Seen in the wild, an albino 6239

[alligoat]

One of my favorite Rolex watches is undoubtably the 6238. An early purchase was the a7750 powered rep which I got from Puretime back in '06. Here it is on the right next to a 50's Heuer V72 chrono. The 6238 was serviced by Ziggy and has been very dependable ever since. It's biggest fault is the symmetrical pushers on the case.

One of my more recent projects was to build a 6238 with the valjoux movement and a DW 6239 case and the smooth bezel. This project made a stop along the way as a transitional 6238/9 since I was having trouble getting the right smooth bezel. The watch on the left is the V72 powered transitional. The one on the right is the cartel 6238 in a DW 6239/7750 case. I had actually bought an extra cartel 6238 thinking I could use the bezel on a DW case- wrong! So then I got the DW 6239/7750 case and made another transitional- w/correct pushers!

I was enjoying the transitionals, but the redundant bezel situation would sometimes bother me- having the tachymeter scale printed on the dial and on the bezel was just a little much sometimes. Even though I'd seen a gen on VFR with the same set up.

Around this time Chiman turned me on to a book- The Patrizzi Pocket Expert- Cosmograph Daytona Manual Winding. It's a great little book for around $25 and is jambed packed with great pics. At this point, I was realizing that I preferred the pump pushers of the 6239- 6263/5 screw down pushers do nothing for me- but I liked the all silver look of the 6238 dial. When I ran across the 'albino' dialed 6239 in the book, I knew it was something I really wanted. I'd seen it before in Skeet and Urul's book and always liked it

So I sent DW a few pics and asked him if he could have the 'albino' dial made for me. I told him I wasn't in a big hurry and he said he'd see what he could do. A few weeks later he came back and asked me if it would be OK in the 7750 version and I said yes. Lo and behold a few weeks later I received a pic from him

I was pretty excited at that point and quickly sent him money for the watch. Shortly thereafter he sent more pics

The watch arrived about a week and a half later. I must say I'm very pleased- it's just what I wanted. I'm pleased with the dial. The case has the later 6239 'slight bulge' at the crown, but it is barely noticeable. The bracelet is good also, it's a 78350 with 571 end pieces which is a later bracelet, but it compares favorably with the gen 78350/571 on my 6238/9.

All in all, it's been a great transaction with David and he's been a pleasure to deal with, thanks David!

Here's a last pic of the 6238/9 and the albino 6239 together

[lhooq]

I know I keep saying it, but I especially love the way the subdials turned out.

The whole watch is a winner. One more albino amigo for your collection!

[flex]

That's beautful! one of a kind trully amazing

[dieselpower]

Lovely watch. The whole story has me thinking about my current (proposed) 6263 project. I have a cartel 6238 which I intend to cannibalise for the movement. Only trouble is I haven't got a decent non-PN silver dial for the 7750 movement, DW gave me a photo of what he intended to send me and it was very poor quality so he is looking to improve on that. Anyway, seeing these pics is giving me food for thought, if I can not get a decent dial (can anybody help me with this? PM me if so ) I may have to re-think the whole situation, maybe more along these lines. Did DW make more than one albino dial?

[alligoat]

Thanks guys for the kind words.

Diesel, I expect DW to have more of these albino dials. When you consider it's a one color dial, it should actually be easier to produce. And part of my sales pitch to DW was that he could probably sell a bunch of them! There are a few gen 6263 albinos out there, also.

[cls]

What's the Valjoux you used, 72?

[chiman12]

Holy crap! That looks good M! When DW officially starts selling the albino dial, I just might have to build one! Glad to see that you finally picked up the mini guide...by far the best $25 I've ever spent!

[dieselpower]

Would I be right in saying that the steel rep bezel is quite an accurate reproduction of the gen compared to the later black 6263 bezels that are on the market. Just at a quick glance it would appear that the famous 1 1 0 spacing is correct(ish) on your steel bezel and also the gen bezel did not have the 'flattened' "s" in units per hour thus making a watch with a rep steel bezel more accurate to the eye than the 6263 with a flawed black bezel?

[lhooq]

Unfortunately, the superiority of this bezel is not a clear-cut thing. The 110 spacing is good, but the high-rising hash marks and the missing serifs on the sevens are not so good. (Compare with the 300 UPH bezel on alligoat's 6238/9 to see what I mean.) In fact, I seem to remember that DW's old 200 UPH bezels didn't have these problems, so these may be new issues. Of course, this could be just another gen bezel variant, so start leafing through that Patrizzi guide!

[dieselpower]

See what you mean about the nasty sevens and the hash marks. Shame.

[freddy333]

DW's the greatest. Had he not indented the subdials & put a dab of lume at 6, it would have just about fooled me.

As it is, very impressive. Are you going to swap crystals, crowns/tubes & bracelets (for a proper 7205 rivet)?

[alligoat]

The bezel on the V72 transitional is a recent DW bezel also. The oldest DW bezel is currently on the cartel 6238/9- both are 60 over 300's. The albino has the most recent bezel and as LH stated, hash marks and 7's are lacking. I've also found that DW crystals and bezels are about .2mm less in ID/OD than gen/aftermarket crystals. When I fit a gen/decent aftermarket crystal, I end up sanding the inside ID of the bezel around .15-.2mm to get it to fit over the crystal. This takes about 30 minutes to an hour- sand, fit, sand, fit....

What's the Valjoux you used, 72?

The Valjoux is a 72 out of a Wittnauer. I did find the plates on the Heuer are too big and it won't fit in the DW case. Plates on V72's vary, so you need a donor with plates small enough to fit in the DW cases. A V72 in a case less than 36mm will probably fit- the Heuer case is 38mm.

[alligoat]

As it is, very impressive. Are you going to swap crystals, crowns/tubes & bracelets (for a proper 7205 rivet)?

Thanks Freddy. The transitional v72 had a gen crystal in an early pic, now it's a DW. I put on a gen crown and AM tube and a gen 78350/571. First order of business will be a service for the 7750/60 and I might swap out to a rivetted bracelet. I have a period gen, can't remember what it is- maybe a 7205 w/ unmarked ends? It's not my favorite. Crystal and crown in due course- gen T-21's are getting too expensive these days- may just opt for a jandk aftermarket. The rep crown on the 6239 isn't too bad-far better than the one on my original cartel 6238!

[TeeJay]

I really do like how that looks, a fantastic build, kudos indeed

[robertk]

That is a fantastic re-creation. Congratulations!!

[dluddy]

Lovely rendition.