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I thought I'd share this Tudor 7922 big crown build that I finally have near completion after a few months of messing around with cheaper builds. Added are some thoughts that might help others since this is a very uncommon build. Specs: Rubyswatch 6538 case ETA 2451 18000 bph, non hacking DIY movement ring from a silix case Athaya 8mm crown and tube Vietnam 7922 gilt dial, aged by hologramet Jkhorological hands Default Vietnam plexi shaved ~1mm Phong insert and pearl Tropic dive strap total cost: ~$1400 Notes: •Case I've noticed that a lot of people advise that the dial is the most critical component of a rep and that you should start with the best available dial and go from there. I'd have to disagree and say that the case is the most important part. Before getting the Vietnam case I tried the HR and Silix, and both of them nearly put me off from wanting to continue wearing a vintage Sub. They're just too big in diameter and don't look right on the wrist. To me the early Submariners are basically regular sized watches from the era (read: SMALL by today's standards) but with an oversized case in order to make them super durable and functional for divers. It's a specific look. When you watch the early Bond movies, the 6538 does not look like a big, eye-catching watch. There are certainly some awesome looking HR and Silix builds, but to me the 1-2mm dial and case difference is a deal breaker. I'm probably in the minority here as I'm partial to smaller, vintage, particularly military watches. With that said, I think ability to accept gen parts is an even bigger factor. If you bother to wear a rep watch in the first place, you're probably attentive to detail, and over time you are going to want to improve your build. The cheaper cases are dead ends in that regard. Getting the Vietnam case opened my eyes, not only to how elegantly designed the early sub cases are, but to how easy it is to improve on this build with gen parts in the future. Regarding Rubyswatch, this case was not perfect. The finish is spectacular: chamfers on the lugs are excellent in my view, lug holes are perfect, caseback and bezel function smoothly, engravings look great, and everything is brushed or polished as it should be. There is a minor flaw in the way one of the lugs is cut on its inside edge, but I'm being very picky there. Unfortunately the crown and tube I got were very bad. They didn't screw together properly and I stripped the threads in about one day. The tube itself was bare inside with no gasket and the crown didn't fit snugly as it should. Worse, the tube hole drilled into the case itself is not straight, it inclines as it heads into the watch, so that when I installed the Athaya tube it was noticably drooping downward off the side of the watch and would never have aligned with a movement stem. Long story short, I managed to bend the Athaya tube upward, probably about 3°, to exit the case properly perpendicular to the "ground", and the crown functions as it should. Despite the trouble, I would recommend dealing with Rubyswatch, I'm sure she would have accepted a refund or gotten a replacement if I had asked. Just be prepared to do some work if you want to pay half of Phong's prices. As far as this build goes, from reading around (here and VRF) I determined that early Tudor 7922s from ~1956 were cased with 6538 cases where the 6538 is struck out on the caseback and replaced with 7922. The 7922 big crowns were perhaps all military issue watches (MN, USN, etc.) total numbering in the 1-200's. There is a lot of confusion because later on, ~1958, Tudor seems to have released small crown subs labeled 7922 and big crown subs labeled 7924. Interestingly, the later 7924 used its own case that looks slightly fatter and has more bull-nosed lug ends from the side (more like a 5513 or 7928). So repping the 7924 seems like a lot of work since no one makes that case. I would need to fix the caseback and between the lug engravings to make this case totally accurate. I should also age it but so far I can't bring myself to do it. •Movement It was a pain in the ass to get this movement working after I lost the correct cannon pinion but the slow beat rate is something you immediately notice in the gen watches so it was worth the effort. Hopefully it won't cause trouble for a while. Originally from an interaktiv build so thanks to him. •Crown/tube The Athaya stuff looks and feels awesome and was really a lifesaver as shown above •Dial These are really hard to find so thanks to hologramet, who I think did an excellent job aging this one. As far as accuracy goes, it doesn't make sense that a big crown would have a 100m dial, but sure enough you can find several examples of seemingly original big crown Tudors bearing the shallower depth rating. Perhaps not many people build crownguard-less Tudor subs because there is really no accurate dial. The Tudor script in particular is different on these compared to the more famous 7928, which all the rep dials do a great job mimicking. See the difference, gen on top: The correct font is taller, thinner, and more calligraphic. They all look like that. It's subtle but a dead tell once you notice it. I realized this too late and just decided to go with the most expedient and nice-looking dial available, since not even Minh Quy seems to get it right. Let me know if you are aware of a more accurate dial... I may try to print one in the future. •Hands JKhorological are the best cheap hands I think. The proportions are off but it's not clear to me if anyone does better, even for ridiculous prices. Are the Michael Young hands still available? Hands are important to me and I might have to spring for gen eventually if I can ever find them. •Crystal The crystal coming with the case seems fine to me, although it was way too tall so I sanded it from the base. Maybe I need to go even a bit further? •Bezel The teeth on the Vietnam bezel don't seem totally accurate but I'm just so happy they aren't the big ugly square Silix ones The Phong insert I got also isn't totally accurate, it should have a narrower triangle and the pearl should sit higher. I really haven't seen one exactly like this on a gen watch, but I love the early, no minute hashmark and rounded font look. Almost all of the gen 7922s I've seen have either the round font/red triangle/minute mark insert or the later squared font with serifs insert that was undoubtedly a service replacement. All three I've described can look really nice and it was a hard choice. I bleached this one for a couple min and I'm really happy with the result. No more [censored] gluing in crappy Silix inserts!! Oh, and I definitely need to do something about the stock pearl!!. Not sure what yet as all my aging strategies would get washed off over time.. •Strap I really like the tropic straps even though they didn't appear until the 60s somewhere. This will be an unpopular opinion but I don't understand using a leather strap on a dive watch, leather is not going to hold up around seawater. But I do have to admit that some of the brown and black ones can look really nice. I'll eventually get a 7206 from Yuki or ruby and deal with that, but this project has already broken the bank for now. ____________ Well that about covers it. Hopefully this was an interesting or helpful read for a few of you. I'd like to hear what you guys think; there are some incredible builds around here and I wish I had stumbled upon this forum sooner. I appreciate the knowledge base here that helped me with the build and hope I'm adding to it a bit.

Here is what can be done without a single expensive part: Silx case, HR dial and hands, Athaya crown and Yuki bracelet. The case was totally reshaped, the steel bezel was reshaped, then sandblasted and brass plated. The hands were stripped down to the bear brass and the Yuki bracelet was repolished for a more accurate look. A very honest watch with lots of character !!!!

Specs: Silix case 6538 Athaya Brevet crown and tube Swiss 2836 movement Tiger concept second hand Clarks vintage Tudor hands set Helenarou 6538 dial Sternkreuz ST19 Rivet bracelet Nato RAF $ Fat Springbars Done thus far: case tapped to accept Athaya crown and tube, lug holes drilled to accept fat spring bars, lugs hand chamfered, plexy trimmed. pending to do: Relume 3 hands and dial to match, modify bezel shape to slim and change profile, age the insert install Athayas pearl with matching lume, remove engravings and engrave with better fonts, make a true gilt 4 liner solid gold dial. I wanna say thanx to many members that helped me out with tips and sharing knowledge and with their posts, hope its doesn't bother since it's an often seen build thread, prices are by memory to encourage other members to try their builds. so the pics: Silix disassembly Drilling and tapping the case and lug holes Athayas crown and tube ready to install crown replaced Chamfering the lugs some polishing and not chamfering the lug holes Lug holes not chamfered To be continued....

Hi Gents, just some pics from this morning let there be GILT!

Hello Everybody! I just joined this Forum and came from RWI. I had a similar post over there but I want to be a part of this community as well so I am sharing it with you, too. It is my first attempt at modding a watch, let me know what you think about it. I started with a watch from m2m which was basically a Silix BC case, brevet crown, DG movement, stock plexi, mercedes hands from raffle. I don't know where the dial came from. I than read somewhere that you can make really nice vintage dials if you just grill it in the oven... It should be noted that I am really in to vintage watches and like it if the dial of a watch is quite aged and has a nice patina. Okey, so I disassembled the watch put the dial in the oven patiently waited besides it for about 10 minutes and nothing happened, so I went away for about 1 minute, came back and it looked like this: The watch simply looked like it was tied to an Afghanistan goats back for 30 years as someone at RWI said. And its true. It looked like a damaged watch. So I decided to further work on it. I got a raffles dial via m2m and while I was waiting for it I further worked on the case. I tried to do the chamfers and the general profile of the case: Even though I liked the case back than I still wasn't quite satisfied with the results. I really like fat chamfers like on the 6200 and actually saw a few 6538 with very wide chamfers. So much variation within those references... The case still didn't have the right look so I further modded it. By that time the raffles dial arrived and since the insert wasn't looking good I got another one that was slightly better. The hands were some I got from StoneP a few months back: As mentioned above I liked well aged dials. That was the complete opposite of what I wanted so I tried to age the dial and hands further, give it a little texture and decided to cut wide chamfers like I wanted from the beginning. I also changed the crystal to a flatter one: I also grilled the bezel retaining ring to give it a more gen look and drilled the lug holes to 1.3mm if I remember correctly since the stock ones where to small. I couldn't find a white lollipop hand that would fit my movement so I painted mine white and aged it a little to match the dial and other hands: After that the new insert arrived. I took of the lume pearl and aged it a tiny little bit, maybe I will do more on that. I also polished the chamfers a bit more: Since the current crown sucks, I decided that I want to get the Athaya brevet crown. I dissembled the watch and drilled and tab the case. Sadly the tube broke when I wanted to screw of the crown, so I ordered a new one. Still have to wait for that one to arrive. I also got the Sternkreuz HW304 crystal. All parts are now waiting for the crown to arrive... It should also be noted that the only tools I used for the case one was my hand drill, some sandpaper, a simple file and cape cod for the polish. Here is a picture of my little baby Sorry for the long read. Will keep you guys updated on the process. Let me know what you think! Looking forward to this community. Cheers, Limer

Hi Gents ! For those of you interested in 50'Subs and their evolution, here are few shots borrowed from P. STAHL Instagram, about one of his recent acquisition : a beautiful military version of our beloved Ref. 6538. Take a look to that bezel, "prototype-lly" made to be even easier turning around in deep water missions for the MOD divers. Big crown, "german silver" Bezel and Red Depth dial... Cheers!

Hi Gents, When I first got myself in the RepWorld, it was mainly related to early Bond Movies: I was looking for - as many of us - to replicate Connery/Broccoli famous wristwatch. From that time, my taste evolved and I ended with one 6200 and one 6538. But that's not the point here. Here are two detailed screenshots I took from Goldfinger and Thunderball BR-rip, we all know about: From what I can see, this is not - as some of us use to believe - a Gilt Dial & Hand Set but rather a Service Dial (white and printed) and a Silver Hand Set. Is that it, or am I missing something here ? That would be the question I'm asking you, as I never really find a good answer/explanation to that... question

Hey all, I'm exploring a Big Crown build. This will be a first. I understand that not all movements fit into the case properly, and therefore you either need the right movement or the proper adapter. That said, when exploring Yuki's store, I saw that the dials said " 6538 Dial adapted for ETA " I noticed this dial was 28mm vs 27 mm on the standard dial for the case. My question is....what does the dial have to do with the movement? Also, if the case is a certain size...how can a bigger dial work? Anyway, I'm sure this question shows my ignorance. Can anyone explain whether the dial matters vs movement? why? Thank you all for your watch wisdom.

Good afternoon, Was not quite sure where to put this. I pre ordered one of PB Dad's Heritage HS01 back in February of 2014. Put a $400 deposit down on the watch. He is now going to build it. Here is the thread from RG http://www.repgeek.com/showthread.php?t=220825 He is only making 20 of them and will not sell/make anymore. I am no longer interested in the watch. If you are interested you would actually take my spot and buy directly from him and he would warranty it and ship it directly to you. PM me if interested. Thanks

Hi all, Have a question here regarding the HR (helenarou) 6538 Big Crown from the raffle. The tube protrudes from the case, not complaining, just looks a little odd. It's an ETA movement. Looks like if it didn't protrude the bezel would smack the crown. Is there a fix for this? Better case option?

Big Daz does it again! It started with me reading about some guys here, over at RWI and RWG who was very pleased with Big Daz handywork on the dials of their vintage builds. After contacting Daz he consulted me on getting a Helenarou 6538 and we agreed about shipping it directly from Helenarou to him, and after him working his magic it landed on my doorstep yesterday. It took about two weeks from me ordering it from Helenarou to me getting it modded by Daz. Verdict: Damn I'm impressed! The dial looks stunningly beautiful and the case/bezel is lightly aged to prefection. Also he was easy to communicate with and always friendly. Simply a pleasure doing business with the guy!

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!

See it here: http://bit.ly/1dV7wAF Gen or not? What does it end up selling for?