told me that the same thickness of the Ingy overlays I made, it was fine. If you are totally sure that only a 0,07 thickness would work, I will need to ask to my printer if this is enough thickness for him to print out. I will let you know tomorrow then. But even in case he will tell me it is fine, I will need to ask you to give me the material. When i asked him about the radial brushing, he told me that he already made several DWs re make, for the genuine Rolex watches, so I suppose he well know how they should look. But tomorrow I will ask again in more detail. If you have a good scan of the genuine DW, it might help. Thanks.

I'm sure many of you would be very happy if I would make some good overlays for this one and maybe even other Rolex. I just need to make sure nobody would be damaged, in case somebody else already started working on something like this. In case this will be ok for all, I just need an additional information: As I don't own this rep and so, I can't test the overlay on the watch, i need as more informations as possible, to avoid any mistake. I know that the size of these overlays is 14,5 mm the inner diameter and 22,5 mm the outer diameter. I'm going to use the CAD way to make the graphic file and so, there won't be any chance of vertical misalignment. But to place the numbers in the right position also horizontally, I need somebody to let me know the exact measure from the dial center axis, to the center of date window. Can anyone let me know? Thanks!

Hi guys, excuse me if I break in on this thread. As some of you might know, I use to make proper DWs with the right font for some watches. So far I worked only on Panerai, IWC and Breitling, for various models. A few months a go, a member asked me if I could put in production the right overlays for this Rolex 1680 and gave me the info to start working on it. In fact I started working on this project, but then I had to pass it on hold, because I had too many other things to do at the time. Recently I finally started working on it again, when today I came across this thread. Before going ahead with this project, I wanted to make sure if all of you would appreciate me working on it, as I don't want to do anything that might be unwellcome for anyone. In case anyone would like to get a properly made metal 0,2 mm thick overlay, both with white background and radial brushed metal, I would be pleased to help. As you know these ones would be printed by a professional dials/DWs printer and so, they will last forever. Just let me know, thanks all.

Randall, Well, I don't think the AR blue hue on the gen would influence the dial color actually. Are you really sure this purple look comes just from the AR hue? If this would be true, it would be maybe enough to make a new AR. I know that AR makers, can control the hue on the crystals. Some time a go I was nearly starting to make AR too and so I was talking to the manufacture which makes it and they told me they can make the hue as we want, or control it somehow anyway. Brian will certainly know more about it. If instead (as I suspect), this slight too much purplish depends directly on the dial color and if the watch makers won't correct it on the next runs, I can try to make this dial from scratch then. No problem for the DWs. They are the same as for the other Pams with 3 o'clock date window and I should get some soon.

Ok, thanks. This means I will need to ask Josh to send me a watch with the back as yours...

Personally I like more the 164. I think

It looks gen to me. Also the strap it's gen. I wouldn't have any doubts. Just ask a few close up pics, to make sure it doesn't have scratches, but for the rest it seams a good deal at all.

Can I say my opinion? I had the chance to have one Pam 228 in my hands on last year, because as you know I live in Florence and sometimes I go in that shop pictured on the case back, to let the guys wasting some times showing me some watches... :-) I actually seriously thought to get a gen, but it wasn't possible, as they were all booked out much in advance. The blue I can remember, it's more like the gen pics that Baz attached here on this post. Dial it's more shining that Pam 082 and color and finish are also different, so do not compare them. Color on this rep looks a bit too purple though... Personally I will have a look at how the next run will come out and also if Davidsen version will solve this color matter and also the swiss made position. Alternatively, as I'm having my printer already working on the total re print of some Pam dials, if the results will be good, I might make this 229 dial correct then. The DW font is a bit off, we can see it from the number 10, where the 0 has straight sides, while it should be oval, but I would like to see also other numbers before thinking it should be replaced. In case you will decide to swap the DW, you know where going to ask for it I want to also talk about the back of this watch. Have a look at these pics. Before I saw these pictures published by Bazonkers, I thought they made it slighlty off, as the types around the central door, are a bit too close to the edge (as on Lanikai watch). But the back of Joe's watch (Bazonkers), looks quite right then. Actually it seams that the whole image engraved on the back of Randall's watch, it's a bit larger than it should. But this is also the way this watch is depicted on Joshua shop and also on King's one. Can I ask where you both guys bought this watch from?