slay

lol @ nanuq. Is there an after pic? Any idea where I can get an aftermarket 1665 bezel (aside from phong)? Checked star time and eBay but they are all the low profile sub bezel rings :/ Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

Thanks guys! I saw the top/bottom part of the bezel and thought it looked like different material, but wasn't sure why they would do that instead of making it out of one material only (was it so complicated to make grooves into steel back in the days? How do you even solder steel to brass? I always thought that was very challenging to do.) Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

I'm building a 6538A and the only piece I am missing is the right Bezel. Does anyone have any suggestions what's the best one to use? Were these bezels also made out of brass, or were they steel? Shall I just use a 1665 Bezel? This is what it looks like:

Even if I use HSS bits in 0.05mm increments? This worked fine for drilling a hole for the tube... I believe I even used 10k rpm for the tube hole.

Really well done! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Hmm, I'll try reducing the speed and see if that helps, I think 5k rpm is the lowest I can go on my dremel... is that slow enough? Regarding the lume: I did the hands myself to match the dial, the dial was already lumed when I got it Likewise, thanks for all your wisdom Because it's almost impossible to buy exactly the parts you need for one watch, I have way too many more builds in the pipeline, at some point I may start selling some of the pieces You end up buying a part, doesn't fit your case, then you buy another, but what are you gonna do with the initial part? A second case of course... multiply this by all the parts you need for a build and there you go. It all evens out at some point if you keep building stuff, so waste material is kept to a minimum hehe

Yeah, unfortunately I had too many bad experience with so called 'expert modders' who had 'raving reviews'

A few weeks back, someone purchased the very last stock of MBW watches, because the owners are closing down their shop. I wasn't really planning on building another watch, since I already have too many on my bench, but I figured what the heck, this is your last chance to own a piece of rep history. As chance would have it, around the same time I got my hands on a very nice gen old stock Tropic 127 Top Hat Crystal. These are pretty rare and differ from the current T127 in the sense that they look like a top hat and don't have a beveled edge. Pretty hard to get and expensive for a piece of plastic, but the crystal is really what makes the watch, just like a suit makes a gentlemen. Vintage Rollies will look significantly different with one vs. another crystal. The other part that makes a watch look the part is the dial. To distinguish the 1680 a bit from my DRSD, I wanted this one to look tropical. Through a friend, I managed to get a Tropical brown 1680 Red dial with genuine specs. This was a blessing and a curse, because the rehaut in the MBW 1680 case is really made for 5513 dials, so it's about 0.5mm too narrow, so my dial was a 0.5mm too big, or to put it more accurately, my rehaut was 0.5mm to narrow. Thankfully, I'm not the type to back away from a challenge and I now have the right tools to correct that. To be honest, I got tired of waiting for other people to do such work for me, often to dissatisfying results, so I started accumulating all tools I need to do case reshaping, crown/tube/crystal installation, servicing movements... you name it. It takes a bit of practice, but it's totally rewarding in the end (and this is from someone who makes his money in an entirely different industry! I think we had one set of 15$ screwdrivers from amazon at home before I ventured out and got all this equipment). Having said that, there are still a few select guys here that I trust with my watches and I still send them to these guys for certain specialty mods that I believe they can do a lot better than I can. But I do as much of the work as possible by myself. Case Work:Reducing the dials diameter by 0.5mm would have been a tough challenge without damaging the dial and it would have made the chapter ring too narrow for a 1680, so I had no choice but to make the rehaut bigger. Using a digital caliper, a Dremel Flex Shaft Attachment and a carbide burr, I started carefully opening up the rehaut and additionally carved a little edge into it to hold the dial. To visualize the process, take a look at the schema below. I basically had to cut out the red part to use the gen spec dial: You can probably imagine that this was tedious work, I had to disassemble, carve, sandpaper, polish, measure and assemble the watch at least 20 times over and over to get it right. Personally, I need to hold the case in one hand and the burr on a flex shaft in the other to do this right, which is of course pretty dangerous, so I don't recommend doing this when you are tired! It's possible to use a Vise instead of holding it in your hand, but I felt I got better results using both hands. In the end, it was totally worth it, I adore this dial! I slightly aged the rest of the case + lugs as well without overdoing it. Crown Guards:In addition to the rehaut, I also slightly filed down the crown-guards, not too much, since the 1680 tends to have thicker crown-guards than the 5513 for example, and the CGs are already pretty good on the MBWs. For a lot of other cases (or for other reference numbers), you'll have to trim the CGs from the outside, which is a lot of work. As you can see here, the gen 1680 has thicker crown guards: You also see in the picture above that the gen 1680 has a I__I shape around the backside of the CGs. Most reps don't have this, they are shaped like this: \__/ - which is incorrect for the 1680. Mine is of course shaped like the Gen Bezel:As you can imagine, the black stock bezel insert looked hideous with the tropical dial, so I had to find a way to make it look the part. This was the first bezel I tried to age, so I figured it's probably a wise idea to experiment with the stock bezel and not with an expensive aftermarket. I used a combination of 400/600/800/1200/1500 & 3000 grit sandpaper, UV lamp and a blow-torch to arrive at the tropical brown look you can see below and I'm pretty happy with the result. I may change the insert for a different fat font insert at some point and repeat the procedure, but for now this will do just fine! I sanded and polished the bezel ring a few times and glued the insert in-place with a tiny amount of resin. Crown/Tube:I re-tapped the case with 3 different M3x0.35 taps to accept a gen spec tube from Clark and installed a genuine 703 crown. I created a counter-sunk for the tube using a round carbide burr. Lug Holes:I used a 1.25mm drill to drill the lug-holes for proper 2mm springbars, only to find out that the MBW rep bracelet's center-end-links don't accept 2mm spring-bars (grrrr). So now I need to get a different bracelet or change the last link that connects to the end-links. It's not feasible to drill a bigger hole into the last center link, I tried with various HSS drills and increased their size by 0.05mm increments, but the metal on these links is just too rigid to open up the hole properly. The drills that I use to drill holes into cases for crown/tube aren't gonna cut it with the bracelet's center-end-link. If anyone has an idea about the bracelet (either opening the last center links hole, or changing the last center link to something more suitable), I'd be happy to hear suggestions! As far as I know the hollow link MBW bracelets are the next best thing to a gen bracelet. Considering the time, tools and money I put into the work and the parts I could have probably gotten a genuine 1680, but honestly, it wouldn't looks as pretty as mine. A cheap gen would look like any out-of-the-box rep if you ask me! The pretty and tropical gen specimens go for a 20k and up. Look at the watch before and after, if you ask me there are world between them!

Great tutorial. If you want to make it easier to tap, use a 3.6mm drill (I also had to use a 3.5mm since my dremel doesn't like the 3.6mm drill, but tapping was pretty hard and only works if you have a high quality tap, the cheaper taps may get damaged)

It took me a while to get all the parts I wanted, but here it is, 5 months of work paid off! When you start a project like this, you ultimately end up buying more parts than you need, often as part of bundles or because you're getting a better deal on them that way. I have another 4-Liner that I finished today, will follow-up with photos of that one soon Big shoutout to nanuq, cc33, dbane and kime for helping me with advice throughout the process. Case+Bezel: Vietnam/Phong/dbane Crown: Gen Rolex Bevels+CaseWork: dbane Movement: Gen Rolex Cal 1030, winding mechanism serviced by me Dial: custom MQ Lume: custom MQ (plot at 6 is slightly whiter to mimic the radium plots usually found @6) Hands: Michael Young Crystal: Clarks T19, shaved down to reduce height Stem: Gen Rolex Assembly: me I have to point out the beautiful work dbane did on cutting the FAT bevels, because the bevels looked like absolute total [censored] when I got the case (I was sold a lemon). The early 6538's had these fat bevels and they they are really part of makes the watch unique. Getting a beautiful GILT dial was probably one of the hardest tasks. I had lots of back and forth with MQ and only thanks to the eagle eyes of nanuq, cc33 and dbane was I able to catch damage done to the initial dial I was offered. In the end, MQ made a completely new dial for, which really makes the watch. The next best thing would be an ivan dial, but his dials are twice as expensive at around $2k and I had to make choices so that the cost for this build wouldn't get completely out of hand! Anyway, here are the pictures:

You can get HSS drill bits from cousins in 0.05mm increments. Get a 1.25mm HSS bit from them for less than 1$. Because they are so cheap, I simply purchased every drill bit size they are selling - just in case! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

There are some V72 movements that have added complications (e.g. Calendar --> V72C) or some other aspects that make them unfit for a V72 phong/dw case. I don't know which movements specifically don't work, but maybe you can post the exact caliber number and/or the donor watch you used and someone here can help for sure!

It's tropical forgive me for the hands, they are temporary! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Where did you get the gen coronets? How much are they approximately? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Phongs crown is by far the largest! It's slightly over 8mm, the others (incl gen) are slightly under. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Since I have all four and since I haven't seen a post with all of them in the same picture, I figured I could post my pictures. If you ask me, they are all different from the Genuine crown. I'm happy I listened to Kime and dbane. All crowns win in some discipline IMO. Athaya closest in terms of diameter and teeth (teeth shape &a number of teeth) Phong closest in terms of material color/tone Yuki hast best logo and bulged top. What do you think? Order (sorry I accidentally switched the last two crowns after the first pic): First photo Genuine, AthayaV2, Yuki, Phong Other photos: Genuine, AthayaV2, Phong, Yuki Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Nice!! How much did you pay for the brevet crown? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

No, a Vj72 will not fit. The only movement that will fit in a MM case is a Valjoux 23. You will also need a new set of hands (Hands that fit the 72 should fit the 23). ST-19 is a different movement and does not got at all. It has different sub dial spacing (6 o'clock Subdial is slightly lower. The rest are the same), is slightly larger and has different pusher arrangement. Good luck! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Nice work on the bevels Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

MQ's address is on their website and there's a picture even. I would go unannounced , perhaps with someone who speaks Vietnamese and ask for prices, perhaps you can make a few good deals while you're there!! Phong is based in the US. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Some guy in Singapore who sells watch parts on eBay from time to time, I'll send you a pic when I get it! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

New MBW? My 1680 arrived yesterday tropical dial, top hat and gen crown are on the way. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

It's NOT made on China, that's [censored]. It says Swiss engineered because the electronics are obviously not made in Switzerland and the 'Swiss made' label is quite restrictive. The non electronic part are Swiss made and the watch is still assembled in Switzerland. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

There are a few good Newman dials on eBay every now and then. They usually sell for ~400-500$ Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

200$ is beyond ridiculous! Joel takes less than that to work on 60+ year old angelus movements. You dont need to disassemble much to change the mainspring on a 6497, it's very easy even if you have never done it. If you dont want to do it yourself, ask Joe/Neckyzips, not sure what his rates are, but as far as I know less than 100 for a 6497. If its Asian, you may want to consider getting a new movement from ebay for 40$ (!). Sent from my Nexus 9 using Tapatalk