southcoast68

"big girls, you are beautiful............"

I must admit that from time to time I find myself having little to no faith in mankind anymore. Then I hear of a story like this, it brings a smile to my face and goes a long way in restoring the lost faith. Thank you for sharing, and enjoy your new timepeice. Cheers everyone

I hear 'ya, don't worry , it will be great when its done. From what we all have seen so far, it looks to have the same construction as the MBW/MBK and most likely comes from the same source. There have probably been some updates lately especially as new rep products are introduced. Cheers

I still think that the washers' inside diameter is a hair too small, making the washer "flex" when it is installed over the crystal. If a small (and I mean small) amount of material could be removed from the inside diameter, I bet it would sit flat and still be able to retain the bezel assembly properly. Ahhh, rep modding, gotta love it.

Pamfried over at RWI also sources MBW/MBK products.

In your search for information, did you come across this thread; http://www.rwg.cc/members/index.php?showtopic=107 Ubi shows some nice photos of his MBW/MBK 1680. Maybe there have been some things that have changed over the years, but the engraving on a MBW/MBK 1680 actually says 5513 since this was the model they started out with and just made revisions to it for the 1680, I believe the inside caseback also said 5513. From what I can make out from the pictures, yours looks like the right bezel construction. Most other Sub reps use a wavy wire spring to hold the bezel on, your has a flat washer/spring. Maybe its just a case of that particular washer/flat spring being just a bit too small on the inside diameter making it flare when on the crystal, thereby popping the bezel insert off. As far as the softer steel and the bigger lug holes, I have no answer for that. What say the other Rolliphiles in the house??

About 2 years ago, it cost me about $700US each for the two frankenjusts I built, and that was with using a rep bracelet instead of a gen bracelet. Also, most Rolex dials have hour markers that are taller than the rep ones, so unless you intend to use a roman numeral dial (which I beleive the hour markers are thinner), or one of those uber-cool looking all black onyx dials that have no marker hours, be prepared to have the hour and minute posts changed out for taller ones. I actually bent up slightly on the hands for mine so they would clear the dial, but that is really not the right way to do it. It was fine for me since I was building them for myself. Good luck with your project. Cheers

Wow, these are looking real sweet!! Thanks again for all the hard work on these!! Cheers

I recall buying an Air King years ago at a watch collectors convention, a watch that was claimed to be just "serviced". Shortly after, the crystal began to fog up and collect moisture inside the case. I sent it to the local Rolex AD, and about $800 later, I had a beautiful, like new Air King. Seems that not only was it not "serviced", but whoever "put" that watch together used a old flogged out movement with parts put together to make a running watch (I still have all the old parts in a baggie). So even if the movement is in a running watch, it may not mean much. Always try and source your parts through known responsible dealers, ones that can back up the transaction if something goes awry. Cheers

I have sucsessfully removed red paint from seconds hands before using a little acetone (fingernail polish remover) on a lint free cloth. Gently wipe the seconds hand and that red paint should come right off leaving bright silver behind. I presume that the seconds hands you speak of on Ebay are red paint over a standard silver hand, so this should work for you. If you find that you can only get the red seconds hand, give this a try. Good luck

First, a big thanks to Francisco for all the work involved in this review, much appreciated. It puzzles me that they still refuse to construct the movement for this one correctly. Let's look at it this way, we have here just over 17,000 registered members. Knowing that Rolex is the brand which gets the most attention and the biggest following, still, Rolex is not everyone's cup of tea. So let's say that just under half of our membership lusts for a proper working Daytona, thats about 8,000 people, at almost $300 a pop...well, you do the math and tell me that it would not be worth it for them to get it right. Of course, adding jewels and reworking the movement would add cost and there for give us the new and improved - super duper Daytona at almost $450 a pop, which makes it an even better proposition for them to get it right. Heck, let's say my number of interested people is grossly inflated (which it probably is), and only a couple thousand want good Daytonas, still I feel its a popular enough model, that when finally updated properly, most of us (me included) will stand in line to buy another Daytona, even if we have 2 or 3 of them already. Now, I am not sticking up for anyone here, but, the cartel has brought the hobby some pretty amazing stuff this past year, the Skyland, DSSD, AP ROO seconds at 12, etc. All of these may have their shortcommings, but hey, they are replicas after all and they look amazing with great detail. Still with all the advancements and replications of new watches practically every week (some with complicated construction), we still cannot get a dependable seconds at six Daytona, a watch that has been replicated for years and years . So, if the folks that can make it happen see this, let me say this. You don't need to purchase a genuine to reproduce this one, you got the look down just fine. Even though the case is too thick, we realize that is a constraint of the movement itself, other than that, todays modern Daytonas are scary close to the real deal. What we are asking is to please have the movement constructed so that it is not a time bomb. Remember those thousands of people who would beat a path to your door for a dependable Daytona or IWC Portu.? Something to think about... Cheers

C Certina

A Accutron

This same discussion can be said of the 6497s' found in our beloved Pams. Alot of these watches are advertised by members and dealers alike as swiss, when most are clearly not. A matter of semantics, maybe, but alot of folks will be willing to pay hundreds more for a watch with claims like this. Now we are seeing "ETA based" 6497 movements with asian parts in all different "grades". For my money, the asian movements are preffered because of their lower cost and the fact that they run just fine. At some point I would like to have a Pam with a genuine ETA UNITAS 6497, but its something I will build myself, then knowing for sure that its got the real deal in it.

No, they are not, they come up for sale everyday on Ebay, timezone, VRF, etc. Its just that stainless steel versions of Daytona (and most other popular sports model watches) are preferred by collectors. That, and the fact that when buying (or trying to buy) a new stainless Daytona, one usually gets hit by the "sorry, but you will have to get on the 3 year waiting list for a stainless model, but you can have the two tone [which costs more] model on your wrist today, yadda yadda" bait and switch speech. These two factors of public demand and Rolex supplying stainless models with an eyedropper worldwide tend to drive the prices up to stupid levels.

On the genuines, the engraving is subtle and hard to see, you really have to be looking for it. One the replicas, the engravings usually have lettering that is too large, or the engraving is really printing and kinda shouts out at you. WM9's latest submariner is supposed to have better engraving as well as the Deep Sea, and in pictures they do indeed look better. I myself could have my Rollie rep either way, engraved or not, but I do understand that some may feel as though the engraving could be a little too much.

I personally do not bother with getting a box and papers. If you are like a lot of us here, you may soon find yourself with many watches in your collection and that a nice multiple watch storage box would be much more fitting to your needs. However, a lot of times, you buy a watch only to find out a month later that it is just not for you, and you sell it to someone else and having a nice box to send it in sometimes makes the deal more attractive to a potential buyer, or you keep the box to store another watch in. Giving one as a gift is always a nice reason to get a box. I guess it all depends on how you feel about throwing the cash for a box. I think most of us here wind up needing a multiple storage box (some folks need a whole cabinet), and spending the money on all those boxes is not worth it.

I finally got the back off of mine to see what may have killed it. Nothing really obvious, but the rotor seemed a little "stiff" and not wanting to swing freely. I guess its off to a watchsmith for an overhaul. Being the non-trusting kind, I will probably de-case the movement, put it in a plastic movement case and bring it in that way. Thay way, I know the movement I bring in, will be the movement I get back . We'll see.

Welcome aboard and enjoy your stay!! You will find this site and hobby is better than prozak and just about as addictive as crack. A wealth of knowledge here, so sit back and enjoy. Cheers

Great post!! I totally understand your point of view, it stands for giving respect for those who came before us (and those who are still here) that created this place for us, and continue to make it great with us. And at this time, I wish to say THANK YOU to all of the old school members out there for their knowledge, advice, posts, photography and most of all, for their inspiration. And to all members who read this, I wish all a happy and healthy 2009!!!

Thats all I got to say.

The other two he/she had are pretty nice too .

At least they could have bead blasted the case and bracelet to make it look more like titanium. Either way, to make a 1:1 fully operational rep of this one would probably not happen (the before mentioned subdial spacing). This one also has GMT function, another complication that, in a rep, may be problematic. Still, she's a real looker and I think the most we could hope for is the most visualy accurate rep, even if it is faux chrono. I think the rep pictured here is a great first attempt.

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