Brightight

I just love your 34mm Rollies JMB, I'm beginning to think one of these might be my next franken! I use woodstain (alcohol soluble) to age hands and lume, and also on dials. It's the stuff I use for guitar refinishing work - http://www.stewmac.c...uid_Stains.html - the Vintage amber is the one I use most, with brown and yellow also. It can be diluted with denatured alcohol/methylated spirits to control the final result and tried out on white paper till you get approximately the effect you want, then just paint it on. Further small dabs of the mix (maybe more concentrated) can be added to give blotchiness. Very controllable. This is the effect. Chapter ring and some of the text treated with amber to simulate aged gilt, lume dots done with yellow and brown (they don't look this yellow in real life!) then the dial sprayed with matt lacquer -

Bad news! Just heard back from Yuki that the 6542 case has been discontinued...........

No problem, just cut off the feet and glue it to the adaptor. This is standard for using gen dials with ETA movements, done it twice without any problem so far. Incidentally I've been having an email conversation with Yuki over another issue this afternoon, so I've asked the price of the 6542 case. I probably won't get an answer till tomorrow as it's nearly 1:00am in Hong Kong, but I'll PM you the details when available.

The Yuki case will certainly take a 2824 or 2836 with the adaptor, I'm not sure whether it will also take the 2893. I know JoeyB fitted a 2893 after fitting a 2836 in his 6542 but had some trouble adapting it. I'm wondering if it would need a different adaptor to line up the stem. I would guess the Yuki 6542 case will be more than a lot of the others as it comes with the bezel and bakelite insert but hey, what cost an email to find out! They're quick to respond. It will without doubt be less than NDT.

That may very well be my next project if the 1016 turns out OK with Yuki parts! Wondering if a 2893-2 could be shoehorned in.....

I sure as hell hope that's nos your A$ on the front of my Datejust......................................

I believe this is a different coin edge from the 6542. I had a 6542 case which I used to create a 6538, and that was one of the criticisms. However, if it would take an NDT bezel, might be an idea. I think JoeyB said the Turnograph used the same case as the 6542 so that might be a possible avenue also.

Just to add to LHOOQ's comments, yes I am indeed about to build a 1016 using Yuki's case. I found the 162xx cases few and far between on ebay, expensive, and those that were available did not have the bezel. A smooth bezel on ebay (which needs to be modified to fit over the gen crystal) is around $250 - $300. Fitting a new bezel/crystal is simple, but you will need a crystal press (pretty cheap on ebay). I took the view that by the time I obtained a case and bezel from ebay, drilled out the lug holes, changed the crystal, modded the bezel, I was looking at costs in excess of the Yuki case and a couple of operations that could go badly wrong! Also if I am lucky enough to pick up a gen 1570 movement in the future, it will slot straight into the Yuki case, the gen 16xxx DJ cases take the 3035 movement I believe. Yuki also sells the ETA adaptor for their case. I'm expecting my case to arrive around the end of the month/beginning of August so I will know more then.

I believe the top mounting face to stem centre is the same on the 2824, 2836 and 2846 having tried all three in a gen DJ case with Stilty's 3035 to 2824/36 adaptor (for the DJ the 2824 needs the higher canon pinion, hour and seconds wheel to clear the stick markers, the 2836 and 2846 are interchangeable). The 2836/2846 are slightly thicker because of the superstructure for day operation and have a higher calendar wheel to clear this. I guess therefore that the 2846 will fit with Yuki's adaptor. If you can wait I will be attempting to fit a 2846 to a Yuki Explorer I case with the same adaptor so I'll be able to confirm or reject that information in due course. I expect it to fit though there is a possibility it may require lower canon pinion, etc, as the Explorer is no date anyway. I would guess there is also the possibility of constructing a low beat 2824 from both movements. The case won't be with me for about 3-4 weeks though so it's some way off.. I don't know the difference between new and old MBW cases, but there have been several warnings posted that they are not the same. Eurotimez actually described both the 5513 and the 1680 MBK cases on their site as 'old style' indicating there is indeed a difference and the 'old style' is better. As has already been inferred, the lug holes in the MBW case are too small and need to be opened out to 1.3mm to take gen springbars.

Yuki now does an ETA adaptor set for the 5513, first with ETA Dial - http://www.yukiwatch.com/catalog/item/7518423/7916433.htm or the adaptor by itself - http://www.yukiwatch.com/catalog/item/7518423/7999848.htm You might like to PM Narikaa about an MBW case, I think he can get them. Not sure how good or accurate the new ones are though, the originals are thought to be better I believe.

Probably the most effective method I've heard of, but unfortunately buckets of lathe chips/shavings are kinda hard to come by if you don't have a lathe........... For light aging, I find randomly abrading with a coarser abrasive paper then finishing with very fine (I use Micromesh which goes up to 12000) and polish is quite effective as it leaves the deeper scratches and gets rid of the light ones so the watch looks old but cared for.

Here come ol' flattop, he come groovin' up slowly........... Don't know the answer, but thought I'd provide a musical reference

This is a difficult one, but I think If you can't stop thinking of a 5514 then that's the one for you! I am going through the same stage with a 1016 Explorer. First I was going to use a DJ case, but now I'm now leaning towards a Yuki as a gen seems out of the question. Similarly I picked up a refin singer dial, but it is flawed compared to the Yuki, so I'll probably go with the Yuki there. I guess the 5514 is similar to the 1016 in that you see very few gen dials (or cases) on ebay. Why does life leave us with so many dilemmas??

Iodine seems a very hit an miss method. I use aniline wood dye (soluble in methylated spirits/denatured alcohol) which I have lying around for guitar refinishing. Water soluble products tend to bead on the surface. The alcohol seems not to attack any existing finishes (at least so far). You can get a wide variety of colours and dilute it so there's no risk of overdoing. A quick spray with matt or gloss lacquer afterwards fixes it. Here is an example where an amber dye has been used to make some of the lettering look gold and brown/yellow for the markers - This dial was also hit with amber dye. It also had the depth markings removed by carefully masking and rubbing off the unwanted lettering with T Cut. This leaves the surface smooth but again, the matt lacquer oversprayed sorts this out -

Yay!! Thanks Ubi!

I have a 1665 case which I've always believed to be old style MBW, I wonder if someone could confirm this or identify what the case may be. The reason for doubt, and it may be ignorance on my part, is the case does not carry the "Orig Polex" mark. It does have the three piece bezel a la gen which looks identical to the pics on the Eurotimez site, and the markings on the back inside and outside are consistent with the MBW as is the small helium valve. A couple of pics - Any assistance gratefully accepted

Surely if you're going to exponentially distribute with a mean of three years you're going to need a gen? A rep wouldn't last that long under normal conditions. I suggest you try a gen forum :D

I hope so TeeJay. I'm still a beginner in the Franken stakes, but the project is the key thing for me, I enjoy building more than wearing!

Yes it does appear that way in retrospect. I think that was due to being limited to UK and not a good description. I really thought I had it, 30 seconds from the end it was sitting at

TeeJay, thanks, that's very kind (people on this forum are really great!!) but I picked up a Singer dial, which I'm pretty sure is a refin or even a copy, but it will do nicely for this project -

Thanks for the comments guys. I've picked up a 16014 DJ Case for not a huge amount of money so I can experiment on that. Looks like I'm going to need a custom bezel then Although I did see a post by Stilty saying you could use the standard DJ bezel but take a little off the inner diameter. @LHOOQ - I emailed Yuki day before yesterday and was told $450 for the case + $50 if you want your own serial engraved (wasn't clear whether the case comes with a serial as standard) + $36 shipping. The case that sold on ebay yesterday was only missing the crystal and the crown tube. It was also only available to the UK and was described as a 70's Rolex Oyster case. I may ultimately go for the Yuki case but I'm doing this for fun first and complete accuracy second so we'll see how it goes.

That is truly gorgeous, my tongue is hanging out!

Does anyone know if Rolex use the same Oyster case for the Datejust (say 1601/16014) as is used for the Explorer 1016, apart from the engravings and the crystal? Looking at pics they seem similar and it struck me that it would make sense if Rolex did this but...... I've picked up a gen 1016 dial with a view to building a Franken, but 1016 cases are few and far between, and expensive (I missed one today on ebay which went for over $500, which is incidentally around the price Yuki charges so I suppose it's a bargain....). DJ cases are fairly plentiful and a lot cheaper and I suppose if I was anal enough I could get the model engravings filled and redone.

Mmm I could just LICK that white dial. Is there something wrong with me?

For goodness sakes don't show JoeyB that white dial