Sogeha

Not at all. We only have nine months of bad weather and then three of winter.

Yes Dublin is small. Belfast would take longer to really see. Be warned though The Republic of Ireland is expensive, especially for eating out. We are also now entering the monsoon season :-)

I travel around Europe a lot and occasionally further afield

Congratulations, it looks well.

After market about four grand I would imagine

It's got to make sense, a franken is going to eat 5000 gen white dial is about 6500. Just keep the original dial with the watch and you are golden.

I was thinking the same thing, but didn't want to say because I'm not the most knowledgable around here and Rolex keeps throwing curved balls with white dials, odd prototypes and one offs. It is not inconceivable that a genuine gold 5513 might exist. I have never heard of one and know a few places that would do an aftermarket gold case. i have seen an Internet picture of an allegedly genuine gold 1680. Oddballs do appear, but until verified, we have to believe 5513 was not made in gold.

I kind of know which Daytona models I like best, but I didn't really know the whole story and wasn't finding anything very helpful on the net. Lots of potted histories and highlights, but last night I found this: http://www.vintagedaytona.com/en/reference-guide Just in case it helps anyone else, I'm sharing it.

As far as I know that is a general description of MQ, Phong and Tonnywatches. It is believed that they all use the same manufacturer. Tonnywatches has stated he is unable/unwilling to do small runs and one off items. Not being sarcastic but define best. It depends how deep you want to go and how much you are willing to pay. Absolute best for dials is The Dark Lord, if you can interest him in making one, but it is a very expensive option. MQ dials are second tier, Phong's are bought in and vary. His Daytona dials seem reasonable. His sub dials aren't great IMO. Tonnywatches are very good for the money. If you read Hologramet's Tempus Machina project, it would seem that not only does Helenarou do small runs (five dials I believe), but the quality can be very acceptable if you have a design and set clear expectations. Another possible is to look at a dial refinishing company. If you want Rolex on the dial, they will only do it on a genuine Rolex dial, but you could possibly get a damaged one and they are in the business of one offs.

Vintage watchmaker is Jensen, who is Phong's son. Phong is www.jewelryandwatch.com MQ is http://www.vintagewatchesmq.com/

I have never seen any forum like this. It's very special.

I like the Cartel cases for what they are, and the quality of the reps we get is way better than it used to be. Consistent isn't necessarily accurate though.

I have never pulled a stunt like that and never would. Yes it happens and it's disappointing. Having said that they are yours to do as you want with. You name a price and if another guy is happy to pay it, it sells.

Sure it is, just add a case and movement at the same time :-)

As always you get what you pay for mate. From pretty good to virtually indistinguishable from gen costs serious money. It depends what you are looking to achieve, no point putting an MQ or Volermort dial in a Cartel case.

Hello and welcome, come join the chat.

Really mate, best not to ask, just send it me and I'll take care of it. Wrap it safely in a phong case and we will say no more about it.

Well a 7750 always has the wrong subdial spacing for a Daytona. I know there are two types of DW dials, one has correct spacing and is rather good, the other is for 7750. I always assumed the mystery movement was so called because nobody ever worked out what it was. The whole DW thing happened before I was really serious about reps, so like you I'm trying to piece it together after the events.

You haven't missed much, I just had a look and it turned out to be a 7750 not a mystery movement.

I don't know what is generally thought around here, but I really like the Ocean One watches and the price is very agreeable too. As for Vostock, I have a few and love the typical Russian take on waterproofing. Story goes that after glasnost when NASA and the Russian counterpart finally were able to exchange notes, NASA guys talked about the problems of writing in space how a huge amount of dollars ended up in the Fisher space pen. Great pens, I have a couple. The Russians shrugged and said we took pencils.

What is not to like about a nice shark mesh? Retro cool at its best

Wouldn't that have left signs on the case side? Aren't the fixed bars thicker than the normal Spring bar hole? I guess the 5517 is like the 5514 in that some people wanted a civilian version and had all that makes the watch desirable replaced in period.

Well I thought desire was in infinite number, I was discussing need. I often wonder how I would cope if my partner said no more watches. I guess I would miss her.

I know precious little about Panerai, but I would have guessed it to be worth a lot more, like twice as much at least.

Yes of course we understand that you need a new watch. I'm sure you have seen this before but the mathematical equation is n + 1 where n equals the number of watches you already own.