blue.

Cool build Blindpirat! Truth be told those builds are endless in updating, "slight" modifications ... a lot of folks here would agree with me. After the first build, you just get the taste of the next best franken you get to build but leave the current one as it is. Then on the way to getting the new parts there you think of a slight update of the current franken etc. it takes no end and a lot of discipline to say stop, I like it as it now is. That is spoken from personal experience and after 3,5 Explorer builds. Good luck on the parts and assembly and please keep us posted

You are welcome! Each one of the members does contribute with his experience, when trying out new things and sharing the results with the rest, that is how the community can profit. Have not received any PM´s from you yet?!

Now that statement shouts for a current progress status As, gen dial, movement etc is fairly easy to source, the most complex part is the specific 1016 case. All offers in the past of gen mid cases were of cases that had been beat up very very heavy, with lots of rusty areas, practically unusable and offered for an intergalactic price. There exist 1016 service cases, though never seen one being sold as a separate part. Curious to hear what your case alternative is? Good luck sourcing the remaining parts!

That is a great story! Such lucky bids or low price offers on the 1016 gen parts do really exist! One has to scan frequently all known sites for parts and offers. Try to preserve the dial feet at "all cost". Your options are getting a proper low beat movement ETA 2783 etc., get the movement prepared to accept the gen dial feet and you are good to go. the result would be a nice, budget friendly, service friendly 1016 franken. If you would like to go "all in" with gen parts, that is a whole different game. A gen case that accepts a 1570 or 1560 movement does not have the proper lower side with the specific 1016 lip around the case back. On the above picture that is a rep 16200 case (JMB) that has been modded (by Rolojack) and done some extra effort to find a lathe specialist to lathe a groove for the gasket 29-310-8 (the correct would be 29-317-10, but is unnecessary too big in diameter, trust me I tried that). This way you would have a gen 1016 case construction. The question is how well a 15x gen movement fits in a 16200 case gen or rep. Personally see no advantage of the 1570 movement compared to a movement from a TUDOR for example an ETA 2783-84 etc. All watchmakers can service those ETA movemenst at a "low" cost, parts are also found. As all the cases (gen or rep) need a specific mod on the lugs and bottom, maybe it is much more budget friendly to start with a rep DJ 16200 (JMB for example, the basic version that is for ETA 2824). Regarding the dial lume. It is a matter of taste. If you have two explorers you may let one to be bone white and the other patina yellow, that would make sense and give sufficient diversity. Your gen hands are in fact pretty beat up but I think some skilled person can bring them up to shine and shape. It may make sense to use them only if the minute hand is long enough to enter into the minute register of the dial. The hands can be modified to fit on an ETA movement too, not that easy though. Your next best option is TC´s hands set V1 or V2 as they are made to fit on an ETA. Good luck and let us know your progress.

Yes, the pliers are spring loaded, like these:

To my eyes and knowledge all looks quite genuine. Clasp code marks month & year of production October 2009. If you don´t mind, you can share the link from where you got the bracelet.

Richard, there has been a thread about this a while ago, currently not able to find it. To my knowledge there is no tool available for purchase to do the job. Bracelet restoration service provider have their own tools, custom build. Though, if you are imaginative and hands on you can build something by yourself: Image is I think self explanatory. This is the easiest, cheapest way to do a tool like that, without damaging the links. The pliers got to be strong enough, file down the tips to achieve this profile so the small tips enter and engage only the inner surface of the links. Press the opposite side of the bracelet against a wooden block (to avoid injury when the pliers open the link rapidly). THen push the pliers´ tips to stay inside the links while pressing the whole assembly against the wooden block and pressing the handles of the pliers to open the link. Had done this on a few bracelets and it works perfectly! No damage to the bracelet inks at all. Good luck!

Awesome result! Sad to hear you are selling the piece! If you research the franken stories here in RWG and other forums you may come to the conclusion that frankens are a well worth investment and joy for many years. Then again other people do sell these top frankens for one reason or another. One day you may update the hands, if you still own the watch, with TC´s V1 or V2 if you wish. Enjoy the Explorer as much as you can, in good health.

Danza, this is a nice 14270 build. Regarding the dial centering. You almost got it well centred. At the moment I see it being slightly to the left. I recently had such an issue on a build. It does not depend on the mid case itself, but on those two elements: 1. The dial centred to the movement. 2. The movement spacer ring. If No.1 is done then No.2 is the issue. In general almost all stock movement rings have a slight tolerance. You can try to unscrew the movement tabs so you can move slightly and centre.I suggest you jam some thick paper stripe sort of in the gap that is left between the movement ring and mid case, when you start moving the movement with dial and movement ring. Then screw tightly the tabs, check if the dial is centred, remove the paper stripe, close the case, done. Should there be no more tolerance to the right, then you would have to slightly sand the movement ring to allow to move as desired. Repeat the above procedure with the paper stripe helper and you are good to go. Best practice is to custom fit a movement ring. Good luck!

Looking great as usual! Sorry to hear you plan on retiring from doing the 1016 mods. Wish you all the best in your new endeavours.

These are so nice, even is a tad smaller than 1016! Good job!

Nice example of a 66 case back. Rather rare to see such shift in the stamping.

Love the detailed pictures of the process. Great work!

Always a pleasure to see such nice parts ready for a build. Oh, what a nice set of Tudor mercedes hands Good luck with the remaining steps.

Regarding the date wheel compatibility. In the above picture the franken is a no date, that is why I removed the date wheel and had no need to check if the 1570 dial feet would clear an ETA date wheel. Today as I am reviewing some pictures of the process "modding the main plate", I see that the gen ETA 2783 date wheel seems to have a quite small outer diameter. That is why I dare to claim that at least an ETA 2783 or 27xx family movement would work fine with the date complication and an 1570 dial installed. Here is a quick photo (bear in mind the 1570 feet holes had not been done at that stage when the picture was taken):

A genuine 1570 dial would look like this, when the ETA is prepared to accept it: Notice the 57min dial foot. The foot has a few microns of clearance to the balance wheel. The 30min dial foot has a bit more clearance to the mainspring barrel. Testing the clearance with a sheet of paper passing freely through the gaps between mainspring barrel, the balance wheel and corresponding feet. All in all this has been done by hand with mini files, filing step by step, testing fit and centre to the movement. There is absolutely no margin for error.

Pretty nice Mother's Day gift. Turned out very nice

Nice news cc33. The tritium dials are in fact higher priced, but luminova would allow you to read the timw in the darknes for a long time, for a much lower price tag. Curious to see you choice on case and overall progress in that project.

Thanks for sharing otherwise interesting project. I have respect for the work done as these jobs are not easy at all. There are very rare occasions where the homage of whatever is better than the original. Would stick with the first Paul Newman that was produced, rather than the gen modification to honour the PN. The newer Daytonas go along with the new Rolex philosophy and proportions. This is strongly present in the shown Project X, that bezel is off in the proportions. The overall case diameter is too big. But a rather thin bezel would not look right either on this mod case. The gap between the crystal and case outline is huge.

This model is not that famous as we know, so expect galactic prices on all parts, referring to gen parts of course. Rep parts are scarce for sure. These are NOS or used dial and or hands sets for the 1019 require top end budget. Decide for yourself. Dial feet are for 1570 movements, Though the Milgauss used 1580, the antimagnetic version of 1570, as ranfft mentions. Hands have to be modified (broached) to fit ETA movements. Broaching may fail or succeed, a matter of luck. Best bet is to either wait until very good aftermarket parts are available or go the gen dial, hands and 1520/30/60/70 movement route with an aftermarket case, like the one RoloJack offered a while back. Using Yuki's hands with a gen dial would destroy the aesthetics in my opinion as those hands are quite fat and have to be modified/broached too if one wants to use an ETA. Looking forward to see what case, dial, hands alternatives RoloJack may offer in hopefully near future. P.S. If you ask me the NOS dial looks refinished, as the SCOC text is a bit too thick and not as crisp. Which may be an argument for the heavily discounted price. Comparing to the other dials for sale which are used and have a prive tag of about 3k Euro and more, from the same seller.

Congrats dbane! The beginning of a nice personal watch story, right there, the first moments of walking in the store, walking out with the watch and papers. In all those years, watching vintage Rolex sales pictures that demonstrated the watch with the original papers, I asked myself, who were those people that bought those watches, where did that "ceremony" take place back then? Always a nice moment! Wear it in good health!

Tasty That groove for the gasket and Rolo's "signature lip" are the ticket, as a personal side note. Very nice craftsmanship! Both RoloJack and JMB deserve the praise for these 1016 case mod projects. We need someone to lathe the gasket groove on upcoming case projects, JMB, Rolojack? There is more than enough "meat" on the midcase to allow a clean gasket groove to be cut with a lathe in order to accept the stock gasket and result in a gen construction. These are the watchmaker lathe tools for the job (the right one in the middle).

Very nice, J! The only setup would be the depth and you are there.

Willem, as nice this hobby is, the more you read about the franken builds of other members, not only about the Submariner but all other, the more you will recognize when a rep has reached "super" status. You´ve got a nice Sub but that is just an out of the box solution. Take your time and read a couple of threads about how people have build their frankens. It is very important to understand the process and what it takes, from who to order what, where to search for parts etc. It is a knowledge no one can summarize in a post. I suggest to keep the Sub and to start a forum research, learn from the experience of the members, ask questions ... then start collecting parts for a Super-rep. A Super-rep is the one you have build with a fair amount of genuine parts, or some modder built for you. In the sales corner there are some high class sales from time to time, but these are serious budget franken builds, they are hard to sell, because prices are close to a genuine watch and there is a slight psychological barrier that prevents potential buyers from paying that much for a franken watch. On the other hand when gathering parts for a franken watch, you would be spending a lot as each part gen or aftermarket is expensive and piece by piece it raises the budget very fast. Before you buy anything more you better research what a certain watch has to look like, like the misaligned rehaut you have for example. By then you`d know from what parts a certain watch was built from, by only looking at the sales pictures. Have fun, be very very patient and good luck!

I would say on an ETA, for dials with dates and as JMB mentioned, dials with high stick markers best cannon pinion would be H4. On builds with no date dials, best cannon pinion height is the H3. H2 height is an absolute compromise, would work but aint correct. The two occasions (H4 & H3) give a gen spec distance from the dial.