Logan

Nice review. You'll need to be really careful if you undo any of the black H headed screws, it's very very easy to scratch the finish on those and it really detracts from the watches finish.

Or it could be your friend just confessed to making replicas..

Probably not.. the extra thickness is likely there for a reason. The 7750 is a pretty thick movement to start with, add on transfer gears and it's a monster.

The 7753 needs the date pusher or you'll have a slow set date..

Wow.. I always liked this coloured model. I hope you post more pics as the restoration progresses.

Interesting point Utherman, maybe they are lower grade jewels from a makers who hasn't quite figured out the process yet, or even made from glass or similar?

Proof once again that ceramic is a crap material to make watch parts from.. it's very hard but brittle so any impact cracks it. Given the number of cracks and the location it does make me thing that the screws might have been over tightened.

I hate to admit it.. but I kind of like it!

Never mind.. found the appropriate thread.

Bugger.. I missed that. I obviously wasn't around when that happened. Any idea why?

You can make all the rolex shape cases you like.. but put the Rolex logo on and sell them.. then you're in a whole different league..

The cost of CNC tools is plummeting as the chinese copy everything and make their own. The quality of reps will continue to evolve and we'll see closer and closer to the real thing. There will always be short cuts simply because the rep makers motivation is cost, not creating perceived quality like the genuine guys. Theres a reason the swiss genuines are going to all these alternative materials and systems, it's to make them hard to copy and to justify their ridiculous prices. Ceramic, Forged Carbon, Tungsten and now Hublot's new ceramic gold, even Richard Mille's sapphire crystal case are all part of this process. Likewise the super complex case shapes like the Richard Milles and the anything else with a weird shaped crystal.

Yes Avit (I think I've got that name right) does it here on the board. Search for DLC and you should find plenty of posts

The ETA oil charts for the base movements all our reps either use, or are based on, are easily found online. Zig is right though, any decent watch maker would already have those.

It's certainly 'possible'.. but it would be a lot harder than you'd think and would take a very long time a effort to get it right. CNC machining for even simple objects is very complex and a watch case could be as many as 100 different machining operations. I think Rolex claim 150 odd although thats probably a bit exaggerated like everything else from Rolex. I have a baby lathe and mill setup from Sherline (www.sherline.com) and whilst they are technically capable I wouldn't be game to try a full case build yet.

Spectacular.. Is that carbon steel or stainless?

Oh and another trap, many reps actually have 2 part case, the case proper and a bezel mounting ring which press fits into the main case. In some cases the bezel itself presses into that for a second join. The chinese assemblers seem to use regular clear epoxy to fit these all together so it's not very strong and is often not applied evenly. All the older Royal Oaks used this type of assembly as I discovered when a watch arrived with the bezel mis aligned.

Another must do is to epoxy up any un-needed penetrations in the case, e.g. helium valves, redundant chrono pushers (3rd pusher or split time chrono's etc). JB Weld works extremely well. Also the crown tubes are often not well fitted into the case, often only press fitted, sometimes with no o-ring or similar. Those can often be removed and pressed back in place with JB weld.

Any news on a possible new batch, or at least new stock of these? I'm busting to order one.

I just don't understand men wearing watches with diamonds.. let alone a divers watch with diamonds.

Carbon brakes go thru a second and third very high temperature process. It sounds like these parts are just using the first stage, high pressure + heat. The texture probably has a lot to do with the size and type of carbon strands used as well as the baking stages mentioned above. Obviously the brake makers are not concerned with cosmetic appearance. I hope Imaknockov share a bit more about his process with us. It doesn't sounds like anyone will be copying him in a hurry and carbon forging is getting more and more common for all manor of components now so the techniques are not super secret any more.

Delivery to NZ is pretty quick, I usually expect 4-7 days max, sometime 2-3 if you're lucky.

Excellent work. I'm interested to know how you remove the hands? It's still my least favorite part of the job and I feel has the most chance of damaging the dial or hands themselves.

@cougar1, yes I agree, I've got 6-7 different pin removers and the plastic one in your picture is by far the best if you use it carefully.

Nice work! I'm very interested to see how this works out.