Need help with dispute about Genuine crown/Tube

[Justasgood]

By request, I am helping a member assemble a 1680. He bought an MBW case(minus bezel assembly) sold as having Gen Crown/Tube.

Submitted here for your opinions, I feel that the crown and perhaps the Tube ae aftermarket>

Gen tube for comparison:

Gen crown for comparison:

Thoughts?

Thanks,

Kurt.

[ubiquitous]

Crown looks legit. Looks like the same crown as mine, which is a newer 703:

Tube may be aftermarket, though difficult to tell from the pic. I've seen poorly installed gen tubes with rounded inner spline teeth as well... However, that's usually more prevalent with aftermarket pieces...

[Justasgood]

Internal of crown:

Tube:

My issue with the crown are the light relief of the stamping and the internal round gasket look less than Rolex quality.

As for the tube,

I cannot get 2 O-rings to seat internally and I have never had that issue with any Gen tubes. This one will only accept 1 O-ring.

[Justasgood]

Crown looks legit. Looks like the same crown as mine, which is a newer 703:

Tube may be aftermarket, though difficult to tell from the pic. I've seen poorly installed gen tubes with rounded inner spline teeth as well... However, that's usually more prevalent with aftermarket pieces...

Hmm, yes, it looks very similar.

Thanks Ubi.

[TeeJay]

I don't know why, but I have a hunch that they may be after-market, but, the person who sold them, probably did think they were genuine...

[Justasgood]

I don't know why, but I have a hunch that they may be after-market, but, the person who sold them, probably did think they were genuine...

Certainly, as the original seller is a solid member and a gret guy.

All the crowns I get(shown in my examples) are brand new and in Rolex packages straight from my watchmaker.

The Dots seem low to the crown and the crown looks a bit thin.

[ubiquitous]

Crown looks fine to me- I've had a number of these with the smaller crown, and all from a source that I can confirm as legitimate.

Tube, after what you've stated above, may very well be aftermarket.

[Justasgood]

Crown looks fine to me- I've had a number of these with the smaller crown, and all from a source that I can confirm as legitimate.

Tube, after what you've stated above, may very well be aftermarket.

Well....'nough said on that front. Perhaps your source has an oldeer supply?

The Tube looks like at some point it had a Gen look, but the internal gasket issue colors it aftermarket in my book.

To my knowlegde, The 703 tube has always had 2 internal O-rings.

[ubiquitous]

The smaller coronet is the newer style crown; the longer coronet crowns are older. Here's a Z serial 116520 with the same crown:

116520

[jmb]

Coronet looks to have the right shape, here is an aftermarket "made as gen" crown and tube on my Noobmariner and you can see that the "spikes" of the coronet are considerably skinnier than yours.

[Justasgood]

Thanks to all.....consider this case closed.

Regards,

Kurt

[freddy333]

It all looks gen to me. To date, the only Triplock tubes I have seen with those splines running around the inside circumference (for the Rolex tube tool) are gen tubes

Your crown looks like a current Triplock, which has a bit of space between the bottom of the coronet & the 3 dots (earlier Triplocks had the dots right below the coronet)

[Justasgood]

Thanks freddy.

[ubiquitous]

I've had aftermarket tubes with the inner splines along the top opening, and also inside the actual tube at the base, a la the old design.

Kurt- How does the crown feel threading down on the tube? Smooth like gen?

[Justasgood]

I've had aftermarket tubes with the inner splines along the top opening, and also inside the actual tube at the base, a la the old design.

Kurt- How does the crown feel threading down on the tube? Smooth like gen?

Like you, I have seen After market tubes that are splined...but the tail section(that threads into the case) was thinner and shorter.

I snapped nearly everyone I tried to install.

It does feel smooth-ish...I am still confused as to why I cannot get 2 O-rings to seat in the tube as all my known gens take.

[ubiquitous]

Most aftermarkets that I've seen have a very long thread section where it mates to the case. In some cases, almost too long.

It didn't take me long to stop using aftermarket tubes and switch back to gen. Minimal cost savings and big difference in installation, feel, function, etc. For those reasons alone, gen just makes more sense to me.

[freddy333]

Sorry, let me clarify what I meant by 'aftermarket' with respect to Triplock tubes & tube tool splines - I was referring to the tubes that come in rep watches or those sold by rep watch sellers. The aftermarket tubes sold by the likes of cousins (which sells the longer tube version) & ofrei (which sells the shorter version) are Swiss-made (not Asian) & are similar in quality to the gens. My point was that I have never seen a rep watch that came with a tube that has splines for the tool at either end (splines at the inner end are the old style tube). So if you have a tube with splines, it is most likely either a gen or a Swiss-made aftermarket, which looks, functions & feels the same as the gen tube. At least, that has been my experience.