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Red and white


FxrAndy

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As you all know when you get the vintage Rolex bug it bites hard, After the white 1680 i made a red and white 1665 but had to sell those to pay for a bike repair, but with the knowledge, experience and parts gained i started another project a red 1680, this is a birth year watch as i originally intended as the whites appeared in 74 and i was born in 70 along with the hacking 15xx movements, the details are as follows:-

MBW 1680 case, marked 1680 not 5513

lugs drilled

crown guards modded inside and out back and front to get rid of the droop to the back

my old scratched clarks 127 crystal fitted

new gaskets

MBW crown turned down to give the appearance of a 702 crown and to give a bit of distance from the case (i was surprised how easy and effective this looks to me, i would appreciate any comments about the angle on this, i would have like to rep the cripmed look but could not work out how to do it.

Faded MBW insert with a home made pearl that i turned out of a square of the crapy MBW crystal, this took a lot of time to get right and turning things this small is a bit of an art in its self (if any eu members want to come in on a group buy of O frie pearls let me know)

relumed the dial and gave it a bit of a coat of matt spray but it looks a bit to glossy to me so i may do this again.

MBW 93150 hollow link bracelet and 455B endlinks drilled for gent spring bars.

And that is about it, i am leaving the white date wheel and 2834 movement in there. rater than fitting a slow beat, a 1970s one could have been hacking and the date wheel changed on service.

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Thanks for looking guys

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Nice work Andy ( as usual ) . :thumbsupsmileyanim:

I don't have any experience with the angle of the crown but it looks great to me.

Could we get some better profile shots of the new beauty i would like to see the crown position and crystal form the side.

Nice work wear it well.

Carpe Diem

Cats

( by the way when do you start with a 1675 )

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I have one pearl on the way from a friend but i am going to investigate other options on these as i am sure they are not exclusive to Otto frie so give me a bit of time and i will get back on this issue.

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Andy, I'm very happy you have the Rolex passion now!

You're doing very well in building them.

Sure I'd prefer gen crown, but come on, the result of yours is very very realistic in my opinion.

I have to build a new 1680 with Tribal as you know.

So it's time to start to look for a new white dial ;)

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Thank you Stephane, i will keep my eyes open for a white dial for you.

Thanks for the comments on the crown, as Freddy said gen crowns and tubes would be the best solution but a gen 702 crown and tube could cost the same as the watch again and are not that easy to find. This is a cheep and easy (with a lathe) solution.

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I like what you did with the crown. I guess you could carefully do this with a dremel also. It gives you the old Triplock/702ish look. I think the newer 24-703 crowns look out of place on the old 5513-1680-1665 watches.. Im going to try to dremel down one of my extra gen 703's right now and see how it looks. I guess you just have to be careful not to mangle the threads too much since the outer wall the other crown where the threads are is pretty thin...

Dizz

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Andy, marsupilami is doing, or did a batch of the 702 tubes and he's over in the EU- Germany. They were in the $30-35 range as I recall. Moelarrycu- Mark Greenberg- on ebay has the 702 crowns for $69-79 from time to time. So you could put together a 702 crown and tube setup for a little over $100.

Kinda like the PMWF insert and Ofrei pearl- another $100! But I bought a used 5513 service insert from Italy for $80- keep your eyes peeled on the VRF market.

Watch looks good!

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Thanks Aligoat

the way i am thinking is that using gen crowns and tubes like i did on my white 1680 and the two 1665 and PMWF inserts and OFrei pearls makes what is a fun replica a pretty expensive watch in the end.

I know one member has invested over €1000 in a 1680, right now i am thinking i can make a pretty good looking watch for €400 plus time and a bit of lume, I am lucky that i can do all the work myself but when you send it off for this to be modded and that, postage ect these are getting a lot of value.

Any way got to go i am working on a 5512 that i want to finish before tonight

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