blue.

I can confirm, the Fasci 1016 springbars are quite good! They have a much thinner mid section making them compatible with as good as all bracelets aftermarket or gen. (no need to modify the bracelet).

Congratulations on this nice build. Were the hour, minute, second pinions been modified to accept genuine hands or the hands were broached?

That is interesting as cloned movements get better and better. What would be the typical tells in this case? I must admit all engravings are very very crisp and the spring for the shock ruby is gen like. +- seem to have a slight bevel.

Most probably because ...

Impeccable quality, gentleman!

Difficult task, though this dial might not be bad, it is refinished though! Other than that try finding a genuine one. Good luck!

The two fixing pieces of the upper showed tool by "dbane" have to be well covered by a thin enough rubber like "coat" otherwise this might happen: http://forums.watchuseek.com/f23/can-rolex-remove-permanent-links-oyster-368549-2.html#post3399029

Top notch, J!

Nice topic, wanted to share my experience since quite some time. Yes, the best and safest way to do is using that tool showed by dbane. It is a picture from the site of Michael Young (famous bracelet restorer from HK). But, this tool is most probably custom made, to my knowledge you can not buy this. If yes, expect unrealistic prices. I needed this desperately some time ago but asked myself to which essential parts can this be limited and redone in an affordable budget friendly way? Here is the result: This is a pair of cheap expanding pliers. It is really important to file down a very thin tip, split upside down "T" type (I have drawn a bit into the image to show how it should be). Not too thin as the tips would bend. The tiny tips are there to transfer the force from the expanding pliers in the inner walls of the bracelet link. One has to do this very carefully, as small unwanted marks are inevitable, though can be polished/filed down carefully later before assembly. The forces to open the link were surprisingly high. These links are hold by three pins, that go well deep into the side parts of the links. Picture from WUS Hope JMB gets caught up one day, so we can fund a "Oyster Reverse Vice" project to do this type of tool

Congratulations on this super franken! I love the attention to detail and right mix of model correct parts and assembly, gen and partially aftermarket, that went into this built. Two tone watches are not my type of taste, though that blue dial is very appealing. Wear it often and in good health.

Well, you can always try Chrono24 and ebay to name a few.

At the end of the day it all comes to

Now that's some strange things I had encountered: "Vintage watchmaker's" 1016 refinished dial offer and some other very prominent person offering such service are both the same, but their dial is pretty much nowhere else available you thought? Me too ... accuracy on the text etc is another topic. Look again on the upper link to the bay! The seller has re listed the item and describes it as 100% original! Here is the comparison Vintage watchmaker (you know who I mean). Well described as refinished, better SINGER engraving on the dial base, but still a tell those SINGER stamps on such dials. and the bay offer 1:1 the same, quite off in the text spacing and numerals ...

Very nice, J! All aligns quite well and the overall impression is great, gen-ish.

I like the outcome The patina lume is quite appealing. Wear it in good health!

The Submariners are maybe not my taste, but man, that blue combo is pretty good looking!

Excellent

Great to hear that the JMB case set is also ocean tested, Chuck! Hope you rinsed both watches with fresh water after each saltwater session.

Now that´s one of those moments I think is worth sharing! We all know 1016 dials (gen service ones in mint condition) are rare, very rare, and X times even more desired on the market, which is why prices inflate insanely... A few of us have missed some dials on the bay in the bidding process over the years. Some 6 months ago I missed a nice NOS dial + original hands from the UK, the seller was a retired person who had worked for Rolex Bexley as I understood Though, to no surprise ... was outbid by someone else (maybe a chap from the forums?) and the dial went for 960 $. I stopped bidding pretty early as the numbers got too high. Last week I was curiously browsing the bay for a 1016 gen service dial as they appear in a 3-6 months time frame, with open price end, lets say for bidding. A nice service dial appeared, stating mint condition. Upon picture inspection I saw at least 4 scratches ... hard to fix, if at all ... but not so severe. Talking about the price. As I landed into the bidding there were 2 bidders, price 2-3 $ by the time. Easy, would someone say, its mine in a few days! On Saturday the price had gone a bit up by 35 $ ... with 5 bidders! Now guess what! Today, the bidding ends in a few hours, we have 11 bidders and the price is about 560 $! I personally except (from experience) that the end price would end by around +900 $. Why? Because there are NOS 1016 dials with hands within the range of 1000$ on the bay. I bet at least 2 forum members are in the bidding P.S. Not sure who is ready to shell out 600-900$ for a scratched dial anyway ... Insanity at its finest.

Very nice formualted, automatico! Would agree with 1-20, as those coincide with my observations. Though Nr5 asks for some examples from real life ...

There are quite a few tells on the right dial as for example the Rolex logo letter proportions and spacing, the too thin register circles, the dial mark on the edge at 3 o´clock, as some people mentioned the swiss made spacing is off. But those are quite small details, with some attention to detail those can be fixed and it would be much harder to tell if gen or rep. Though, a lot of refinished DJ dials these days are sold on the bay and prices exceed even gen dial value! Insane!

Pretty nice, Chuck! We are still missing some pictures and report about the 1016

Brilliant, J! So happy that there is a significant progress after so many months The CNC lathe ensures accurate, symmetrical lug reshaping and leaves only work for fine surface finish to the builder/modder. Which is easier than having to reshape four lugs by hand, running the risk to screw up on four of them. Here is the prove that the resulting profile is gen spec ( this is a gen 1016 case from 1989 ):

Domed or not. In my eyes the pro and cons (visually). Domed crystal Tropic 21 Pro: -would give a nice and special reflection on the outer edge of the glass in certain lighting conditions -the soft edges would magnify a bit more the dials indices, strokes. Elongating them a bit in certain viewing angles. Is also considered as a positive special result. Con: -dial and overall appearance of the watch is much bulkier. Dial appears smaller than it really is. Not so elegant crystal parameters with that fat dome Modern service crystal Tropic 22 Pro -clear vision of the dial in as good as all viewing angles. Almost no distortions. -the minimal dome gives some special reflections in certain viewing angles -more precise, thin appearance corresponding to the Explorer style Con -the precise bevelled edge is easy damaged/scratched if not that carefull when worn. The domed crystal too, but as the edge is soft it can be polished better. My first 1016 (an MBW) had a domed crystal, then I built a JMB based 1016 with the modern service crystal. Both watches side by side looked quite different in the overall size appearance. I got some comments that the MBW is smaller than the JMB based 1016. Then I decided to upgrade the MBW with a gen spec bezel and crystal. So to say a service Tropic 22 and the J bezel. The MBW case has gen spec sizes for the crystal so a Tropic 22 fit in pretty well. Here are the results (from this thread): Side by side (on the back a similar to Tropic 21 crystal) Then after the upgrade of the MBW with a service Tropic 22 The decision is yours. At the end you may build two 1016 one with a Tropic 21 and another a bit more modern with a Tropic 22

Hey, droptopman! Congrats! Turned out pretty nice Good luck with the bracelet and wear it as often as you can in good health!