Geof3

We all make assumptions on others. That's why it's called 'first impressions'.

When I wear my suit (weekdays) I get the best service and respect from everyone I encounter. People go out of their way to help a guy in a custom made suit, finest leather shoes and looking super business-like. And when my AP pops out when I bend my arm...well no one will remotely suspect it's a rep.

If I wear my casual wear, I get treated not as well.

Masmannan.

Masmannan, the statement for discussion wasn't first impressions. The discussion was, if someone, like yourself, were dressed as you say, the assumption would be your watch is probably gen. But, if you were to wear that same rep and were in a pair of shorts and tshirt, more would assume it is a rep. That is where I disagree. First impressions are what what they are, no doubt. But one can't assume money just because a person is wearing a suit, or otherwise. I live in Colorado, we have a very casual way of going about things. The guys I know that have the most $ wear jeans and a nice shirt, and most don't care about watches in the first place. They are perfectly happy wearing a g-shock.

Sigh... This whole logic of it is a Rolex and therefore must be fake is the stuff of myth if you ask me. A Genuine Rolex can be had for the price of fully loaded MacBook Pro. Quality Vintage Date/DateJusts for well under $2k.

Where I live, and travel, the MAJORITY of Rolex's I see are Gen. Rolex makes on average 750,000 watches a year. That is 2885 per day or 360 per hour. DO THE MATH.

Yup.

I completely agree. There is more stereotyping going on in this thread than I would have expected. Lets just put aside that any of us wearing a rep are posers of one type or another. We can justify it anyway we want. If it were truly just about the "look" of the watch, not a single one of us would be wearing anything with a brand name on it.

The notion that one needs to "look the part" to own an expensive watch is also utter [censored]. Some of us save, scrimp, sell, or whatever to own nice, possibly expensive things. Our outward appearance may or may not "look the part". It certainly doesn't indicate (at least to me) whether or not a piece of jewelry is fake or not. My daily life is lived in a t-shirt and shorts. I've owned several gens, and my daily wearer is a gen Sinn UX. I drive a 95 4runner. I've also owned a 911 at one point. What I am trying to point out is "money" does not have a "look". Seems to me, more and more, people that "look" like money, actually don't have any and live their lives in debt up to their eyeballs. So, the notion that one must "look" the part, to be less likely to be called out for wearing a fake is BS.

One more rant, if one's eyesight is good enough to glance at a watch and determine whether or not any watch is genuine, is WAY better than mine. And if someone is oogling my watch with that much interest, and don't ask me a question or at least compliment my watch I'm going to seriously question their intent, and label them a creeper...

Oh, and btw I've never been called out either rep or gen. Really, 99% of people could really care less.

Now, get a Zulu type in the Bond stripe colors and you have a mega winner!

The lume is too "puffy" as well. His older dials where better IMO...

No not correct. Since Chinese clones of the Swiss ETA movements are everywhere, then Gen ETA is a real thing .. not bogus at all.

No, you misunderstand. I understand it is a Swiss ETA. But in this world of reps, it seams to me that to make the distinction of a "Swiss" ETA is far more accurate than saying "gen". To me, a part in a watch is only "gen" when it comes from Rolex.

Sweet!

Whatever it is it's a skeleton watch!

Ooh, bad form! But funny! :-)

Very nice. But, are we splitting hairs when we mention a movement as a "gen" eta? To me "gen" should only refer to truly genuine parts for the watch? In this case Rolex gen parts. Correct? I'm kind of a noob so, this is more of a question than a statement.

Saw one of these in the sales forum. Sweet looking watch, looks to be an extremely good looking rep. Being such a new model, what are the opinions of this rep? Tried to search, didn't find any significant info. Gen parts an option at all?

Long debated discussion. Personally I wear anything from a 34mm 5500, to a 48mm Sunnto altimeter watch. My Sinn fits right in the Middle at 42 or 43. I have others of various sizes. I wear the Rolex and Sinn most often.

This "anti-mod" mindset seems to be particularly prevalent in the Rolex world. Imagine if the Seiko guys were like this. Someone even had the balls to call it a fake. Another even said "Rolex wouldn't be ver happy about this", well who gives a rat-f$&k what Rolex thinks. The man made a cool watch. Good on him!

Jocke has been around the rolex game for YEARS, anybody that has played at all in the gen world, know of him. He is a wealth of knowledge. What I want to know is where did he get the parts? Must know someone. Very nice tool box too.

spring bar??

Gen... Purchased from local dealer...

Michael Young of classic watch repair in Hong Kong does AMAZING work on restorations of dials and bracelets. He will actually restore the dial, not scrape it and do a redial. If I were going to let anyone touch that dial, it would be him.

Yes and no. The Rolex Oyster braclet have wider middle links, however the center links of the Black Bay bracelet are much wider and the ratio between center and outer links width is off imho.

Yeah, the oyster bracelet has a one full to one half ratio, give or take. The outer link is about half the width of the inner. Early 19mm 78350s had the ratio a little closer to one to one. The Tudor bracelet is quite a bit different. Center links just look too wide overall.

That would be much better... Still think a black bezel, if poss, would bring it home.

Try a mock up with the 5514 sword hands... Might be even better...

Been wandering around the site for a bit now and am astounded by some of the cool watches being created. When I started this little project, I did not know of this site or any others with discussion of building a watch from parts. Here we are!

A few years ago, I came across Yuki's site by happen-chance looking for hands for a gen 5513. Seeing at the time he did dials, parts etc. got me curious. I had always liked the 5500 due to its rarity and its size. Being 34mm it fits me quite well with a very flat 7.25" wrist. I purchased a case, and got lucky. I bought an actual and original 5500 case not knowing any better. Had the original crystal as well. I then ordered hands and a matte dial from yuki and held on to them for quite some time. I tried the first build with an Asian movement that just didn't work well. During that time yuki started to produce more dials and the gilt glossy dial caught my eye, and I ordered one after doing some research to see which was most correct. Well, the Asian mvmnt died and the project was put on hold, the parts sat for a couple of years. I decided to give it a go again and discovered movement spacers and other parts for our little projects, which brought me here.

My watch is now all gen with the exception of the redial (early yuki) hands (yuki) and the ETA 2824. The band is an early 78350 correct for this case. The case is a complete 5500 case. Crystal is a new gen replacement. The original crystal was crazed a bit and I did not trust the water resistance. Crown etc. all gen. The dial has a couple of blems and touch ups due to being in and out of the case many times. I don't have shots of the movement, I did not take any during the build. Generally, this build was fairly straight forward, with some creative filing of the movement ring and a few other minor mods, the movement fit, and lined up perfectly. So far so good. Running about 2-3 seconds fast per day.

Naw, needs the sport hands. Either the classic Mercedes or the 5514 arrows or the fat tudor arrow hands. The DJ stick hands just don't quite make it. I like the idea of an explorer-esq dial. But then that is my favorite Rolex dial overall.

Read the article... The best line EVER, "a fake of an homage to a fake". CLASSIC!

I really like the watch, but the band bugs me. I don't like the wide inner links verses the narrow outers. Throws off the look a bit. But, overall it is really cool.

That is a tank, for sure. Kinda like the Tudor Ranger on steroids! In terms of the band, it's a fantasy watch so there is no such thing as the "correct" bracelet. The one that is on it looks fine. A black bezel would be cool too. Is there an insert in that or is the bezel one piece? Looks like one piece.

Have to agree with the above. If you had forgone the abrasives on the bezel and just stuck with the color tone you would have been close to producing a genuine look. The dial looks like it came off Mercury on the sunny side. I've tried cooking dials, never seems to work well unless you want a moon surface look. I prefer old school modeling weathering techniques then clear varnish to hold in the weathered effect. Don't have any pics, those pieces are long gone and I don't mess with my watches as much anyone. I like a nice clean look these days. Good effort though...

Get a gen... As others have said, a sport Rolex will be the best bang for the buck for a future resale. Then only one other rule applies. Pay cash. If you can't, you can't afford it.

I had a gen 5513 (stupid me for selling it) I don't remember the upper case edges being so beveled? Other than that looks great!

That is beautiful and a great job, but like others have mentioned... Where is your price point? Unless you got silly deals on your gen parts, it would seem going this route would put you close to a used gen, cost wise. Am I wrong?

OK, thanks I guess.

 

How about this one?

uglyrolex.jpg

that one Rolex DID make

 

mg

Ha ha! I knew one of those nasty things would pop after my comment! Scary that those are actually real watches!! My prob with the others is the proportions. They just look odd to me. It's all good!

Where are you sourcing the case and band/end pieces?