Stephane

As Kruzer said! Many factors are involved Well, the truth is that I build a couple of 1680s. And therefore we decided that the red would look older than the white... Remember, this is a game we play. We only mimick the gen. Same with the 1665 Trilogy. I wanted them to look completely different one from the other. I'm not looking for 100% accurancy but more looking at a collection of Subs/SD that is seen as an entity, not watch by watch. In the real life everything is possible anyway. I saw 1680s and 1665 GW with very white dial and hands. If you Google for a certain Rolex reference you will see differences on how the hour markers, hands and pearls aged. Colors may be completely different. I'm looking at a gen 16800 this week-end (mate dial) the pearl is very dark brown. All other 16800 I saw had more yellowish/light brown pearls.

Some 2007 photos in the sun

Thanks for your comments. The offer I accepted in may was 396

Oh, ok, so that is the secret source !!!

Wow, I'm speachless Jojo! Congrats to both the owner and the builder. Where the hell did you get a gen Date Wheel? And a 72 bracelet! That is a great watch. Can't wait to see it in the flesh Cheers Stephane

Hi all, I think you're going to love this one. After waiting for three months, I decided to call the AD today to see if there was a chance my SeaDweller was coming back home soon. - Me: Good morning, I'm calling to know if my watch is ready! - AD Employee1: Let me check that for you Sir. Can you please give me the reference number.- Me: blabla - AD Employee1: I'll check it right away with my collegue. - AD Employee1: Sir, it's not back yet....but it shouldn't take long now. Oh, hold on my collegue wants to speak to you. - AD Employee2: Good morning Sir. We were waiting for you call back to confirm your desire to have the watch serviced. I see here that in May my female collegue wrote "will think it over and call back!" - Me: Indeed I got a call in may with an offer for the service and an offer for a spare bracelet. I said yes for the service and no for the bracelet. - AD Employee2: Oh, then there is a huge confusion, I'm terribly sorry. - Me: Do you mean the watch is not even at Rolex? - AD Employee2: oh yes it is but they wait for us to tell them what to do with it. - Me: ok, so, what can we do, I miss my 16600 very much. - AD Employee2: Usualy it takes 8 weeks for Rolex to service the watch and send it back. I'll call them next tuesday (monday is holiday here) and will call you back. I'll try my best to have it done in emergency. - Me: Thanks, we'll speak on tuesday then. Have a nice week-end. - AD Employee2: you too Sir. How do you like that ?! The only good news is that it will not take as long as my friend's Breitling wich was sent last december Cheers Stephane UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE Hi Guys, A little update with the Sea Dweller Saga... Last week I got a call and the AD told me Rolex had promised to do it as a total priority. I can pick it up on august 8th. So, of course, I was quite satisfied... . . . . . BUT . . . . Today my cell phone rang and the AD asked me some questions again: "Sir, you wanted a service but what do we do with the spare bracelet?" My god, I already told them twice I didn't want a spare bracelet. "Ok Sir, but about the service. You asked to NOT polish it, right?" Yes I did... "Well it is polished, I'm sorry, Rolex was too fast and they started with the polishing!" Why did they do that? "Obviously, the watch has been polished before and not by an official Rolex Service Center. So the shape wasn't right. " Ok, listen, there is nothing I can do now, so let's continue the service anyway. "Thanks for your understanding Sir." I was about to ask the guy: So what is wrong with the shape: was it the CGs, the lugs ? .... Because I know some great modders personaly. You might have heard about MM, Tribal, Kelster, Taka or Ziggy .... Anyway, it's coming back soon Cheers Stephane

Congrats on the gen 16610! I'm with you. I sold a lot of my reps to focus on high end reps of the submariners and a couple of genuine Rolex. It make sence to keep only the watches that have true wrist time IMHO (Except for Tanfo, but that is another type of collection ) If I wasn't so lazy I would post another 5 or 6 more for sale in the RWG auctions and get my self a 16610

@Eric: we all were beginners once, in many various domains I'm sure that if the Sub start to grow on you, you will become a great Sub collector @Ziggy: thanks for the nice words. You sure know what I'm talking about "frustration - patience" ...

Agreed. And still, you can keep the entire Airking ( not sell any parts) and put the mvt back in in case you want to recover money from the gen...

Can't come....unless I my 12 years old daughter can join us

Hey, Welcome indeed. You have quite a lot of watches already. You'll find all you need here to satisfy your addiction And by the way, click on the link NEW MEMBER in my signature, you may win one. Cheers Stephane

Can't wait Jojo...I'll be there

Saturday! Trying to fall in love with my Explorer II again

Hi Db1, Deltick ships from the US Cheers Stephane http://www.rwg.cc/members/index.php?showtopic=77352

Great to see you back Golfman You have some sort of disorder disease with straps I think ...SDD

Bon anniversaire Mickey

Some White wrist for friday.

Thanks By-Tor. I don't have that many anymore I'll take a group shot once my 16600 is back! Thank you Freddy. They are nice indeed now. Well, thanks ST, why not start the same project Yes, we learn a lot in quite a few months. As I often say, this place is not different from the real world: great persons and some black sheeps. Thanks Frank. But pls, if you know, keep it secret I already have a 5513 and intend to build all the other ones indeed. But that is going to be a serious hunt. You're right, it will keep me busy for years

@ Vlydog: I would love to take them all...but is it really safe ? Honestly, I prefer to come with the primary idea to meet you (and other virtual friends) than to show off some watches...

Great eyes and fantastic knowledge Dluddy. It is, indeed

To us too well I think it's more about getting toghether than buying watches ...at least to me

Rolex Submariner 1680: The MM Couple. Dear All, Here is the result of a very long and frustrating project. When I started to look for members to modify my watches, I sent PMs to Tribal, to MM (see here under) and a third member who I won't name. Please do NOT Pm me for MM, I can't and wouldn't say more anyway. He doesn't look for more work and surely not for fame. Thanks! This 1680 couple has travelled a lot and ended for a complete restore work at my dear friend MM's place. I just got them back lately. So let's go! Preambule I know, I'm proposing another pictorial of Submariners. I have only one intention here: share my passion for what is my favourite line of watch I can't help, please forgive me, will you? Of course, some of my comments in this review might sound very negative, but I strongly believe that I am a different collector today than the enthusiast fresh member and total newbie I was when I purchased these two watches. So, in a certain way, I feel responsible for saying things like I experienced them, but, please, without looking for controversy. I mean it. Warning All the photos in this thread are from the final watches. I will not post the initial ones before they arrived in MM's hands. No photos from the 93150 or 580s either, only with the cheap riveted and rep bracelets, sorry. I was too lazy to fit them. You know how they look isn't it? Original Purchases The Red one was purchased from a member of the forum in may 2007 and the White one came from the group buy with TTK, in February 2007. I felt like the king of the world owning these watches and posted very enthusiast threads back then. But, I quickly discovered that my knowledge was poor and that both watches needed serious modifications to look closer to their genuine mothers. The couple I always need some extra complication to make a project worth. Getting one "great" 1680 would have been very cool. But have a "great" couple is a completely different story. The Red The state of the Red was far from perfect when it landed here! When I got it, I immediately noticed something was wrong with the watch but as I had no experience at all, I didn't really bother. But suddenly the crystal became completely foggy after I simply cleaned the watch with some drops of water from the tap. After careful inspection by a true experienced member, MM, here is a summary of what was not really "great": - Fake crystal instead of genuine (fitting?). - Crown tube drilled and threaded too fast probably as the case showed denaturated steel on the bottom indicating the metal got too hot. - Bezel insert glued sloppy, standing up on one side. - Caseback O-Ring very dirty. Caseback opened very easily. - Dial scratched heavily - brass was visible - dented in the Rolex writing too (visible in the photos here but I didn't even notice back then). - Bezel inoperable. So, we had to go for some work again. - CGs refinished, case refurbished. - Dial and hands have been completely redone (remove of the material and new stuff wonderfully applied in my humble opinion) - Bezel insert aged (completely different from my three 1665 so I end with a "creative collection of vintage Subs") - Genuine 580 end links fitted to accept my one and only genuine 93150 - The Tropic has been changed for a true genuine AND vintage one (check the difference between Red on left and White) - The watch has become truly waterproof now and is perfectly clean inside and great looking outside. The White It's very frustrating and makes me sad when I think about this one as the state of the White was even worse than the Red. Whatever was done (and this took a year almost) has been Redone completely anyway. Please note that the unmodded watch arrived in perfect state from TTK. Here is my friend's analyse on how this watch was prior he started to work on it. - Crystal (gen tropic) was scratched, not bad on a vintage anyway, but as MM said "I wouldn’t scratch your crystals when you don’t request it. And I am talking about deep scratches". - Springbars holes drilled poorly with a lot of burrs. - Bezel insert almost not glued, fell off almost instantly. - Hands not aligned properly. The hour hand shows 12 when minute hand is at 15 minutes. - Caseback so loose it could be removed by hand (again). - Lume on dial and hands applied very badly. - Dial scratched with surface swirls. - Case clamp broken because of inverted installation, broken piece didn't enter the movement though. So, I'm very lucky that it all ends like this for the White one. Take my word, it looks great in the flesh now. All the above has been fixed and Genuine 580 end links fitted too. Conclusion I could have written a huge thread on this experience. These babies were my first "high end reps ever" and I wasn't lucky at all. Instead of complaining and making it an issue I will simply say that patience is the first virtue of this hobby. Without such a great community I would never have been able to finish this 1680 Couple project. I would have been stuck with a bad Red and an unmodded White! The end I sincerely hope you enjoyed this thread as much as I enjoyed finalise this project. Thanks for looking and reading. Cheers Stephane

Great! Keep them coming. When everyone will have confirmed their agenda, hoping we can keep the 25th so that Vlydog can join, I will make a proposal for the GTG. I will create an eMail list with everybody in Blind Copy so no big deal about privacy. Again, being there for four days, and all of you guys might not be able to join at the same time, I'm still open to several one to one drinks too and I'm sure Jetsons too

I'm sure we can arrange that in New York guys At least if you choose the place of course. I love to discover and Cuba ain't my usual food

Prague would be wonderfull...