Dizzy

Never tried Brasso but thats a good idea for sure. I also use 400 grit sandpaper for heavy scratches, then 600, then 1000 or 1500. It depends on how clean I want it to look in the end. If its a datejust I will take it up to 1500 then some polish, but if its a Submariner, I'll just use 600grit then polish it. That way it leaves some flaws and doesnt look totally perfect. dizz

Very nice!!! I em excited to start my own 1675 project in the next couple months. I love the dial and the bracelet. Good choice. Dizz

Haha My gen tritium NOS white sub dial in my MBW is $900. Cant build much of a franken 1680 for $900 im afraid. Maybe an MBW with Gen crown and tube,and a gen 93150 bracelet if you shop around for good deals.. I definatly wouldnt spend $4500 building a 1665 either... in a few years when the hype or demand wears off, they will be the same price as the 1680's and you can get them for $4500 all day long. I kinda price it on what it is, and not what collectors are pushing the prices too. Look at the daytonas, a few years ago you couldn't find one for less than $10,000 and now they are down to $8000 and lower... Saw a decent 16520 sell on VRF for $7950 obo. I also wouldnt build a franken of a $50,000 vintage either as anyone who knows Rolex will scream fake no matter what. Thats is unless you pull up in your Ferrari F430... But most of us cant pull that off. I know I cant. dizz

I use and old bottle of metal polish for aluminum rims. Works awesome. Its amazing the variety of items you can polish plexy with.

yeah it should be priced the same as a 1680 white in the same condition. That red replacement dial was avail from some RSC but not in the USA. Most AD's wont even admit they exist, but they do. Doesnt add anything to the watch IMHO

Yeah Im in the same boat. Phong cases are always good apparently but you do pay the price. Ive heard a lot of mixed reviews about the Yuki cases and not really sure what to believe. dizz

Those last 2 links are usually needed for the fliplock to close properly. Another option would be to remove the fliplock and use a regular connecting link like you would find on an oyster bracelet without a fliplock. Then you could probably get another link out of there. You must have pretty small wrists. I would suggest to remove that link you wanted to remove. Thats what I did on my dads datejust. He also has small wrists.

hhmm I dont know. I have always just used the spring bars that come with the SEL bracelet... I guess the gen springbar would be 2mm on the 16610 also. I am also interested to know the answer. dizz

MBW vintage models (and yeah maybe the 16610 also)

I live in a smaller town (under 200,000) and i have not one Rolex store here anymore. There used to be a Rolex auth repair shop but that was many years ago. Now the closest AD is a 5 hour drive away. I have been thinking about a new Ceramic sub, and if I could buy them locally, I probably would go get one, but there is no way I am going to make a special trip all the way to the AD to try one on. Local boutiques would increase impulse buying for sure. Also the type of guy who sees one on tv and thinks "Hey i wouldnt mind having a rolex"... but I guarantee that the guy who see's one on TV isnt going to drive 5 hours to go look at one to buy. But who knows. Maybe the execs at Rolex dont care about the "impulse buy" or the people in small towns. Maybe we arn't good enough for Rolex? lol

I looked in my sock drawer and found.... .32 cents and some paper clips.

If you have small wrists then rip out one of those links from the 6 o'c;lock side. If you ever want the link added back in, then use one of your extra links in your parts bin to replace it. Flipping the clasp around would look silly. No big deal at all. Use two pairs of vice grips and pull that link apart and throw it in the trash. Then reconnect your bracelet together in the normal way with the screw.

Good lord

Well the J&W case is the choice i would make if money were not an issue.. The NDtrading cases seem to have problems fitting gen crystals sometimes.. I would also be interested to hear some first hand info on the Yuki case as I am planning a similar build for this summer. As long as all the engraving is correct on the yuki case, then I think most other issues could be machined or modded out for considerably less cost that the Phong case.

Ive never been able to open a Rolex with a rubber ball or duct tape. If its properly tightened down, you will need the proper tools to open it. I use the Bergeon 5537 Rolex Case Opener Tool as shown above and it works perfect. I had one old ExpII case that was stuck and i used a torch lighter to apply a little heat to the caseback and it opened up no problem. dizz

Phong cases are like $1400. If you have the dough, go for it but i wouldnt bother unless you are looking to fit a gen movement. If you are using ETA then i would go with the MBW case and dial, with PT movement and datewheel. dizz

78350 would be a newer style solid link oyster bracelet. The one on the watch is a 7205 folded link, riveted oyster bracelet. You can look then up on Google images to see what they look like. Freddy is right, its not the original dial to the watch because its a lumi dial and not tritium. Service replacement dial perhaps?

That looks really good! Very cool lighting. Those Rivet bracelets look perfect on the old Daytonas.

Looks about right. The bracelet on there is a 19mm 7205 and not a 19mm 78360 as listed on the receipt. I prefer this rivet bracelet anyways. I would just open it up and make sure there's a Rolex 1570cal movement inside there and not an ETA replacement. There's lots of Datejusts and Dates with ETA's floating around these days. Other than that it looks pretty good. These go for about $1500 or so on ebay. dizz

Just an old thread on TRF about changes to AD's. Now that Mr. Brill is dead, the thread is back to life again. Its an interesting read. My link

This would be a BIG upset in the vintage Rolex world if collectors suddenly found out they have been buying fake bracelets for the past year or so.

It could be that the movement died and they couldnt afford to fix it, so the dial was transplanted into a replica case... it could happen. Yes those look like the correct hands for that model. I agree, putting in an ETA movement might be a good idea. That will free up some cash to buy a dial. I think you would need an ETA2824 movement to get the right crown position on that one. Someone correct me if I'm wrong. I recently completed a 16030 datejust project.. all gen except movement and hands and its now one of my favorite watches. dizz

This same bracelet was listed a few weeks ago.. same pics anyways... maybe a bidder didnt pay and it was relisted...

Awesome!! I wonder what its gunna get up to??? Steve M witll prob buy it or Rolex will buy it. A watch with history like this one is worth a lot.

Thanks... cant really see the CG's in this pic.. white metal on white background... Looks pretty good though. Is this the same case as the 5513?