My First Mbw And Info From My Attempt To Mod It

[MacDad22]

This post is meant to serve as a log of my experience when attempting to mod my first MBW, however I have modded other reps and had been practicing up for this for the past couple of weeks.

Background

About 2 weeks I ordered an WM / MBW RED 1680. This was after seeing Ubi's, Edge's, and SHerrington and other phenomonal watches after they had done various upgrades to their watches. As soon as the order was complete I had already devised a plan on what I wanted to do the watch. The mods included:

An OEM 5513 bezel insert. Finally ordered one from a guy in HK for $125. Still waiting for arrival.

A riveted rolex bracelet. Got one off of ebay from a known UK dealer.

An OEM Tropic crystal. Got one off Ebay ( in house and installed ).

OEM springbars and lug holes.

modified CG's to look more like an OEM case.

OEM Crown and Tube..

Refinish anything necessary

So all in I was looking about $900 for the above and various other tools I had to procure. Kind of sick IMO to spend this much on a rep but it was project that would be a challenge. I received the watch yesterday on Oct 2. I had been practicing on other Sub reps ( EL, PT, CN case ) taking them apart, popping and pressing the crystals, removing the crown tube, shaving CG's with handfiles and a dremel attachment, refinishing bracelets and cases.. all kinds of stuff.

Needless to say I was excited about my first MBW watch after 2 years of being involved in the rep world and about 20 reps later :> Well when I opened the parcel the watch came in last night I was in awe of the watch. I will tell you right now that the money spent on this watch is probably some of the best money I've ever spent on a watch. The case, bezel, dial, and bracelet were amazing. The watch looked like a jewel and from inspecting it a whole new appreciation for a replica was born. FYI I had been over the Sub obsession for over a year and had been working on VC, Cartier, and Pan's.

The mod attempt

So this evening on my way home I dropped by my local home depot and picked up the drilling bits necessary for the lugs ( 1.2mm ) and bracelet ( 2.0 mm ) and some 3 in 1 oil. The crystal and springbars had already been delivered. I'm waiting on the rivetted bracelet, OEM crown/tube, and OEM bezel insert. I had decided to do the CG's, drop in the new crystal, and drill the lugs and oyster bracelet tonight.

Well getting the bezel off and the case back was easy. Removing the crown was a little trickier than other reps due to when pushing lightly down on the crown release pin you have to move the crown further out before releasing the pin, but in the end it was not that challenging. Next I removed the movement fastener's, basically 2 screws that keeps two bars in place. My first odd item was the screw closest to the crown has a small piece of s datewheel underneath it. It was the letters "Thur". After removing the movement ring I thought the movement and dial would drop out easily like all the other rep Subs I had practiced on, but nope the dial wouldn't budge a millimeter. After 20 minutes of trying to see if there was some other type of fasterner I decided maybe the crystal had something to do with the dial/movement not coming out.

I decided to switch gears and remove the crystal. On an MBW 1680 there is a crystal ring that has to be removed. From other "Master Mod's" reviewed and logged I knew that a box cutter blade was the best tool to accomplish the job. Well I got the ring up about half way up the crystal. This was a real [censored]. Took about 20 minutes and I nicked the side of the case a couple of times. Well after all this time I had the ring about half way up on the crystal but it appeared to be stuck. Well being the resourceful half ass that I am I decided that the non OEM crystal was worthless and pulled out some needlenose pliers to assist in this task. Well on my second attempt the whole crystal came out with the ring still on crystal. By this time I was perplexed and now had a slight fear that I was in way over my head and headed down a patch that would ruin my beautiful watch and waste all the money and time I had into this project.

Being the optimist that I am I decided now with the dial exposed it was a good time to get the movement/dial out of the case so that it can be protected from dust and other pesky airborne items. Well I found out quickly the crystal had not impacted the dial/movement and that it appeared that the original watchsmith had put sometype of adhesive on the dial because it still wouldn't budge. Things are not looking to bright for me at this point. I cant get the movement out and the crystal ring is stuck on the crystal that came with the watch.

I then made the command decision that I was not going to drill the lugs or bracelet tonight, because I was guaranteed to break a bit off in the case based on my luck so far. I then put the case with dial/movement exposed into a tupperware tub to protect it and went to work on the crystal ring. The needlenose pliers were used again. I wrecked the original crystal, but I did get the ring off in 2 minutes flat. I opened the rolex bag, aligned it and put onto the new case. I then popped out my fairly new Ofrei crystal press to install the crystal. The first thing I noted was the date mag was like perfect as it magnified exactly the datewheel. Success and I was pleased, at least for a brief moment. At this point if I had used my head I would have put vaseline on the new crystal, but I didnt. So I put the crystal ring back on and of course it stuck about half way down. I thought this was a good time to take a break on the ring and think it thru so I then put back together the rest of items that I had taken off so that the case would be back intact completely. After doing this I still had not figured out what to do about the ring and being impatient I decided to use the needlenose pliers again with some foam/sticky tape padding to minimiza case and ring scratches. This did work and the ring is almost back to exact same spot but I think it might be slightly ( very slightly ) raised. I did scrach the case back a little and the ring, but after the bezel is reattached no one will see the ring. All in all things were better, but not great.

Lastly, I was going to hand file the CG's and did so. I have more work to do on the CG's, but it will wait until the new crown and tube are in, but the look better that they did originally. Also I need to buy a tube remover tool as I dont want to scratch the tube threads as I have done so on other reps with the needlenose pliers ( :> you seeing a trend here yet? ). So I put the crown back in and the bracelet on. Fired the movement back up and admired the watch again. Dammit this watch is like a fine woman. This analogy relates to visualization and not physical interaction :>

Have any of you experienced trials and tribulations with your MBW's? All my other rep mod's have gone smoothly, but granted I've only done a handful of watches.

I will post pics after the insert and other items come in to show my work. I hope it will be somewhere in the same league as others, but I've got a ways to go.

Lastly in summary. Put some vaseline or other non abrasive lube for a tropic crystal before removing or installing the crystal ring. Also be patient.

MacDad

[kingkitesurf]

Great story... nice reading....

A few tips however.... sounds like impatience is your biggest enemy.

Take one mod at the time... Why not leave the crystal off when you mod CG's... You will not damage the crystal when your file slips... I'd personally keep the crystal replacement for last. Second... indeed use the silicon grease when installing the crystal / inserting the ring. Tools is the key word when modding... I myself have messed things up not using right tools (e.g. overpushed stem releases and messing my old tube). Good tools are essential...

Anyway it sounds like you have a beautiful piece now...

[yt74]

That is a great post, somebody should sticky it!

[davethecat]

try my lughole "lessons learned". It sounds like we had the same sorts of luck

http://www.rwg.cc/members/index.php?showto...p;hl=davethecat