Brightight

That really is superb work! I have used a lathe in the past for simple stuff so know that what you do is immensely more difficult than you make it look.

They do packs of assorted washers, I have one myself - http://www.cousinsuk...og/4/5/641.aspx Good luck with the email by the way, I find them slow to respond, if at all, to email. On the phone they're great.

But doesn't the price in AU$ equate to about

if it will come off, and there is no guarantee it will, for example it is almost impossible to remove the bezel from the Noob, the method suggested to me was using single edged razor blades, push in 4 at 90 degrees apart. then stack another on top of each forced in to widen the gap between bezel and case, then another, and so on until the bezel pops off. this way you are applying small amounts of force all the way round fairly evenly so less likely to damage the bezel. I've used this method with success on Seadweller and Datejusts but failed miserably on a Noob Sub.

The nicest thing about Offshore is these threads keep appearing, his helpfulness and generosity are above and beyond the call of duty. Truly a great guy

What a beauty! And in lovely condition for its age. Well spotted JoJo.

Beautiful work, I love this, simple and elegant. I've often wondered if I could successfully wear a 34mm. The 36mm DJ is fine on my wrist so I would guess so, what's a millimetre here or there..................... getting very tempted to try.

Great pictorial, I just love stuff like this, dreaming of when I can sneak a lathe in past the wife.......... and learn how to use it beyond the simple stuff I've done in the past!

That's good to know, it's always been a concern to me as to whether the hands would clear the dial when the stem is lined up.

That might be quite tricky as the 2893 is a thinner movement and by the time you line the stem up you may need longer canon pinion, hour wheel, etc to clear the dial. If you end up needing a longer GMT wheel, that might be very tricky. Apart from which, why would you bother?

Although the 2893 movement is considered better quality than the 2836-2, it is NOT like the Rolex movement as it uses the same additional gears as the 2836-2 to provide GMT functionality and is not correct hand stack. As such I see no point in waiting. Personally I would go for the Asian 2836 movement as you can never be sure you are actually getting a swiss movement when you pay for it. Years down the line if the Asian movement ultimately fails and cannot be repaired for any reason, you can buy a swiss movement and have it put in, they are interchangeable. I cannot comment on the 316F but use your search, there are a lot of posts on it, I think it is considered to be largely a bit of a sales gimmick so I doubt you'd feel a difference.

It needs to be a trial and error process as sometimes a new crown will screw further or not so far onto the stem than the old one. Personally the last little bit I take off with a file, that way I don't distort the thread and have to file it down further than is good for it, something I learned from past mistakes! Bear in mind it's not a big deal, new stems are very cheap from watch parts supply houses (Cousins UK

Yes very interesting and very much a personal choice, I don't believe anyone can infer there is any intention to defraud per se. Personally I feel that papers only have one purpose whatever the intent, to fool people into thinking the watch is gen, but then is that not what a rep does anyway? Are rep papers any more intrinsically wrong than rep watches themselves? For me the answer is yes though I cannot understand quite why. Maybe it is because it is the watch itself that interests me (and the reason why all the reps I currently own are frankens or modified to a greater or lesser extent), papers add nothing to the experience for me. I am happy to admit to family and friends that my watches are reps, would I be so happy to admit this if I was showing them fake papers at the same time? I know it doesn't make any sense but fake papers do make me feel a little uneasy, for me it is a step too far.

Yes, you're right and I apologise wholeheartedly, I was just shocked and reacted, taking a rep to an AD is No 1 in the list of sins in the Rep world as you have no doubt found out. All the rep forums take a dim view of this, and to be fair, you should have read the rules when you joined. However I was wrong to say what I did.

Nogs, you took it into a dealer? Are you a complete pr*ck? Or just terminally stupid? Yes banning is essential. Before you go, read some threads about how you shouldn't take your rep into an AD.

As far as I am aware RFID chips can be easily duplicated, it is only a wireless Barcode after all. The problem is there is virtually no anti counterfeiting measure that cannot be circumvented, that's why we still see fake banknotes. There is a lag between implementing anti counterfeit measures and them being duplicated, but it is not huge and probably not worth the investment.

I actually feel sorry for them, and think it is ridiculous to mock them for their lack of knowledge. You don't have to know the ins and outs of dial fonts to appreciate owning a Gen Rolex. We on the other hand, have to know these details as it makes all the difference between a fake you can spot at 10 yards or one you can wear with confidence in most environments. It makes us anal but knowledgeable. If I had paid a lot of money for a gen, I wouldn't be too happy if $300 fakes were knocking hell out of the market. Just like I'm not happy the way programmers from India will work for the smell of a curried rag, thus undercutting my profession. As yet they haven't got their act together and they don't have the requisite experience, but it will happen, and of course China is standing in the background ready to undercut India, the bowl of rice being cheaper than the proverbial curried rag! As I have said before, a similar thing happened in the guitar market with Japan producing excellent Gibson/Fender copies by the mid 70s, sometimes actually better quality than the guitars they were copying. Since then manufacturing has moved via India, Indonesia, Korea and now China, who are producing the best and cheapest fakes of them all. Fender and Gibson have partially combatted this by producing Epiphone and Squier models in the Far East. It is long past time the companies threatened by fakes like Rolex did the same thing. If Rolex invested in a good quality mass market rep, let's call it Polex, manufactured in China, for a start the Chinese government would be much more likely to clamp down on the fakes, Rolex would be making more profit and providing an upgrade path from Polex to Rolex, similar to what they tried to do with Tudor though Tudor was too expensive for the mass market.

Beautiful, I really love the vintage DJs (got two Frankens myself!), I wear little else nowadays. Enjoy!

Really beautiful!

Just looked in the Cousins catalogue, they don't list a Chinese movement smaller than 19.8mm, the 2671 is 17.2mm so I don't think you'll find a Chinese movement outside of China that will fit. However, check 2671 on the bay, there's a guy in Oz got a few of them up for sale - http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ENICAR-1970s-Ladies-Automatic-Movement-cal-2671-New-OS_W0QQitemZ350304070539QQcmdZViewItemQQptZWristwatches?hash=item518fbfeb8b

Is the cause of fading not bleaching due to the sun/UV combined with oxidation? Certainly I've always found it to be the case and I have lived in hot and cold countries so have experienced the difference. If so I would guess that bleach would be the most effective way to simulate aging, as most people already use. As people have already said, material technology has changed greatly over the past decades so you are notnecessarily comparing like with like (I come up against this with guitar restoration, there is no way you can age a modern 'plastic' guitar finish to make it look like it was built in the 60s, you need to start with the same nitrocellulose lacquer and go on from there to have half a chance) I understand where you are coming from Red, but I think the experiment you want to carry out is probably based on a heap of theoretical reasons, most of which are likely to have little real effect, and the investment in the water bath seems a waste to me. Unless you have another use for it such as excercising your goldfish

Yet again, and mentioning no names to avoid embarrassment, I have been helped out by a member of the forum with a couple of bits I have been looking for, and at his cost, he would not take payment. I'd just like to express my gratitude publicly for this more than helpful attitude which seems to pervade the forum. I hope I in turn can pass these kindnesses on in spirit by helping other members in due course.

Is a selling pitch like this acceptable outside the dealers' area? Seems to me a PM would have sufficed.

Yes the 'permanence' was my worry, but I think (may be wrong, but I picked up the idea from somewhere on the forums) it's how Stilty does it, and I have since found, thanks to making a mistake with alignment, that the overlay will come off with a razor blade pushed in between overlay and datewheel. But there again, if you have something that works for you, stick with it

Techlogik, it's not getting the Datewheel off that's the problem, as you say you can remove the cover. It's getting it back on that is very tricky, because of the detent spring (at about 10oclock on the movement) which fits in between the teeth on the datewheel to give positive register. The datewheel also fits over two (for want of a better word) brackets, the teeth fit through, then the datewheel is slid round under the brackets so the detent spring is holding the datewheel in position and the teeth no longer line up with the slots in the brackets I'm sure it must be possible but despite attempts, I have yet to succeed and actually get it working! These are the bits I am talking about - The metal blank is the thin base for the overlay, not a replacement for the datewheel, it still has to be stuck to the datewheel.