Search the Community

Hello guys, i am about to order a watch set (case, dial, hand, bracelet etc) from raffle dials. just wondering, if they supply a good quality sets? Obviously, not as perfect as gen but all am worried about is Bezel Insert and dial quality. Bright and perfectly painted numbers and logo. pls can you share your reviews and experiences. thanks

Want to buy a genuine 76100 dial. U got one, or might know where to get it?

So, I am just a few weeks away from wrapping up probably my most "involved" franken thusfar, a very special Tudor Monte Carlo (a 7031/0 actually) from Jensen aka VintageWatchmaker aka son of Phong. Anyways, the stock dial on the phong/Jensen 7031 isn't great imvho and accordingly, I had been on the hunt for a different dial to use for some time. With DW's (great) dials out of the picture, remaining options are kind of limited. Yuki's dial leaves much to be desired, NDT's dial is terrible and nothing on offer from either MQ or Tonny. I was at a loss. Then a couple weeks ago I made a last-ditch search on eBay and actually stumbled upon (and won; $88, score!) a pretty nice dial from a random seller. The details are pretty good from what I can tell (dial is still en route to me) but it doesn't look like any other Home Plate dial I've ever seen. My first thought was maybe it could actually be a random old DW dial, but comparing to pics of DW 7032s on the boards made me think otherwise. Curious to see what others think of it and if anyone has any idea of its provenance: Hard to see but the subdials are nice and recessed and have the correct guilloche texture, the lume plots look good and have an awesome texture, the hash marks on the minute track are nice and thin, shield looks good, the grey background looks quite nice, etc. Granted, those outer orange numbers are a bit too thick and "Oysterdate" looks a tad odd among a few other deficiencies; but compare then to the stock Phong/Jensen dial (below) that was supposed to come on the build initially. Above dial is better to my eye, both definitely have their individual pluses and minuses but overall I prefer the random eBay dial. Thoughts? Also, for what it's worth: The eBay seller seems to be listing a stream of random aftermarket Tudor dials; only listing one or two at a time. eBay profile says he's located in California by the tracking number for my dial originated in Vietnam. The dials all look pretty good all things considered and as far as I can tell they're not the same as the usual suspects you see for many of these dials (7149, 7159, pres. seal snowflake, etc.), perhaps a stream of new good "Vietnam" dials are slowly trickling onto market? eBay seller id: bivintagestore2014

Hi all, I have a genuine Rolex 1007 which has a 1570 calibre movement. The dial is looking quite aged now so I want to swap it out with a newer one but I don't know which dials would fit this case and movement. Would an air king fit, does anyone know? Or anything else?

Hello Everybody, First post on this forum.. hope at the good place I would like to find a very nice black dial for my Audemars Piguet diver carbon forged on 2824. I saw after buying my v6f the dial was not as genuine...but same as ceramic model... i Have to change it So please help Thanks

Hi guys, Would you be able to tell me if the 5001 dial attached is genuine. The wording looks correct to me. Numbers looked aligned too. What do you guys think? Cheers, AP

Hi guys, Is this a known dial defects on the AP 15000 33mm made by the JF factory? I ordered one, and it has spider web like defects near the 1 o'clock and 5 o'clock on the dial. Has anyone have this experience?

Thx to Repwatch´s extraordinary post of his unique wonderful piece I started to admire this watch and got really into this but could neither afford the gen nor build a Franken. First I looked at the Marina Militare but than destiny struck and I found a solution, so after many sleepless nights and one month visiting the above post I happily present to You, in the most unconventional way, serious Purists beware (I love and I am into vintage, no seriousness intended here, this is a hommage), an addition to my fast-growing collection: the famous PAM203 (2005), originally with vintage Angelus movement, only available to some 150 selected few. Just look how the golden hands, specially the small second hand reflect the sun on the glass from the inside:) This 47 mm stainless steel case with a sandwich chocolate/grey dial is historically correct and simply magnificent! The gold hands, sub second hand and logo's " Luminor Panerai" and "8 Giorni Brevattato" 8 giorni means 8 days and brevettato means patented, referring to the original sixty year old and large sized, handwound Angelus SF calibre 240, 8 days power reserve, give this watch character that no other watch has... or ever will have again. Here is the famous and still ultra-secret Panerai-secret: “how to make modern USD out of old italian lire trick”: (Research from Dadog13: Mr. Ferretti sold them to Panerai in the 1996 - 190 pieces // each priced 110.000 lire italiane (about 60 usd each in 1996) http://www.rwgforum.net/topic/99316-nos-angelus-sf240-pam203pam267/ link with sublink). Et voilà: Today possibly worth 110.000 Usd. The patented device protecting and locking the crown tops this watch off. CG lever points upwards. Both versions were made, with downpointing CG also. Of course it has Reg. Tm. engraved in the crown guard. Dial: brown, with luminous hour markers and Arabic numerals. It consists of two superimposed discs: the top one is perforated with the numerals and hour markers while the lower one was covered with a thin layer of Super Luminova Small seconds at 9 o'clock on the left and the legendary 8 Giorni Brevettato symbol painted in white near the 3´position complete the balance. DIMENSIONS: 47mm x 13.5mm WEIGHT: 126 grams Vintage Mods (here is where the fun part really starts): Crystal: removed the original sapphire, made from corundum, 2 mm thick. Anti-reflective coating. Replaced with Plexiglas. the Plexy gives a superb look, very warm, to the whole watch, and especially the dial. The gold dials reflect on it. Tried to catch the fantastic domed shape and the reflecting edges of the huge Plexiglas in sunlight. Also close look onto the sandwich dial of this Vintage Panerai in the pics. The “Open Six” carries the DNA of the brand from the 1930s until today. Crown-lock: applied some vintage rust, than applied the gluegun trick to make it feel more hefty and solid; tried to replace the crown with a vintage Rolex seadweller crown but it did not fit with the CG-mechanism so had to remove it again. Rolex actually made all vintage Panerai watches, from 1936 through 1956 (Jake Ehrlich). Movement: first removed the vintage 8 days Angelus SF 240 movement (cost of just 60 USD back in the nineties) because it had only 15 rubis and was very lowbeat at only 18.000 bhp; the Angelus powered divers where used by Panerai in the 50´s and 60´s but I wanted to go more to the Rolex-made Style of the 30´s and 40´s. So because of the Rolex connection I replaced it with a more gen-like Rolex Cal. 618 / Type 1 with some dust in it. Both where antique and HANDWOUND, so finally decided to put a more modern automatic movement in: MOVEMENT: Asian 21j automatic, keeps perfect time now! Greatest power reserve I have in a 21j also! Just don´t look at it. Solid case back: After changing the movement couldn´t stand the looks of the 21j, so the see-through sapphire glass had to go and was replaced with a nice, solid SS caseback (not yet engraved with a pig-torpedo and “Kampfschwimmer” – lettering and dating of probably 1944 which I will do with a Dremel, but already well-brushed with steel wool) Water resistance: after modding: tested to 0,00 metres (originally 100 metres); waterproofing to at least 200 ATM intended Lume: the original Superluminova applied to the sandwich dial looked too bright for the look of a 73 year old watch. Different to the “Luminor” substance used in later produced watches and instruments, “Radiomir” , patented 1915 by Guido Panerai (he did not know then it was a million more times radioative than uranium and that it has a half-life of 1602 years, neither did Marie Curie) does not react instantly under the impact of light anymore in 2013, here is a vintage sample of a "Kampfschwimmer" - combat diver: oh, this didn´t work.... so the Superluminova was scratched off this pam PAM 203 to give it a more vintage look. Once the human eye has been in total darkness for a couple of hours, the remaining glow of the simulated “Radiomir” substance now becomes visible. Strap: Ordered an original vintage 8 Giorni Brevettato symbol, authentic hand made WWII Ammo strap made from 65 year old army leather pouches and José Maria over in Spain promised it would be ready for me this week, making this package complete and spectacular! Time is what prevents everything from happening at once . ~ John Archibald Wheeler Thx to Torobravos this time: Got this original “as is” in a perfect service from him, it’s a fun watch more than expected and got that nice strap on it until the vintage arrives: Enjoy the pics! Finally some lume-shots as requested of my hefty PAM 193 Tuna-Can (on the left) also Hope You had as much fun reading as I had writing for the Forum. A big thanks to You all and RWG and what I´ve learned just browsing around here. Any addition and comment Welcome:)

Gents, Real or Fake? Seems suspect to me http://www.ebay.com/itm/Panerai-PAM-292-watch-/252256512532?hash=item3abba8ea14:g:Gc8AAOSwL7VWnUme

Hi guys, Does the 3 o'clock marker looks aligned to you?

Hi Mates, This dial have been offered to me by respectful member of one of the Gen Forums. I'm still thinking font and coronet looks a bit strange to me I don't want to say "not Gen" just a bit odd. I never have seen any like this, I thought that It's Frog dial.. Help to come closer to 1016 dream build! Do you have any thoughts? Please share. Cheers, BP

Hello everyone! As promised, here’s my DSSD Gen Bezel mod. I guess you can say that I fell into this one. I was looking for a gen dial after reading PeteM’s post on the differences in Rolex gen dials for the DSSD. So when one came up for sale on the boards, I couldn’t help but jump on it! That same member was also selling a gen bezel with gen insert. Well, after a little salesmanship and negotiating by the Sacsah1, I had a gen bezel assembly with gen bearings and click. Very exciting! Now came the research. I had reached out to PeteM, BK, and the member that sold me the dial and bezel, Sacsah1. Pete built an incredible franken DSSD from gen parts that he stumbled upon, so I picked his brain a bit. To no surprise, Pete being Pete, shared a wealth of info on his journey to building the ultimate DSSD Franken. But most of what he did also included a lot of machining parts and mid-case. He did all the work on his own. Being the son of a Tool & Die Maker trained in Germany, I was not without some skills and more importantly… tools! Sacsah1, as I learned is a great connection to the gen parts world! He also had a lot of insight into what you can do and what you can’t do. He has worked with a few of this forum’s best modders on his own pieces and was a wealth of info for me as well. What I learned is that this mod of fitting a gen bezel on a Noob DSSD case was a problem that has frustrated some modders. BK provided guidance from what he learned that works with the Noob case and what needs modding. Here’s what I learned. First, how the gen is broken down. The clamping ring is the part that would need to be modified, as it was larger on the Noob than the gen. The bezel would not snap down on it. CAUTION: By trying to force the bezel on, I nearly destroyed the fastening ring. The fastening ring is a nylon ring that sits inside of a groove in the bezel. I was able to repair it so that it was functional. But it’s damaged. Some of it was flattened and nearly torn. Thanks to Sacsah1, I have a new one on its way! The Noob DSSD is actually pretty amazing! They built it part by part to the gen. Not necessarily to spec, but really close. When chatting with Pete, he mentioned that he had some extra parts and a double AR’d crystal. I purchased the crystal from him without hesitation and he offered to send me all his extra parts for just shipping cost. A truly noteworthy member of this community! In order for the bezel to fit, I had to machine down the outside of the clamping ring to a point where the center groove is cut. So it’s practically smooth all the way down. I could still make out where the groove was cut. I checked my progress every now and then by putting the clamping ring into the bezel (without the fastening ring installed) until it rotated smoothly inside the bezel. I used a sharp tipped Jewelers file to hand cut a new groove into the clamping ring. I later learned that I cut that groove about 0.75mm too high, leaving a gap between the bezel and the mid-case. I ended up machining down the height of the ring by 0.75 mm. By machining the clamping ring down, the rep bezel would no longer fit. I got a bit nervous that if this didn’t work, I’d be up the creek. I reached out to BK who had an extra clamping ring in his toolbox and sent it to me for the cost of postage. With a plan B, I felt comfortable to push this forward. Clamping ring before: After machining: Bezel gap before: After: To say that I was a bit anxious when it came to putting it back together would be an understatement. I did realize that that by machining the ring down, I did stretch the diameter a bit. I decided to heat the ring up to a red glow and quickly cooling it down. That did the trick and it was back down to its original inner diameter. I found some pics of a gen mid-case of a DSSD and saw a machining pattern on the case under where the bezel sits. I decided to cut the same pattern into my Noob mid-case as well. I also sealed up the HEV with clear Jeweler Epoxy while in there. When I had everything apart; I ultrasonically cleaned all the parts and rebrushed and polished the case and bracelet. I used Bergeon medium and fine Satin Bars to achieve that Rolex look. It came time to reassemble the case and see if this whole endeavor worked. I carefully reinstalled the fastening ring into the bezel and made sure that all the pinched areas were deep in its setting and placed the bezel over the clamping ring, and it snapped into place! HOLY CRAP! THIS WORKED! It rotated smoothly and had that perfect click! In order to have the top of the crystal sitting evenly with the bezel, I pressed the crystal in place with the bezel already on. There it is! Gen bezel and insert on a Noob case! So, This DSSD has the following: Gen Bezel and insert Get click and bearings Gen Dial Double AR Crystal I have to say that the AR’d crystal makes this whole thing pop. The gen uses a very high quality crystal that almost looks AR’d. Pete compared it to his buddy’s gen and the rep looked better. Not by much, but better. With this crystal, the dial and bezel really pop! I want to give a shout out to those that helped make this mod possible! Thanks to Sacsah1, PeteM, and BK! Thanks for reading! P

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.

My beloved IWC GST 3707 in titanium with a replaced ETA 7750 I have been a follower everywhere. Unfortunately also dropped several times. The last time the dial broke, with several pieces coming off it. This watch has been commented by so many of you since it is now out of production and almost no replicas for sale. I have been in contact with both dealers and watchsmiths regarding a new dial but can't find it. Can anyone please direct me where to search further? -How/where do I source an original dial? Obviously gen IWC dealers won't help me. -A replica? It is too sad to only have this watch in the drawer with a broken dial.

Hey guys, has anyone bought the "new" blue dialed YM in Angus' Site? The blue dial really got me and I was wondering if you have some pictures.. Looks pretty good imho. Price tag is alright but I'd like to see some pictures in the sunlight for example I'd appreciate it.

Hi All, Is there any replacement hour/minute wheels, or other solution I can use for making the hands higher off the dial? It's for a watch I'm making. The dial is a little too thick. I'm looking to go 0.5-1.0mm higher if possible. Thanks. =)

The dial sizes on subs has been 26-28mm in the various eras. I was wondering how big the dial opening is vs how much of the dial gets covered. Anyone measure?

Hey guys and girls (Its been quite a while since my last post here); My brother was recently in Shanghai, and as usual the question "do you want something from here?" popped in... and my obvious answer was " Of course I do! A cheap rep".. And it was indeed cheap. I didn't want to go to the obvious submariner choice, mostly due to the "you will cry in pain when you see it" issue, and since my brother doesn't actually knows how to differentiate a watch from an orange, ive sent him a picture of an explorer I and the " do not under any circumstance spend more than 70 usd on it...". And so he did.. I ended up with a strange explorer that I quite like!.. and it costed 50 usd.... (no idea where he got it, and I don't think he has either).. and being not an expert or even close to that, I wanted to share a few phone pics of my new weird rolex... I would love some opinions about it.. and sorry about the crappy pics Cheers, A.

The outsanding weaving pattern that forms the square and lozenge motif of “Grand Tapisserie” is decoratively engraved in a remarkable way thanks to machines that are half a century old. This highly intricate guillochage captures the light and accentuates the timepiece's geometric relief. I really wonder how the rep industry are able nowadays to replicate this so accurately !!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0uW37FnCLM The brass dial is engraved by a burin (a precision metalwork chisel) that reproduces the motif on a disc attached to the machine, like a pantograph. A pointer rotates across the disc from the periphery to the centre. The system is combined with a tool that forms the little lozenges between the squares,” explains engineer Nicholas Prost, who heads the decorative engraving project. The process takes between 20 and 50 minutes, depending on the dial's diameter. It's a delicate operation. A mere skip is all it takes to damage the piece as the slightest impact is as visible as dust on a mirror. As the 'piquetage' gets closer to the circle's centre, the rhythm gets faster and hails the birth of a brand new dial, ready to be sent out for the finishing processes. Since the birth of Royal Oak in 1972, the guillochage work had been exclusively subcontracted to a dial-work artisan. In order to produce this element in the workshop, the horology brand recovered 40 year old machines in Canada and the United States. The machines were then completely overhauled and improved over the period of a year before they took their place in the manufacturing process 3 years ago. Impressive ! @ all the lucky Royal Oak Rep owners (esspecially the new 15400) Please, feel free to share your expercience .... Enjoy your day ! Xel

Here's a dial on the bay that I am thinking about buying http://www.ebay.com/itm/Blue-dial-for-steel-or-white-gold-Rolex-Submariner-/331034919809?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4d13380381 I need to know; would this fit the Noob V2 SubC or BP ? Also, I don't have a watch-maker so who should I go to to put this together with the Sub i end up buying? (i.e i live in NY) How much would it cost to pay someone for replacing a dial with this? THANKS

The 5513 was produced for around thirty years. Over that time, it saw many dial variations. I would appreciate your help deciding which one to match to this case. It's a gen midcase with serial number removed. Based on its thin profile and original tube, a 24-7000, I would date it to the mid-to-late 60's. Do you agree? A 700 crown screws down perfectly. What dial(s) are correct for it? Thanks!

Hey everyone, thought I'd start a new thread as the previous two were getting a bit cluttered. Dials arrived today! I would have taken more pictures, but I only have a crappy iphone camera to work with atm. First thoughts: I'm amazed at the level of consistency in regards QC. No dials have any discernible print problems - everything looks crisp as it should. I will be setting up a post in the "parts" section, as I have more dials from this batch available. While I'm extremely happy with the outcome of this batch, I will not be doing another run (so please don't ask me). I want to thank all of the preorderer's on rwg that made this possible. If it wasn't for you, this wouldn't have ever picked up steam! Also, big shout out to aero dave for spearheading the preordering

One of my favorite watches is my 1665 DRSD with a gen 1570 under the hood. I've been gathering parts to build a 1665 Comex to complement it for some time. After several setbacks, I decided to pick up an already built 1665 DRSD (yes, I now have 2) with a beautiful 1570 in there as well. As i debate which dial to sacrifice, I'm reaching out to all the experts. Both dials are beautiful but very different. My original one has only a faint tint of yellow in it - almost whitish creamy. The new dial is more yellow/orange. I like them both. I swear they are the same dial except for the color. Opinions, PLEASE!!! Also, although i purchased both with supposed gen crystals, both are very different. I will post pics later but the new one has a greater distortion effect. My old one: My new one: My old one: My new one:

I have a "Tritium service dial" that the seller claimed was genuine, and guaranteed that it was never refinished/relumed. Based on what I saw, I believed it to be a genuine Mk5 1675 dial. Do you agree? Here are a few pics: I checked with the usual suspects (at least what they post online currently): Yuki and Ingod appear to rep Mk4's; their coronets are completely different than mine. NDT's is the closest to the pics I posted above, although the text on NDT's is quite different, and so is the sample dial's back. Phong's website wouldn't let me zoom into the one dial he carries that might be close. My dial appears similar to this one, although my lume is in a little better shape. It also resembles the Mk5 example at this RWG post. What are your thoughts? Are there any tests I can conduct to check and make sure it's actually tritium lumed? Or anything else I can use to verify its authenticity? If it is in fact authentic and tritium lumed, where does that place it value-wise with respect to service dials that use luminova/superluminova? Thanks for your help, and apologies for the noobish questions. Happy 4th!

Hello Gents, I finally decided to add some more color to my collection. Short and simple review on the Porsche Design 6341 PVD Limited Edition. Beautiful dial very accurate to the gen I can't find any flaws. Nice clasp and rubber strap. Made by the Noob factory so the quality is superb. Appears to have double AR with a nice blue hue. I'm very happy with the watch. The only downside as per gen you have to cut the rubber strap to your size which limits resale. I opted to order an extra strap from Toro for this reason. It's equipped with a butterfly deployment buckle which I'm very fond of. Stunning watch and so far I'm enjoying it. Get one while you can the Noob factory has discontinued this model and it will never be available again!