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Hi crazy watch lovers When I begun that build I made myself a promise that I would not create this thread before having a complete story to tell. But I'm too impatient so I have to post now ... and I will write and post eveything else later all along the builsing process. So what is this all about?... about an A/6538 ... a "Burford" one specifically Question was ... what should I do to wear this watch? 1st option was to become VERY wealthy and lucky enough to find one to buy ... 2nd option was to have some imagination plus a little patience and build one. Unfortunately, as far as I know, a correct 6538 case that already can receive a 5513 bezel costs about $800 to $1500 - totally out of my budget. Fortunately !!! I have A BUNCH of imagination and A BUNCH of patience. So here is what is already done : 1 - start with a Silix 6538 midcase ... $ 45 but NOT accepting a 5513 bezel assembly 2 - shave the rehaut and graft a new one ... "gen-specs" an "easy" mod as long as you know how to measure, design, draw ... and have a friend who own a lathe and is OK to provide some help 3 - build a Burford dial strating from scratch ... and while I was in the building a vintage dial I decided to make it "Tropical" So here I am now, with still a lot of work to do but the most difficult parts of that build (grafting the rehaut + building the dial) are already done. Building the custom bezel won't be easy but it's already in progress ... the rest will be a peace of cake So let's talk about THE CASE The Silix 6538 midcase have been rworked on a lathe and the original rehaut have been "shaved". A new rehault has been turned, on the lathe too. I did all the technical design but the lathe work has been done by my friend @mascob (not a member here unfortunately). @mascob sent me back the reworked midcase and the rehaut and I managed to make it all fit together. Here are some pics Silix 6538 midcase with the new rehaut already "grafted" + the T19 and the 5513 bezel assembly Same midcase with the T19 and bezel assembly on ... the bezel turns perfectly A "nice" insert (will change that one) and the home-made 26mm Burford dial that I'll put in that case About the ... BURFORD DIAL making Well ... that was "almost" easy I already had designed (for a nice forum member) a crispy Burford dial some months ago, using both Photoshop and Illustrator (dozens of hours searching for good pics + dozens of hours working on the design using a 5000ppi definition). That design was black and withe only and done for a standard Silix case using a 29mm dial so I : 1 - resized everything using Illustrator so the design could fit a 26mm dial (25.8mm exactly as the Burdford dials where supposed to be reprinted on on 6538 Gilt dials) 2 - spent about a dozen of hours (again) using Photoshop to design a "blank" tropical 26mm dial 3 - copied the white parts of the first design and pasted that on the "tropical" design 4 - printed on clear decal paper and protected with 2 coats of matte varnish 5 - prepared a 26mm dial with a "cream" paint ... randomly applied so that some areas where more or less clear or dark ... then sanded finely to get an almost smooth surface (not perfect) 6 - applied the decal on the dial and sprayed 2 coats of matte varnish ... each coat dried for about 24 hours 7 - sprayed a 3rd coat of matte varnish and used an hairdryer spo that the varnish dried faster on some areas 8 - sprayed a 4th coat of matte varnish and used the hairdryer again ET VOILA ... Now the next fun part of that build will be to put a 25.8mm dial in a modded 6538 midcase with a 26mm case opening WITHOUT holding it with a Gen movement It could be, theoretically, impossible ... But there are ways, you know, and I have a few more tricks up my sleeves and ... THAT is another part of the story that I still have to write ... just hope you liked this one

Inspiration: a 5513 (5**/76, delivered to the Royal Navy in March 1976) the hommage (low cost but time consuming) dressed in grey:

Are these a new product? I haven't seen them before

I thought I'd share my initial attempts at putting together a couple of watches. I've only recently started to dip my toe in the rep market but being slightly obsessive about things, dipping my toe in was never going to be enough, so I ended up diving in head first. I've always loved divers and Rolexes, so the Rolex milsub was a perfect place to start. I started by reading all the posts on the forum about people's milsub projects and took things from there. I started by buying a couple of 5517s from dealers with a view to using the cases and any other decent parts to build up at least one fairly good milsub. I then used all the information on this forum to research the various parts that would go towards making at least a half-decent rendition of a 5517. Some of the milsub work documented here is brilliant and this gave me inspiration and something to aim for. I'd never even removed the back of a case from an automatic watch when I started tinkering, so there was a distinct possibility that things would go pear shaped. I bought a cheap set of the various tools that I thought I would need and went from there. The whole experience has been a baptism of fire. Many evenings my wife has had to listen to me screaming and cursing when things have not been going well and to be honest things went badly more than they went well. However, I have learnt a lot from my mistakes. I lost count of the number of times that I ended up crawling on my hands and knees looking for a dropped watch hand or a screw. I've knackered a movement, cracked a couple of crystals, ruined sets of hands and bent a bezel insert so much that it snapped but, like I say, I have learnt a lot from my mistakes and have slowly developed an understanding that working with watches is all about patience and finesse. The result of my ham-fisted tinkering is a couple of milsubs that I know are not perfect but do, at least, reflect aspects of the original and give me decent starting points for further tinkering. Specs: The case on the watch with the fixed lug bars and darker lumed dial is a HR 5517. The case on the watch with the lighter lumed dial is from Joshua. Both dials and sets of hands are from HR. The movement in the darker lumed watch is a Swiss slow beat eta. The movement in the lighter lumed watched is an Asian eta. Both crowns are the ones that came with the cases. On the darker lumed watch, the bezel and insert is from WSO. On the lighter watch, the bezel is from WSO and the insert is from roleyshop on eBay. Both crystals are Clarks Tropic 19. Both straps are Phoenix natos- one in black, one in admiralty grey. I know that the second hands could do with trimming, the bezel pearls should be replaced with acrylic ones, one of the cases needs fixed lug bars and each watch could do with a bit of subtle ageing to improve the overall look. These are things that I'll look at when I've lived with them for a bit. Although intensely frustrating at times, I've found the whole process extremely rewarding. It has all been inspired and guided by the amazing people that have shared their expertise and advice on this forum, so many thanks to all. Apologies for the 'iPad photography'. PS The last photo is my highly disorganised workstation, which I have subsequently sorted out into a state which is not quite so embarrassing...

Hi, I'm obviously new here but have been lurking on the rep forums for a little while. Just picked up a pure time 5517 to get my feet wet and have a couple questions that I haven't seen asked anywhere. People seem to be using ETA or DG movements that have close but not exact beat counts. I'm thinking I'll pull the ETA2846 out and use an old omega caliber 552 or 565 or 5xx, but I'm wondering why this isn't common practice. The 5xx has the exact same bph as the1520/1530 and is at least as accurate as the gen rolex movement. Has anyone done this yet? Size is very close on the omega as well, and obviously seamaster hands will fit since this is the engine in the seamaster 300. For anyone out there that's in the know, what problems do you foresee? i.e. is there some issue with adapting the winding stem to the crown or will the omega sit at the wrong depth? Thanks in advance for your insight. If things go well I may end up taking the $650 yuki case plunge and build myself a franken. Until then an omega powered rep sounds cool to me. Jake