droptopman

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This has probably taken over my favorite watch I have ever owned throne. even over the gens. Guess because all the time and effort that it took to build it. Sent from my droptop using telepathy.

What an elegant case. This is going to be a beauty. Look forward to seeing her when she is complete. Sent from my droptop using telepathy.

Tough question. Probably a two tone DJ. Gives the option of different metals for accents--belts, ring, whatever jewelry and goes with any color shoes and clothes. Can be worn with a suit or casual. Not my favorite watch of all time but a good versatile piece. Good for business travel. Sent from my droptop using telepathy.

If you could do a gen spec 1675 case I would be very interested. Sent from my droptop using telepathy.

I ended up going with the Yuki dial as well. Should be here in 10 days or so. Pics they sent prior to shipping looked good. This is suppose to be a moderate budget build so it seemed like a reasonable choice. Gen crystal and crown and eta 2783. Need to sort out end links as I am trying to use the rep rivet bracelet that came with my 1675 donor watch. Spent much of the last week reading threads on this build. I am going to try to do some case shaping myself and may reach out to some of you for guidance.....

Hello and welcome to the forum. I lived in Seattle for 30 years, now in Yakima. "Watch" out this hobby is crazy addictive.....

AK, very nice. That is what I am looking at silver stick marker dial with wg bezel in SS franken. Indecisive between modern or vintage.....I love parts of both models. Couple better close up pics:

True, I guess modded would work nicely for this forum......

Me old beater, but one of me all time favs

Nice and NICE....I'd have my wife do one but hers aren't gen....they're modded.

Wow that is some serious watch making skills. Beautiful piece and ever cooler that you built it.

Wow great story of perseverance....and nice looking pieces. I almost went nuts waiting 8 months on my GMT project. Wholly Smokes 3 years. Very cool that you can now enjoy them.

CC, every time I see that piece, I want to stop whatever I am doing and start sourcing parts.....I need to learn more before I take on this project, but someday I will build me a really nice 6538 so I can stare at mine instead of pictures of yours.....

Great thanks. I ended up going with the Yuki dial and hands as this is suppose to be somewhat of a "budget build". Going with ETA 2873, gen crown and crystal. I have the rivet bracelet that came with my cartel 1675 that I did not use, so I will do some finish work on that and let Matt sort out the end links, but I think it should work fine. If she turns out really nice, I may look at better dial and bracelet options. Golf club championship this weekend so tied up both days. Will not get to shaping the case for a couple of weeks.

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My two Franken Matt builds. I was never really a DD or DJ guy until I got one of Matt's pieces. Now looking at doing two more builds. All started when I saw a picture of pan153's Vintage DD Matt built. Matt is a great guy and best watch smith I have ever known.

Cwazy turn around time was about a week. You can see some close ups in my 16750 build thread.

Thanks T, jmb case arrived yesterday and dial and hands are on the way. I need to find a tutorial on shaping the case properly. I am going to give this one go myself.

Yep, heard good things about all three, but I have used cwazy and he is excellent and is in WA state.

Good morning, My 16750 build is finally complete and home to be enjoyed. I chose the 16750 over the 1675 simply because I had access to a well priced mint condition genuine dial and that is what really started this project and a vintage Pepsi has always been one of my grail pieces. Out of all the watches I have owned over the years, I have never had a GMT. I want to thank many of the members who provided help on this project. Mostly I need to thank Matt (mymanmatt) for making this happen as I am sure there are not many people who could have managed this build. Matt is an amazing watch smith. Honestly most experienced members told me not to try it.....And now I know why, this build had many obstacles and was a true test of patience and cost. Once you get started on one of these builds it is hard to abandon it and even though I did a project budget and had already sourced most of the parts, I went way over......as most of you know this is one of the most difficult builds to do because of the case and there are not really any good aftermarket case options. I did much research on this across many forums. Even the high end aftermarket cases are not very gen like. Matt compared a well known $1500 1675 aftermarket case to a gen and it was not even close and would have needed modification on top of the $1500 cost; therefore, I chose a cartel case and sent it to Rolex Addict in France to modify the crown guards and thin the lugs. First 2 obstacles came from the donor rep 1675 watch which was suppose to have a Swiss ETA, but ended having a clone. Next obstacle was when disassembled the donor case was a 1680 dressed like a 1675. RA worked his magic on the case and while the case is still not perfect to gen, it is much better than it was stock. At some point I will find a fairly priced gen case set and use it. Next obstacle was to find a decent bezel assembly that looked good but also would fit and rotate. Seen too many nice looking franken GMT's with glued on bezels and we did not want that. Matt found a nice aftermarket bezel with good looking teeth that fit with everything. Matt disassembled and assembled this watch 3 times. First he got everything right before we sent the case to RA, then when the case came back he reassembled it but RA had removed some metal from the rehaut/case wall and we had a crystal and bezel assy issue. Matt figured out a way to solve this issue and reassembled the watch again and then it was ready to come home. Build Specs: Cartel donor 1675 with ETA clone movement. Movement runs good and everything works as it should. GMT hand functions correctly. Case modified by Rolex Addict Used the hands from the Cartel donor and lumed by Cwazy. Genuine dial lume work done by Cwazy1 from RWI. Cwazy's work is excellent, great comms and quick turnaround. Will use him again. Some of the best lume work I have seen. Genuine brand new insert Genuine crystal Genuine crown Genuine Jubilee, got lucky on this. The bracelet is perfect for this vintage watch-- just enough wear but not too much stretch. End links fit nicely--thanks to Matt:) Cannot thank Matt enough. He put a lot of time into this project and I am very happy with the results. I learned much doing this project which will help me in future builds. Some pictures from my iPhone: FYI, the gap in the in the cg's looks much tighter and better in real life than in the macro close ups. Hope you like her And of course a complimentary wristie

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