vlaletom

this is a very good link for 1675 reference : http://oysterpassion.fr/6.html It is in french but what really mater is a front shot of every dial evolution. the french text detail each little evolution of the dial. The dial you have, being "glossy" and with yelow marking (glit) would be pre 1963/1964. Hoever there is no "rail" on the minuts marker, no line under officialy certified, nor hyphen between oyster and perpetual, so it is not looking like any particuliar model. But don't wory as there is so many exeption with rolex, i wouldn't bother that much. Just it should be looking like an early model, so the small hand & older band.

Globaly i think your watch looks very nice, and is in a totally other ligue than basic reps. But with the dial you got i could sugest you a few things This dial is from early models. (1565 not 1575) on vintage the crown is not even a 6mm it's a 24-530, 5.30mm , the one you find on lady oyster case. but if you go that route there will be a serious gap between the crown & crown guard, maybe not a good idear. With this dial i "think" you need a small gmt hands. The band is not correct, i doubt there was 78360 back then, of course it could/would have been changed by service center, but if you whant it too look like a colector piece go for a 7806(riveted) or a 6251 (jubile). this is just a few sugestion to go even further....

Actually the crystal from mbw is not so good. And it is higly sugested to buy a remplacement one form clarks(nostalgia 2000) on ebay, wich is a very good cheap alternative to gen. for the gen there are many variation of the crystal used. But you can classify them in 2 main familly "rounded tropic 39" aka superdome. wich is the original crystal whatch where delivered with. and "flat top tropic 39" which is the replacement cristal for service, this one has came in many tinny variation thrue the years, mostly conserning the beveled edge between the vertical and horizontal part of the cristal. The rounded form is much more resistant to preshure, and therefore was originaly used. But after some time Rolex must have considered that the flated form was quite capable to resiste 660 meter, and was less subject to difraction... hope this helps

Imho the new movement line ar gorgeous, very simple, classy and well finished. Let's face it, if paneai were not going to real horlogerie, they would fade away, as any "fashon" item. They would have been hipe for 5-10 year, with the new "big watch" trend and a really cool original design, but what hapens to them when in 5 year when the trend reverse back to small watch ? You cannot justify 5k€ for an 6497 watch whos design is mostly plain and simple. the new line keeps enough of the brand spirit, but allow them to not only be a case maker (whos design is now mostly unprotected by copyright) For the history ... i love old PAM as they really show the patina of time. But old pam are olmost as much Rolex history as OP. And speaking of "history" The history of italian navy, is somthing i'd rather not think too much about ... I am building a few vintage homage, with 616 or angelus, but i would certainly not whant engraving of german combat navy on it. Why not a few SS engraving while we are at it ... That an aspect of PAM history not so cool imho, and i dont understand the frenzie on those model.

@nick1972. you need any watch that was originaly holding a ref 1575 movement, and that nowaydays have low value. that would be : 1500,1501 1600 1601. the 1503 being gold cased is out of the ligue. you can expet to find a watch head only, with silver ring and flat top 3 for around 600-700

this probably the one and only time i will ever beat you to somthing related to oiling

to add to what i just said. when you see The Zigmeister precision works in luming a dial, it will give you just an idear of what expertize a watchmaker has in handling such evil things as a black oiler ....

As the master said. If you are in euro, in some country like france L&R are not distributed, but you will then find Elma range of product. Elmasonic cleanear, and Rubisol for cleaning and F80 to rince (used to be F45 but it has been dicontiued) On the oiling note, as The Zigmeister said, this is the most challenging ting to do in a typical service. I am just an aprentice, but i am now very confident witha basic ETA 28xx... I have no skill to build parts, but i have assembled & disasssembled many many ETAs. When it comes to oling, it is still so hard for me. Picking up the exact amount on the black oiler is a pain, you need to pick up from as little as the very end of the tip, to about olmost the full tip, depending on the part, and trust me the tip is soooo small. I try to do things correctly, so i somtime have to retry 15 times befor i am satisfied with the oling of one of the balance cap jewel. And each time you fail, you have to clean it again, befor retrying .... But if all this doesn't discourage you, i sugest you do the timezone course, to know where to oil, what oil to use, and what amount you need for each part.

I am felling like sharing some ongoing project htat i am quite exited about I have dicided to go gen dial for 3 of my franken, and so update my 1675, 1655 and 1665. here are dials sitting next to theire motors (respectively 1575, 1575 gmt, 1675 gmt) from the first pics can you say wich is gen an wich is rep ? Ok i know pics are not that good, but i don't have time to set up my lightbox... Now some gen to rep comparaison Gen 1675 vs NDT Gen 1665 GW vs NDT DR The mighty GW And least but not last a perfect brand new service 1655 I wish i had found a good tritium one, but everything i have found latly was either abovthe the 2k€ mark, or really damaged. I'll come back with pics of complated project. for now the old NDTs will probably go in some mbw... thanks for looking

Hum... i see thing slightly diferently... In my pereception a 100% gen parts rolex assembled by whoever (like me for the exemple), is a real rolex, that just can't get serviced by rolex. And don't share the same values in a collector eyes as if did live the factory like that, with correct serial, paper, tracking service... For me it would still be true if it had minor aftermarket part like crystall, gasket, tube, band, stuff like that. So basically a gen as to be at least : case, dial, movement On the other hand if your factory rolex had part remplaced with eta, it is not for me a rolex anymore, because rolex is producing, manufacture movement, so that would imply swaping the all movement. And in watch with manufacture made caliber, the movement is the most important part of it to be seen as gen. Now if we are talking of a Daytona for example, and you have to remplace some part of the movement with generique valjoux or zenith part, i agree with you that i would still see it as a true gen. Just with the warenty and collector value problem. Now if you find a rolex movement and put it some no name case, with absolutly no branding, i tend to see it as some sort of rolex watch. This is more acceptable as an example, if we are talking of a 1920 rolex pocket watch movement, without a RWC case ... Well in the end this is very subjective, and a matter of personal perception...

As the expert said, a real 618 with correct marking can only be found in a pam or decased from a pam wich is unlikly.... But actually you can get somting very close to a 618. This for example is more or less a 618 : http://cgi.ebay.fr/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=380158554175&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT It of course sold for around 2k

Whaow, that is great, this will give much more source for a movement !!! Fantastic works...

Actually i dont think rolex did the DSSD to have a bigger watch in there range, but rather to recover the record of waterproof deeps. You have to keep in mind that what rolex market is the "spirt" of diver watch. That's what they made there reputation on, only few people knows what other inovation they made, but everybody knows that they are THE diver watch... To come back to the topic focus : I don't see how a watch, that comes with a true manufacture movement, can be considered as gen if it doesnt have the gen movement, if all parts are gen on a rolex expet the ETA inside, this is certainly not a rolex. So for most rolex only the pre 2000 chronograph would be arguable (valjoux/zenith). I, as many watch freeks, olso think that rolex lost his true spirit, and now focus on selling jewelery. But, they are certainly not going to have any trouble in the near future. For what i know, rolex main source of income is not even comming from watch, but rather from Asset management. You would be surprised, to know how much land poperty, the compagny owns, and how many building they have in geneva ....

Hoho, seams like somthings comming... Now i am getting very curious. /me must not leave rwg nor fall asleep anymore ...

Haha i actually had a good laugh, in reading this. @OrenG , relax , nothing to get nervous about, no personal attack here, it is jus writen to be funny, and it is. I must admit i didn't understood neither what we are looking at...