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Hi Guys, I'm hoping one of you would be able to lend some expertise. I recently inherited an old Heuer from my granddad. I'd like to find out some more information about it. I've taken it to a vintage watch specialist in London and he wan't able to tell me a great deal about age or its history. He tried opening the back with a rubber grip and couldn't get in, which suggested to him it's not been opened before and all the parts on the face are probably the originals. He also said that despite the strap material breaking down, it doesn't look like it has been worn much. The watch was found in a box in a drawer in a basement and I don't ever remember my granddad wearing it so this may well be true. I wondered if anyone could help me identify it? And any rough indication of worth? Thank you in advance

My latest and greatest one and a watch I'd always admired perhaps from watching magnum pi as a kid. Lol These are pics from the builder and Italian enthusiast and his watchsmith. Need to refresh my memory on the exact specs but... Gen spider dial Gen xtal Gen insert Gen clasp Gen jubilee Reshaped case unknown origin ETA CLONE 2836-2. Genuine Swiss eta rotor and full disassembly and overhaul WSO bezel modified

So finally after searching, searching and more searching I stumbled across this beauty, The Rolex Daytona 6239 (by DW) and bought it...in a heartbeat. I bought just the head as I thought the GEN rivet I will find one day for sure. But I wanted it to mount this icon on a Bulang & Sons 19/16 vintage leather strap. And I think the end result is really nice and it is also very comfortable to wear. The seller I bought it from also informed about a website detailing more about this particular build `Daytona small dial` http://www.hqmilton.com/watches/rolex_daytona_6239_black_dial_with_early_small_daytona_with_white_and_silve/ I especially like the fact that it is not screaming Daytona or PN or anything like `hey look at me`...but that is what I feel is so attractive about this particular dial. The subtle `Rolex Cosmograph Daytona` just between center of the watch and the coronet. What I also like about this build is that the hand wind movement allows for a very flat build (guess as per gen looking at the dimensions). The watch has wear on it just like you would expect but not too much. And the engraving finishes it off just right. Not fully noticeable even when wearing a leather strap. So now on to the pics It all started with the watch head ....and even without a strap it is beautiful But I knew I had to get a nice Bulang & Sons leathers strap for this beauty...

Hi Guys, just found this auction on Ebay for a (stated) original vintage Omega 120 Divers from 1960. Don't know much about this model, never happened to see one in the flesh so any help will be highly appreciated! Thanks a lot in advance for your help! http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1960s-Vintage-Omega-120-Divers-Watch-31mm/131648237576?_trksid=p2045573.c100033.m2042&_trkparms=aid%3D111001%26algo%3DREC.SEED%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20131017132637%26meid%3D9d524d5ade3343d781d5f7f2a47e184f%26pid%3D100033%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D4%26sd%3D131648237576

Hi I am planing to build a Vintage Daytona Fap 6263 Would like to show my idea and would be happy about any inputs from you Guys this is how it should look in the End: Base Watch will be a Cartel 6263 like this: http://www.torobravo2015.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=39_214&product_id=1048 Crown + Tube from Athaya Dial from Phong: (it is the only dial I found without the daytona Writing on it... even tough it is quite expensive 450 USD) other options are very welcome! http://i821.photobucket.com/albums/zz133/HUGI91/19-06-2015%2022-19-03.jpg To install the Dial I will use this way: http://www.repgeek.com/showthread.php?t=145508&highlight=MOD+6263+CARTEL+GEN+DIAL So what do you think about my plans? Do I need to replace the pushers too? Any benefits of it? Bezel replacement? (Phong charges 350-450 USD... too much for my budget) Any help is greatly appreciated Have a great Weekend

Hi guys, Wanted to show off some of my builds ive done over the last year. Ill just go through some pics, Ive been building the last 7-8 months, this is just small portion of what ive done, most of the 1680s are wbk modded and certain parts replaced, i drill lugs change movements basically all the work. The various section at the bottom were all from scratch, those were all for other people and all custom builds, mostly franken or custom parts. Let me know what you think guys! Heres my 1680 builds and mods: Some various builds, gmts albino 6610, no date subs....

Just finished this little build. I wanted to make a 6536 small crown and a few months ago managed to source a gen vintage crown. I couldn't get an old crown tube so I bought a twin lock with the right chamfered base from cousins UK and had to drill out the centre for the spring loaded tube to fit through. Case was drilled out and re-threaded. I also shaped the chamfered edges on the lugs and also took away some metal under the lugs to create a thinner more curved case profile. Bottom line is that the 6536 was a very thin case and nobody makes anything like it. And to re create the case accurately the lug holes would need filling and re-drilling in a slightly different place after the bottom and top of the case had been milled down. A massive job and not one I'm in a position to do. It's a tiger concept V2 case, pain in the [censored] to source parts for because there is a lack of any replacement plexis. I ended up using a cousins plexi which gave me a low dome. Hands are from a place called Ric's watch repair, they are flat sub hands made for 1570 movement, so I had to broach the holes to fit the asian movement I have at the moment, I'm waiting for a Swiss vintage ETA to be serviced that i'll put in for a truly nice finish. insert is from raffles, bleached so the coated layer comes off and fades. Dial is a re-lumed Helenarou from RWG member Big Dazza, cheers mate. I had to resize the dial to fit the TC case, from 29mm down to 28mm and in the process some of the matt spray coating came of, I cleaned a lot of the rest off but decided to leave some around the edge as it looked like the gloss dial was starting to age and fade and I liked the effect. Clearly the only major flaw and issue in this build is the depth rating, the 6536 had 100m / 330ft text on the dial, and nobody apart for Yuki does this, and the Yuki dial is 37mm which would drop straight through the bezel. Finally I added an "exclamation mark" under the 6 marker. I've seen these gen dials and thought it was a tiny detail i'd love to include, and a few days ago I found a gen 6536 picture with one of these dials. I hope you like it.

I have finally completed my 1016 build the details. Case - JMB swiss 2783. (waiting for a fully serviced one, this one is a spare which is running well) silver merc hands from raffles, aged and relumed dial from Praz Gen 6mm RLX crown with a modified rlx twin lock tube from cousins. rep rivet strap modified for gen size spring bars.

Any help or input will be appreciated. I would like some opinions on choosing between a good re-lume of the rep dial of a cartel 1680 (to improve shape and color) vs. installing a Yuki gen spec dial which might involve shaving the dial (from 26.5 down to 26mm) to make it fit the cartel case. If you have a preference between the two I would appreciate your input. Also, if you know someone who would/could do either of those two things I would appreciate your recommendations. Thanks.

Hope I don't bore anyone with another thread about a 1016 build, but after having what amounted to what I thought may have been, for me, the luckiest week ever over on the 'bay, I have found myself with now most likely two 1016 builds. Originally, I had started approaching this build around (in my humble opinion) a pretty nice rep 1016 slab serif dial I picked up from Minh. I had been eyeing the dial for a while and had already sent a gen 16013 case over to Jensen at vintagewatchmaker to be re-engraved and have the lug holes drilled out (both of which were done quite well btw). From there I was going to go the ETA and TC hands route and I had, of course, already procured a perfect bezel from JMB. Anyways, checking on eBay late one night I see an Aussie had listed what appeared to be five(!) gen service dials; all ending on different, consecutive days, all un-lumed, and all priced well under $200 at the time with very few people watching, let alone bidding on, the dials. The one ending the soonest had about 30 minutes left to go and was at $101 when I haphazardly put in a low-ball bid of $225. I hadn't done a ton of research on the seller, but the dials looked great. I thought, if for some unforeseen reason I do actually win this and it turns out to be fake, I will have at the very least gotten a pretty nice rep dial for less than what I paid for the Minh dial. Well, I won it. For $202.25. And while waiting for it to arrive I poured over the (low-res) pictures and started realizing it was legit. Even sent the crappy listing pictures over to LHOOQ who was kind enough to look them over and say that he also felt that it was probably gen. And so now the franken build takes on a more serious tone and the hunt for a gen hands set and a gen movement began I tried to photograph this under a loupe in the harshest natural light conditions I could find. As you can see there is definitely some very minor scuffs and wear marks throughout. Frankly though, these blemishes are only noticeable under magnification; the naked eye doesn't pick them up and I can't imagine them being visible under a plexi. Also, it'll add to the genuine older feel of the dial (even for a service dial) onc eit gets a proper, more vintage-hued lume job. More on that in a second... Lovers of the 1016 can, I think< sympathize with my absolute frustration with rep 1016 dials. I stand in awe that no one seems to be able to get the fonts and most importantly the spacing correct on the "Superlative Chronometer Officially Certified" text. That one detail in particular drove me nuts. The coronet and the SCOC spacing on the gen dial have finally put my OCD on this to rest. The back of the dial looks good for a late 70's-early 80's Rolex in-house made service dial. Looks good to me, and besides I don't recall ever seeing a rep'ed in-house Rolex plate nor have I ever seen a re-dial done on a gen one so this was just a tiny bit more confirmation for me about the dial's authenticity (sorry about the photos, I had a hard time capturing the Rolex engraving on the tarnished back plate) And then compared to the rep Slab Serif dial from Minh: I gotta say, I was feeling really happy with the build(s) at this point. Four days later, I went back on eBay simply to check on the tracking of the dial shipment when, on a lark, I just did a quick search of new listings for "Rolex watch hands" and look what had just been posted not twenty minutes earlier and with a BIN price of $185: Unquestionably in rough shape, but still, they were gen cal. 1560 hands from an old 5512 and were being sold as in "destroyed condition" by (I think) a retired/ex-watchmaker. I was obviously already getting into this build deep, sourcing random gen parts here and there; the original inspiration to go "super-franken" started with a gen double-stamped triple six 1016 case back I fell in love with (http://www.rwgforum.net/topic/178594-1016-case-back-double-stamped/?hl=%2B1016+%2Bcase+%2Bback). Between that and the dial, I couldn't say no to these hands and snatched them up instantly. Side note: regretfully, the gen 1016 case back is incompatible with the 16000 mid case, thus the two projects: the Eta-based 16000 cased Minh dial, and now an uber-franken with the gen dial, hands, case back, 16200 mid, and eventually a gen 1560. I'm not sure why, but I'm hellbent on using this 1016 CB. Besides, Automatico was telling me a 1016-dialed 1560 is a way east fit in a 162XX case rather than a 16XXX case; no need to change out cannon pinions, etc. So the BIG and somewhat more pressing issue right now for me is finding a skilled lumer (hopefully in the US too) who is skilled at/enjoys 1016 lume work and hopefully someone who can also do the hands. I'm hoping the hands don't need to be "repaired" per se, and that they can simply be cleaned up a bit and matched to the dial. And I know it's a later-era service dial and was most likely slated to be a "Swiss - T<25" branded transitional Luminova dial, but I'd like to give it an older feel with a tritium-esque no glow lume job. Nothing too "antiqued" or yellow, not even vanilla or creamy colored, but more of (hopefully) a bone/off-white; almost slightly tinted white color similar to limestone. Does that even make any sense haha? So to wrap it up, I'd love to hear suggestions on lumers, color choice(s) for the dial/hands, criticisms/observations on the dial and hands, the build, etc. Everything! The wonderful RWG community houses sime true 1016 afficionados and exoerts and I wold love to hear everyone's thoughts on the build(s) as it stands and where they're going. Going to part out my super-franken 6263 I was building to fund the completion of this project. With this amazing dial, I feel like I'm almost there...

This watch is already a while in my collection and I absolutely love it. It's a Rolex 6200 built by Big Dazza Mods: Silix base (more correct case size) 2813 - 21J movement with metal movement holder Domed acrylic plexi Lightly aged cases 8mm Brevet crown Bezel inserts with red triangles have been aged and faded lightly Pearls removed Cases drilled for gen spec spring bars Rivet bracelets have correct spellings and have been modded to accept gen spec spring bars Gen spec spring bars with rounded tips Endlinks modified for gen spec spring bars Smoke aged and textured dials Relumed dials Aged and relumed hands

I recently purchased a random box of old Rolex parts (mostly sealed NOS tubes, crown, movement parts, etc.) and one of the pieces in the lot was a supposedly gen 1016 case back. Upon first glance it certainly appears genuine to my eye: shape and dimensions look good, the wear on it looks appropriate for its supposed age, etc. It has all the correct stampings on the inside back, but this is where I'm hung up and was hoping some of the resident 1016 experts might be able to chime in with some wisdom. The case markings appear to have been stamped on the case back twice, one directly on top of the other, albeit slightly offset. In my estimation (and I most definitely could be wrong here), the markings appear to be pressure stamped and not engraved, as they are supposed to be. And the fonts and letter spacing/positioning seems to be correct. But I can't seem to find any sort of reference material or evidence pointing to Rolex ever double stamping a case. I theorized that this was a "repurposed" case back and that it was not originally destined for a 1016 and originally had no reference number stamp on it and perhaps simply stamping a "1016" by itself on the case wasn't possible and accordingly the entire stamping had to be re-done. Pure assumption however. Needless to say, this one has me scratching my head, and moving forward I'm going to continue operating under the assumption that it is not genuine (of course, I would love to be shown information to the contrary). The other thing that gives me pause is the date coding. It is my understanding that the date coding is a small roman numeral followed by a two-digit year code, the roman numeral representing which quarter of the year the watch was produced in. Is the roman numeral actually indicative of the month rather than the quarter? Because a date code of "VI.66" would put it at the "sixth quarter" of 1966, which makes absolutely no sense. Now, "VI" representing month 6 (i.e., June) makes a little more sense, but I can only ever remember seeing date codes ranging from I-IV (or quarter "one" through quarter "four"). Also, this particular marking looks to be engraved, not pressure stamped like the rest of the markings but I could be wrong there too. And lastly, there appears to be watchmaker service marks on the inside of the back, from when the watch was most likely whole and being serviced? And if someone "made" this case back then why would they go through the trouble of scratching in watchmaker marks if the glaringly obvious error of the double stamp was already present? That in turn, got me thinking that maybe this was in fact a gen case back, just not one for an Explorer. And that maybe originally it had no ref number stamped on it, was worked on by a watchmaker, and then WAY later got an entire new stamping. This time with the desirable 1016 ref number stamped on it. Seems like a lot of trouble to go through for a rep case back (especially one I paid a mere $50 for) and sometimes the simplest answer is also the best, so maybe it is just a weirdo Rolex stamping. Who knows? Hopefully some of you pro 1016 guys can shed some light... Maybe I'm just thinking WAY too much about this and overanalyzing it. Has anyone ever seen or heard of this type of double stamping before? If so, I would certainly love an education on the matter...

I thought I would show off the new dancing shoes for my little honey, here. At the same time I wanted to show some pleasant surprises I discovered along the way. Just for the record, this is a Puretime red 1680 with ETA 2846 and a gen, vintage 7mm crown. Stock crystal, dial, hands, and insert/pearl. I purchased the watch in 2011 from Angus and it I wear it regularly. I celebrated my birthday recently, and one of the gifts my wife gave me was a handmade strap from Martu. Andrea is based in Chile and she is great to work with. She has a lot of options with very reasonable prices. I found out about her through other threads here and on the other boards. First off, I removed the 93150 bracelet, 580 endlinks, and shouldered rep bars that came with the watch. I really like Oyster bracelets, so I plan to do a lot of switching back and forth between the two. Ugh, I hate the rep bars and the fact that because they are shouldered, there is nothing protruding through the lugholes. Notice the black hole where no tips are visible! Sadly, I have to use rep bars until I get better fitting endlinks that work with my 2mm gen spec bars. With my current endlinks, the tips of the gen spec bars don't quite line up with the lugholes, so I can't use them with the Oyster. I don't want to have to keep changing bars depending on what I'm using for a band. One set should be plenty, so this means I either have get WSO endlinks (that work with 2mm gen bars) or switch to 1.8mm shoulderless bars, which is also a good option. In the end I think the WSO endlinks will prevail since this will allow me to use the correct 2mm size bars. Anyway, after cleaning the lug area I noticed that my case has correct engravings! The 12 o'clock side of the case is engraved with Original Rolex Design 1680. The 6 o'clock side is engraved with Stainless Steel and then the serial number beginning with L. This is the part that is not period correct for my watch. A serial # beginning with L puts it at 1989, which is not correct for a 1680, let alone a red Mark I/II dial! My dial variation is from approximately 1969, so the serial should be a mid to high 2 million number. If I *really* wanted to get accurate, I could send my case to JMB and have him engrave a new serial number for me and at the same time machine a custom retainer ring for the case. Perhaps someday. In the meantime, the only engravings visible when wearing the strap are the top line, not the serial # text or 1680 text, so not having the right serial is irrelevant to me. After installing my 2mm gen spec bars into the strap, I mounted it on my watch. The result is quite nice, if I do say so myself. For one, I can finally see spring bar tips protruding through the lugholes. This is a tiny thing that no normal human would ever notice, but those of us who enjoy vintage Rolex really appreciate this detail. I just wish the tips came a little closer to the edge of the case. This might be a function of the bars that I am using. I am using Yuki bars. Maybe another set would be better? Here are some glamor shots to show off the new look: Thanks for looking!

By the end of 2014 I had sold all of my reps as I wanted to venture into Vintage Rolex. And that all started with a 5513 dial I purchased late January. Not sure, but I guess with all great builds, it either starts with dial or case. And this dial I immediately fell in love with . The 5513 spider from around 1984 which I bought right on the spot, no doubt. And then the search continued for all the right parts. Right after the dial I bought the 5513 service insert, which I overpaid for just a bit. But then again it was 100 % new. I sourced a really high quality SS bezel assembly from member over at RG. Then after looking day & night on fleebay I found this NOS Gen Swiss ETA lowbeat 2846. Getting the GEN Tudor hands was the hardest part. They never come up for sale 2nd hand so I was lucky to get them BNIB. The Athaya 702 tube and crown was easiest part, just send email to Athaya, sending pp funds and after 2 weeks in the mail for like $35, and they look really great. The case I decided to source a 5513 watch with Sead. Strip the parts and have the case modded to GEN spec. I found a member here who was willing to help me out. I sent over the parts but he could not find the time to do it. So after 4 months waiting I was back at square one. And then I was referred to great modder here by a good friend of mine. Case will be sent to him this week and then I hope by end of June I´ll be able to have all parts assembled. Here are the pics and will be back hopefully by end of June for pics of the modded case. So here´s the Parts List: 5513 cartel case Helenarou 5513 Caseback (flatter than cartel) GEN 5513 Spider Dial GEN Tudor Mercedes Hands for ETA (in 2nd picture) GEN 5513 Service Insert GEN Swiss ETA 2846 lowbeat Athaya 702 crown & tube T-19 service dome (aftermarket) SS bezel assembly (aftermarket) Cartel 93150 Bracelet (will probably get a Yuki to replace this one) WSO Gen spec 580 Ends Gen spec Springbars Well, ain´t that a great Spider Aftermarket SS bezel, will need polishing but it´s really great quality Not sure what to do, the lume on these is (just like the insert) really great green lume. Dial is tritium and has no lume left. So would it be possible to relume dial dots with vintage green lume? I personally have no problem with dial no lume and hands & pearl with lume. This would probably also happen on service where hands and insert would be replaced. HR Caseback has much flatter profile than the cartel one. Comes at a price but I´d like the watch to sit flat on the wrist.

Hey all, After sending out the 1016 explorer dials to members kind enough to help me with the preorder, I thought I'd raffle one away! The dial has a gen-spec diameter at 28mm, has feet for ETA movements, and all of the fonts/misc details have been hand-traced from genuine examples. The rules are simple, just reply to this thread, and you'll be entered into the raffle by your post order (just your first post will be counted, though feel free to post more if you like!). On Wednesday the 6th, I'll use a random number generator to pick which member the dial will go to Cheers, Whoop

So, last week I got word that there was a pretty great estate sale going on about a two hour's drive away from me. The private home estate of a jeweler and his wife had been purchased and put up for sale. Foolishly, I waited until later in the day to head down to the sale, and sure enough, by the time I got there much of it had been picked clean (of all the good stuff anyways: case sets, bracelets, dials, bridges, etc. all gone). Out of the corner of my eye I spied a little box filled with the unmistakable little wax paper Rolex envelopes. Not much left but I managed to score some gaskets, a T21 plexi and a triplock crown. Most notably though, was a little baggie of loose hands which I felt was well worth the $40 they wanted. These weren't in a rlx envelope, but based on the rest of the items there and sold, I figured there was a pretty great shot of them being gen hands that were at some point replaced or there waiting to be used as replacements. I know that most of these hands are for Datejusts, but I wanted to see if anyone had any insight as to whether or not theres more than just DJ hands here. So, onto the photos: Not in the most pristine condition, I know, but vintage hands sets are seemingly harder and harder to come by, so I figured it was worth a shot at 40 bucks. First, the steel hands. Hour hand is missing lume, but the two minute hands seem to have a lovely patinated lume and are in pretty good shape. The second group is the gold hands (the steel seconds hands is extremely bent and too far gone I think). The varying length of the minute hands especially is throwing me for a loop, not to mention the various sized openings for different movements/dials. If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say that some of these were maybe from a woman's model as well, but this level of nuanced comparison is currently a bit out of my league experience-wise. Accordingly, I'd love to hear what some of you all think! I know it may be difficult to examine visually and without precise caliper measurements, but any and all help is greatly appreciated

I'll get us started: $57k 5513" mislabeled in the auction with no serial or movement photo's... PCG case too. Feel free to share more!

Hey guys, My buddy is looking to part with his two Gen vintage divers: each is pretty dang cheap! He's not a member here (nor is he into the rep world), so I thought I'd see if I could help him out. Watches: Rolex 1675 GMT and a Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Aqualung These are both within the 4-5k range, which I think is pretty inexpensive for what you're getting! If anyone's interested, just shoot me a pm and I'll give you some more details

We make all of our products using traditional leather-working techniques to give you something that will last a lifetime. Each product is bench-made by a professional artisan who cares for it at every step of the production process. Audermars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore custom made strap

River case Athaya 8mm Angelus dagger hands GEN 1953 Angelus pencil for ETA Movement Molly 3602 Dial Ross (modification of my work)

Fresh from hell! Pls contact Master Satan himself for more questions

The engravings are some of the better ones I've seen. Font is close and it's done with a pantograph machine (as opposed to rotary). What do you guys think? http://www.ebay.com/sch/rrtvrn/m.html?item=271611690288&hash=item3f3d517d30&pt=Wristwatches&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2562&_vilcat=31387

Hi all, So I'm very interested in getting my hands on a "vintage" Tudor 5514. I see that Trusty has one, with Asian 2836 movement. Has anyone handled one of these? How accurate are they? Are they well made? Is Trusty the best source to pick one of these up, or is there a better supplier? In the long-run I'd like to have one custom-made (or do it myself), but I'd like to get my hands on one to see if I like it, before I invest significantly more cash in it. Either way, just looking for a nice vintage Tudor Submariner. Any input would be appreciated! Thanks.

Hi friends! Today I finished work on his first Cali. For me it was important to do EYE close to the old AMP. I used the ingredients: - Silix Case (my modification tips) - Plexi Cro Vulcano - Movement Molnia 3602 - Hands River - Back cover of Hadrian with engravings - Strap made ​​himself 1. Silix It was a standard 3646. I had to change a little pillow and tips. I made them in one piece. 2.The hardest part was to make the dial. Top Cali dial Dow did but he is no longer accepting orders. I bought it standard Сali River and gave it to age. 3. Plexi prishlost also give an age. 4. CB 5. Movement 6. Hands 7. Strap 8. california 3646 vintage

With all of the amazing big crown builds and super "genkens" on display recently, I am really itching to bite the bullet and try working on a budget Silix build to get my feet wet in the big crown world. If this works out well, I am going to make a decommissioned 6538a with 3,6,9 dial and red depth rating for my second build. There is a gorgeous example on Hodinkee that I am in love with, so that's my grail until I am eventually able to devote the time and resources to build a big crown genken. To get started, however, I am going to go with the classic 6538 as my initial attempt. My parts list so far is this: - Silix classic 6538 complete watch with rivet bracelet. I know the 7206 bracelet is going to be crappy, so if I can't salvage it I will have to put it on a nice distressed leather band until Yuki or another supplier gets them. - Athaya V2 crown and tube. - Either Yuki pearl or Athaya pearl. Not sure which one is the better replacement? - OnlinestoreHK big ball white seconds hand. How much better is the HR branded 6538 dial versus the Raffles recent superlumed dial offerings? Ken now sells both a 3,6,9 6200 dial as well as a 6538 dial that appears to be nearly identical to the branded HR dial, but at half the price. Is it worth it to spend the extra money for the HR dial on my first budget build, knowing full well that I am going to age the dial anyway and brush various household colorants on it and bake it? Or is the Raffles dial going to be good enough? The standard out of box Silix and Raffles dials are the same and have that awful/strange color tone to them, but the new Raffles dials with superlume look pretty nice. I plan to practice my aging skills on the stock dial and then move over to the nicer dial once I have a steady hand. Any suggestions are welcomed. I've been kicking these tires for so long that my toes are quite sore, so I figured it's time to bite the bullet and get started. I'm pretty busy at home with 3 little boys ranging from 10 months to 6yrs old, so this might take me a while once I actually start buying the various parts. Thanks guys!