Daytona 6239 FAP: Peruvian Silver

[lhooq]

F.S. ROLEX 6265 F.A.P. CASEBACK ONLY

Absolutely Original

crazy price !!

euro 2.500

Justin only charged me EUR 1500 for the engraving, so I still come out ahead!

[Justasgood]

eh, it's o.k.

[jmb]

Hmmm, I need to re-evaluate...

[alterego]

I'm speechless after reading your article and seeing the watch you built. Amazing. And, contrary to what purists would argue, it probably gives you a more rewarding feeling than wearing the real thing.

It's been sometime since I thought building watches was so much more fun than buying them (financially and aesthetically). It all started with a gen Rolex Oysterdate 17000 case and bracelet that I bought in a flea market in Peru. I had no difficulty sourcing the dial, hands and bezel, but the problem came when I looked for a the case back and movement. No decent Swiss machine would fit the case nicely. Either they were too small or too large. So I decided to go ahead with a cheap Miyota that I took from a Casio diver I did not use much. It's been two years since then and I'm still looking for the right movement, but this does not preclude me from wearing the watch regularly with pride. Maybe some day I'll bump into Rolex quartz movement, so as to complete the job.

I'm building a Tudor Monaco now, waiting for the handset and stem for the 7734 movement. Next project in line is rebuilding an Omega Seamaster, that needs a gold filled case.

I wrote a much longer than expected reply and I apologize. Rather, I must say again that you have done a wonderful job and that I hope to see you post more insights into this fascinationg adiction

Congrats and wear the Daytona in good health.

Jaime

I'm a latecomer to the vintage Daytona scene. It wasn't until the end of 2009 that I first learned of the existence of a decent manual-wind 6263 rep. On another forum, ChiMan12 had mentioned a $100 Daytona kit, and after some research, I learned about Spinmaster. Spooked by Spin's prices, I did some more research and discovered the source--DW. That lead brought me back to RWG-Rolex, where I learned... Oh, you guys have been at this since 2005! I spent a long time sifting through the archives, downloading photos, bookmarking links, and learning whatever I could about these reps. A lot of those old names are still regular posters today; some have disappeared, while others are taking a break. (I hope... Ubi, come home!)

As happy as I was (and continue to be) with the 7750-powered Daytonas, the idea of a Valjoux 72-based franken was very alluring. The catalyst for the project would be finding that movement, which isn't easy when you're located thousands of miles away from most sellers. In the past year, I've had a bunch of near-misses and a couple of big regrets during my search. The biggest of these were a pair of serviced Clebar chronographs that sold for around $500 each. I doubt we'll ever see V72s at that price again, but those lost movements taught me never to hesitate.

My original concept for this build was a 6239 with a standard black dial. A 'Big Red' 6263 was my old dream, but DW really raised the bar with his 6239. But why a black dial? It was never my intention to collect nothing but silver-dialed Daytonas. I had wanted a black dial for my 6239/7750, but DW was out of stock at the time. Also, I've long admired Freddy's Honpo 6239, especially on brown leather. I wanted a similar look, and even bought an OEM ostrich strap for the project. Here's a mockup of how it might have turned out.

Use your imagination! However, things rarely go according to plan, and a bit of luck turned this build into “Argentona III”.

Movement

For more than a year, my weekly eBay ritual involved running through a long list of vintage Valjoux 72 chronographs. After all, only chumps would bid on a listing with "valjoux 72" in the header! This wasn't a quick and easy road, of course, and it wasn't until February that I found a re-listing of a LeJour with a very fair BIN price. It turned out that the original auction's winner had bailed, and the seller had just re-listed for a quick sale. With the help of a very good and trusted friend, I was able to pounce on it. Very big thanks to alligoat, without whom I could not have started this project.

Say goodbye to the rather nice LeJour:

And here is its heart, in all its column-wheely, switch-and-geary, chronograph-y glory:

Out of curiosity, I ordered DW's set of replacement bridges. A brief review: The chronograph bridge is actually quite nice. The train bridge is not so good, with poor spacing on the text and a stained-looking surface. The balance bridge is fair, but rough around the edges. They all look terrible in macros, though.

In the end, I didn't install any of them, primarily in the interest of reliability.

Fixing the movement to the case was a trickier task than expected, and the V72 was prone to shifting around. My watchsmith's first attempt involved trimming the LeJour's movement ring to fit inside the DW case. I was surprised it even squeezed in, but the movement didn't line up with the stem. Eventually, he settled on two clamps (one beneath the balance, one above the column wheel) and a semi-circular shim. So far, so good, as it's keeping good time and the chronograph has just counted 12 hours without stoppage.

Case

After looking over my available options, I decided to go with DW because his case lists for about a tenth of Jewelry & Watch's 6239. Also, it's a pretty damn good case, whereas Phong's is a repurposed 6263.

My biggest problem with the DW 6239 case is what I've often referred to as "The Tumah". (See: Schwarzenegger, A. Kindergarten Cop, 1990.) There's simply too much metal on the crown-side, and it results in a shelf protruding beneath the bezel. This is correct on the 6263, but not for the earlier Daytonas. (I realize there are two versions of the genuine 6239 case, but the second series is really more of a pimple beneath the crown.)

Another issue I wanted addressed was the overall pointiness and sharpness of the case. I've had the good fortune to examine and handle a few genuine 6239s in the past year, and one feature that stands out is the bluntness of the lugs compared to the newer 6263s. Some of this "softness" is due to age, but there are significant differences between the two case designs.

So I contacted the Lathemaster General, jmb, and asked him to excise the unsightly lump, blunt the lugs, smooth all edges, and give the case a trip to his legendary bucket of metal shavings. In contrast to my previous Daytonas, I wanted a well-used look.

Not long before Justin received my case, he had bought himself a nice CNC rig. I was determined to see it put to good use. My first idea was to replicate the first-generation 6239 bezel. (That's a 300UPH with no dots and a lot of radial lines.) Unfortunately, engraving a round, sloped surface would require an expensive upgrade of the rig. Back to flat surfaces, then, and there really was only one engraving I could think of: That of the Peruvian Air Force. You'll have to forgive me for not going into the history of FAP Rolexes, but there are better tellings of that story elsewhere on the web.

I sent J a pile of photos and let him go to work. Here, Dr. J administers rough medicine to the hapless DW case:

And these pictures should make it clear just how extensive the surgery was. The entire crown side, from lug-tip to lug-tip, was shaved away, moving the crown inboard by nearly one whole crown-width. Missing are the pusher indents you would see on the gen, but this is really a fault of the case. Compared to the gen, the DW case sides are slightly thicker (from bezel to caseback), while the pushers are situated slightly higher (i.e. closer to the bezel). The indents you see on the gen are the bottoms of the pusher counterbores. On the DW, these indents don't reach the bottom of the case sides.

Compare the DW 6239/7750's "shelf" with the crown-side of the modified case:

It took Justin a few tries to get the engraving right. Early experiments were performed on an aluminum sheet, but once he got the bit size right, it was onto hard steel. As a final touch, J filled in the letters with a fine pen, to simulate the chipping and faded enamel seen in genuine FAP engravings.

I'm not Peruvian, nor do I have any particular affinity for their Air Force, but I get a big smile every time I take the Daytona off and see the caseback. I'd call it a great success for jmb and his new rig.

Dial

As previously mentioned, I started off planning to use a DW dial--standard black, with a white 'DAYTONA' at 6 o'clock. Nice enough, but with a few key annoyances:

1. Flat subdials: There's not even a hint of dishing. This wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the thick circular indent marking the "bottom" of the subdials.

2. Coronet: As Freddy and a few others have done before, I meant to replace the DW coronet with a genuine piece. I'd even bought a few old dials as potential donors, though all of these had the tighter-lipped Beyeler coronets, rather than the correct, wide-mouthed Singer.

3. Indices: This became an obsession of mine for several weeks. The metal hour markers on DW's dials are conspicuously flat--less than half as tall as they are on the gen. Really anal stuff, but I was determined to replace them either with newly fabricated pieces, or modified blocks from a Datejust dial. I never did figure out a solution, but an alternative presented itself.

While trawling eBay for parts, I found a listing for a "refinished 6239 dial". Ho-hum, right? But it was a silver 6239 with a wide 'DAYTONA'. As far as I knew, none of our usual "refinishing" friends (i.e. Phong, Yuki, and NDT) carried such a dial. Upon further investigation, I soon realized that it was an honest-to-goodness refinished dial i.e. a genuine dial restored. mcotter and alligoat helped me verify the dial, so I bid. I'm certain that the "refinished" tag made it a much easier auction for me to win.

It didn't look so good in the listing. The text looked rough and I was turned off by the slight greenish tinge to the lume dots. But I quickly spotted several tells, and they were directly related to my planned mods of the DW dial: First was the genuine Singer coronet, which has never been replicated properly by anyone. Next were the tall hour markers. As you can see in the picture, these are almost as high as Datejust blocks. Finally, as rough as the edges of the RCD looked, the layout of the text was identical to documented gens. The letters on the left half looked bolder than the right, and my guess is that most of the restoration happened there.

What I couldn't see in the listing's pictures were the grooves in the shallow subdials. These are extremely fine (similar to a Speedmaster's, for example) and impossible to see without magnification and appropriate lighting. The print quality within the subdials is excellent.

To be honest, I bought the dial thinking I might send it in for a re-refinishing. I changed my mind as soon as I received it. What a find!

Bezel

Another lucky find at a good price, this 6265 bezel came from a well-known Rolex seller. The listing was six months old, and no one was biting despite regular price drops. It's seen better days, but its level of wear was exactly what I was looking for. I paid a fair price, considering how much gen bezels usually sell for, but cheaper isn't the same as cheap: This was the second-most expensive item in this build, after the LeJour.

If nothing else, the gen shows just how good DW's 300UPH bezel is. Disregard DW's too-tight inner diameter, and you can see how he almost nailed the fonts and spacing. (If only his 200UPHs were as nice.) Also note the brownish color of the paint within the numerals. I thought it was rust when I saw it in the listing, but thankfully this wasn't the case.

I should point out that one of the most difficult parts in the assembly was fitting the gen bezel onto the gen crystal. For some reason, the bezel would pop back up right after being pressed down to the crystal's base. The only way to solve this was by sanding a bit off the bezel's inner diameter. No, not 0.3mm like on DW's bezel, but a very small amount. I don't get it, myself.

Other bits

I bought a pair of pushers from Ofrei for this build, but Justin couldn't get them to screw in. That's when I learned the horrible truth about DW's Daytona pushers: The diameter is correct (0.25mm), but the thread pitch is 0.25, versus 0.2 for the gens and gen-size pushers like Ofrei's or Cousins'.

I tried a Clark's Daytona handset, but it didn't look right. Clark's subdial hands, for example, are skinny needles--wrong for everything but the running seconds on an early 6239. So, I went back to DW's hands. The minute counter needed the Freddy fix i.e. glue on the tube so it would reset consistently. The minute/hour hands weren't relumed, but I stained them with urine and fec iodine diluted with alcohol. Acrylic thinner was used to correct mistakes, without dissolving the lume.

The crown is a genuine 600, while the bracelet is a genuine mutt (7205 with 357 endlinks) transferred from my old 6239/7750. The crystal is a genuine Tropic 21 I've held in reserve for more than a year. It's good to plan ahead! I learned that lesson yet again at the very end of this project. Completion was delayed when I discovered that the LeJour's stem was a bloody Tap 8, rather than the Tap 10 that all good Rolexes use. For the past couple of weeks, I've been as impatient as this famous Peruvian:

Curiously, DW provided a free 7750 stem with his V72 case set. That was... nice of him.

Final Notes

Long post to cap a long build. If you skipped the text just to see the pictures, I forgive you. This is like a dump of my project notes, and a future reference for my own use.

Thanks again to my Texas team, alligoat and jmb, for all your help. Thanks also go to mcotter, ChiMan12, ubiquitous, and freddy333 for advice. Building a V72 Daytona is like joining a small club filled with guys I admire and respect. (Also, I get one really swell watch out of the deal.) It's been long, expensive, frustrating, and exciting. But right now it just feels really good.

Well, that looks familiar!

[alterego]

I'm speechless after reading your article and seeing the watch you built. Amazing. And, contrary to what purists would argue, it probably gives you a more rewarding feeling than wearing the real thing.

It's been sometime since I thought building watches was so much more fun than buying them (financially and aesthetically). It all started with a gen Rolex Oysterdate 17000 case and bracelet that I bought in a flea market in Peru. I had no difficulty sourcing the dial, hands and bezel, but the problem came when I looked for a the case back and movement. No decent Swiss machine would fit the case nicely. Either they were too small or too large. So I decided to go ahead with a cheap Miyota that I took from a Casio diver I did not use much. It's been two years since then and I'm still looking for the right movement, but this does not preclude me from wearing the watch regularly with pride. Maybe some day I'll bump into Rolex quartz movement, so as to complete the job.

I'm building a Tudor Monaco now, waiting for the handset and stem for the 7734 movement. Next project in line is rebuilding an Omega Seamaster, that needs a gold filled case.

I wrote a much longer than expected reply and I apologize. Rather, I must say again that you have done a wonderful job and that I hope to see you post more insights into this fascinationg adiction

Congrats and wear the Daytona in good health.

Jaime

I'm a latecomer to the vintage Daytona scene. It wasn't until the end of 2009 that I first learned of the existence of a decent manual-wind 6263 rep. On another forum, ChiMan12 had mentioned a $100 Daytona kit, and after some research, I learned about Spinmaster. Spooked by Spin's prices, I did some more research and discovered the source--DW. That lead brought me back to RWG-Rolex, where I learned... Oh, you guys have been at this since 2005! I spent a long time sifting through the archives, downloading photos, bookmarking links, and learning whatever I could about these reps. A lot of those old names are still regular posters today; some have disappeared, while others are taking a break. (I hope... Ubi, come home!)

As happy as I was (and continue to be) with the 7750-powered Daytonas, the idea of a Valjoux 72-based franken was very alluring. The catalyst for the project would be finding that movement, which isn't easy when you're located thousands of miles away from most sellers. In the past year, I've had a bunch of near-misses and a couple of big regrets during my search. The biggest of these were a pair of serviced Clebar chronographs that sold for around $500 each. I doubt we'll ever see V72s at that price again, but those lost movements taught me never to hesitate.

My original concept for this build was a 6239 with a standard black dial. A 'Big Red' 6263 was my old dream, but DW really raised the bar with his 6239. But why a black dial? It was never my intention to collect nothing but silver-dialed Daytonas. I had wanted a black dial for my 6239/7750, but DW was out of stock at the time. Also, I've long admired Freddy's Honpo 6239, especially on brown leather. I wanted a similar look, and even bought an OEM ostrich strap for the project. Here's a mockup of how it might have turned out.

Use your imagination! However, things rarely go according to plan, and a bit of luck turned this build into “Argentona III”.

Movement

For more than a year, my weekly eBay ritual involved running through a long list of vintage Valjoux 72 chronographs. After all, only chumps would bid on a listing with "valjoux 72" in the header! This wasn't a quick and easy road, of course, and it wasn't until February that I found a re-listing of a LeJour with a very fair BIN price. It turned out that the original auction's winner had bailed, and the seller had just re-listed for a quick sale. With the help of a very good and trusted friend, I was able to pounce on it. Very big thanks to alligoat, without whom I could not have started this project.

Say goodbye to the rather nice LeJour:

And here is its heart, in all its column-wheely, switch-and-geary, chronograph-y glory:

Out of curiosity, I ordered DW's set of replacement bridges. A brief review: The chronograph bridge is actually quite nice. The train bridge is not so good, with poor spacing on the text and a stained-looking surface. The balance bridge is fair, but rough around the edges. They all look terrible in macros, though.

In the end, I didn't install any of them, primarily in the interest of reliability.

Fixing the movement to the case was a trickier task than expected, and the V72 was prone to shifting around. My watchsmith's first attempt involved trimming the LeJour's movement ring to fit inside the DW case. I was surprised it even squeezed in, but the movement didn't line up with the stem. Eventually, he settled on two clamps (one beneath the balance, one above the column wheel) and a semi-circular shim. So far, so good, as it's keeping good time and the chronograph has just counted 12 hours without stoppage.

Case

After looking over my available options, I decided to go with DW because his case lists for about a tenth of Jewelry & Watch's 6239. Also, it's a pretty damn good case, whereas Phong's is a repurposed 6263.

My biggest problem with the DW 6239 case is what I've often referred to as "The Tumah". (See: Schwarzenegger, A. Kindergarten Cop, 1990.) There's simply too much metal on the crown-side, and it results in a shelf protruding beneath the bezel. This is correct on the 6263, but not for the earlier Daytonas. (I realize there are two versions of the genuine 6239 case, but the second series is really more of a pimple beneath the crown.)

Another issue I wanted addressed was the overall pointiness and sharpness of the case. I've had the good fortune to examine and handle a few genuine 6239s in the past year, and one feature that stands out is the bluntness of the lugs compared to the newer 6263s. Some of this "softness" is due to age, but there are significant differences between the two case designs.

So I contacted the Lathemaster General, jmb, and asked him to excise the unsightly lump, blunt the lugs, smooth all edges, and give the case a trip to his legendary bucket of metal shavings. In contrast to my previous Daytonas, I wanted a well-used look.

Not long before Justin received my case, he had bought himself a nice CNC rig. I was determined to see it put to good use. My first idea was to replicate the first-generation 6239 bezel. (That's a 300UPH with no dots and a lot of radial lines.) Unfortunately, engraving a round, sloped surface would require an expensive upgrade of the rig. Back to flat surfaces, then, and there really was only one engraving I could think of: That of the Peruvian Air Force. You'll have to forgive me for not going into the history of FAP Rolexes, but there are better tellings of that story elsewhere on the web.

I sent J a pile of photos and let him go to work. Here, Dr. J administers rough medicine to the hapless DW case:

And these pictures should make it clear just how extensive the surgery was. The entire crown side, from lug-tip to lug-tip, was shaved away, moving the crown inboard by nearly one whole crown-width. Missing are the pusher indents you would see on the gen, but this is really a fault of the case. Compared to the gen, the DW case sides are slightly thicker (from bezel to caseback), while the pushers are situated slightly higher (i.e. closer to the bezel). The indents you see on the gen are the bottoms of the pusher counterbores. On the DW, these indents don't reach the bottom of the case sides.

Compare the DW 6239/7750's "shelf" with the crown-side of the modified case:

It took Justin a few tries to get the engraving right. Early experiments were performed on an aluminum sheet, but once he got the bit size right, it was onto hard steel. As a final touch, J filled in the letters with a fine pen, to simulate the chipping and faded enamel seen in genuine FAP engravings.

I'm not Peruvian, nor do I have any particular affinity for their Air Force, but I get a big smile every time I take the Daytona off and see the caseback. I'd call it a great success for jmb and his new rig.

Dial

As previously mentioned, I started off planning to use a DW dial--standard black, with a white 'DAYTONA' at 6 o'clock. Nice enough, but with a few key annoyances:

1. Flat subdials: There's not even a hint of dishing. This wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the thick circular indent marking the "bottom" of the subdials.

2. Coronet: As Freddy and a few others have done before, I meant to replace the DW coronet with a genuine piece. I'd even bought a few old dials as potential donors, though all of these had the tighter-lipped Beyeler coronets, rather than the correct, wide-mouthed Singer.

3. Indices: This became an obsession of mine for several weeks. The metal hour markers on DW's dials are conspicuously flat--less than half as tall as they are on the gen. Really anal stuff, but I was determined to replace them either with newly fabricated pieces, or modified blocks from a Datejust dial. I never did figure out a solution, but an alternative presented itself.

While trawling eBay for parts, I found a listing for a "refinished 6239 dial". Ho-hum, right? But it was a silver 6239 with a wide 'DAYTONA'. As far as I knew, none of our usual "refinishing" friends (i.e. Phong, Yuki, and NDT) carried such a dial. Upon further investigation, I soon realized that it was an honest-to-goodness refinished dial i.e. a genuine dial restored. mcotter and alligoat helped me verify the dial, so I bid. I'm certain that the "refinished" tag made it a much easier auction for me to win.

It didn't look so good in the listing. The text looked rough and I was turned off by the slight greenish tinge to the lume dots. But I quickly spotted several tells, and they were directly related to my planned mods of the DW dial: First was the genuine Singer coronet, which has never been replicated properly by anyone. Next were the tall hour markers. As you can see in the picture, these are almost as high as Datejust blocks. Finally, as rough as the edges of the RCD looked, the layout of the text was identical to documented gens. The letters on the left half looked bolder than the right, and my guess is that most of the restoration happened there.

What I couldn't see in the listing's pictures were the grooves in the shallow subdials. These are extremely fine (similar to a Speedmaster's, for example) and impossible to see without magnification and appropriate lighting. The print quality within the subdials is excellent.

To be honest, I bought the dial thinking I might send it in for a re-refinishing. I changed my mind as soon as I received it. What a find!

Bezel

Another lucky find at a good price, this 6265 bezel came from a well-known Rolex seller. The listing was six months old, and no one was biting despite regular price drops. It's seen better days, but its level of wear was exactly what I was looking for. I paid a fair price, considering how much gen bezels usually sell for, but cheaper isn't the same as cheap: This was the second-most expensive item in this build, after the LeJour.

If nothing else, the gen shows just how good DW's 300UPH bezel is. Disregard DW's too-tight inner diameter, and you can see how he almost nailed the fonts and spacing. (If only his 200UPHs were as nice.) Also note the brownish color of the paint within the numerals. I thought it was rust when I saw it in the listing, but thankfully this wasn't the case.

I should point out that one of the most difficult parts in the assembly was fitting the gen bezel onto the gen crystal. For some reason, the bezel would pop back up right after being pressed down to the crystal's base. The only way to solve this was by sanding a bit off the bezel's inner diameter. No, not 0.3mm like on DW's bezel, but a very small amount. I don't get it, myself.

Other bits

I bought a pair of pushers from Ofrei for this build, but Justin couldn't get them to screw in. That's when I learned the horrible truth about DW's Daytona pushers: The diameter is correct (0.25mm), but the thread pitch is 0.25, versus 0.2 for the gens and gen-size pushers like Ofrei's or Cousins'.

I tried a Clark's Daytona handset, but it didn't look right. Clark's subdial hands, for example, are skinny needles--wrong for everything but the running seconds on an early 6239. So, I went back to DW's hands. The minute counter needed the Freddy fix i.e. glue on the tube so it would reset consistently. The minute/hour hands weren't relumed, but I stained them with urine and fec iodine diluted with alcohol. Acrylic thinner was used to correct mistakes, without dissolving the lume.

The crown is a genuine 600, while the bracelet is a genuine mutt (7205 with 357 endlinks) transferred from my old 6239/7750. The crystal is a genuine Tropic 21 I've held in reserve for more than a year. It's good to plan ahead! I learned that lesson yet again at the very end of this project. Completion was delayed when I discovered that the LeJour's stem was a bloody Tap 8, rather than the Tap 10 that all good Rolexes use. For the past couple of weeks, I've been as impatient as this famous Peruvian:

Curiously, DW provided a free 7750 stem with his V72 case set. That was... nice of him.

Final Notes

Long post to cap a long build. If you skipped the text just to see the pictures, I forgive you. This is like a dump of my project notes, and a future reference for my own use.

Thanks again to my Texas team, alligoat and jmb, for all your help. Thanks also go to mcotter, ChiMan12, ubiquitous, and freddy333 for advice. Building a V72 Daytona is like joining a small club filled with guys I admire and respect. (Also, I get one really swell watch out of the deal.) It's been long, expensive, frustrating, and exciting. But right now it just feels really good.

Well, that looks familiar!

[lhooq]

Jaime: I'm often guilty of excessive verbosity (there I go again), so I will never complain about someone's long post. You might get dinged for quoting my entire OP, though!

It's great to hear from the Peruvian contingent of RWG, and I enjoyed your story. I wish I had the skills to assemble these watches myself, but practice and reading can only get me so far. I just don't have the steady hands and patient demeanor that a proper watchsmith requires. But thanks to RWG, I was able to get in touch with some smart and talented people. I occupy myself with research and sourcing parts, and I enjoy that task immensely. Thanks for the kind words.

[freddy333]

I'm speechless after reading your article and seeing the watch you built. Amazing. And, contrary to what purists would argue, it probably gives you a more rewarding feeling than wearing the real thing.

Congrats and wear the Daytona in good health.

Jaime

Correct. Jaime, please do not re-quote entire posts.

[TgfRulez]

Beautiful pieces, as always my friend Martin... A 51k dollars toy...

Look at this...

http://www.chrono24.com/it/rolex/oyster-cosmograph-daytona---fuerza-aerea-del-peru----id1745035.htm

6265 Fuerza Aerea...

Edited June 7, 2011 by TgfRulez

[woof*]

M,

Breathtaking, inspiring, awesome etc...there are not enough adjectives for this one!

Your wait and research paid off in a huge way. That is a fine timepiece! Congrats on getting it done!

[lhooq]

Leonardo: Very nice! I think I need to add more dirt under the bezel and between the lugs.

woof*: Thanks, and I hope your wait will soon be over! It's worth remembering that I spent more time waiting for my SM300 parts to arrive than I did working on this project.

[Vuggy]

[lhooq]

Is that you, JJ?

Cheers - LH

[TeeJay]

Wow, what a write up I can't believe I've missed this for a whole week Absolutely incredible project, I would say 'enjoy it', but I know you will

[ubiquitous]

I'm late to the party... And what more can be said? This is a fantastic build! But it's what I've come to expect from Mr. LHOOQ...

[StormTooper4]

Bl00dy hell now that's a proper post. Much respect to you for putting that up.

Wonderful looking watch.

[polexpete]

Awesome work, the V72 club is a great club to be in....

Cheers

P.

[danielv2000]

Re-read this thread again... Had to see the pictures. Always an inspiration!

[Tribal]

Fantastic job

[Usil]

I stand in awe of your knowledge, expertise and handiwork. Great project and write-up.

Usil

[lhooq]

Thanks for the thread resuscitation, and thanks to the old-timers for their kind words! I loved following polexpete's progress on his own V72 6263, and -while every one of ubi's projects is a treat- his last 6265 was like a dream.

"...on the shoulders of giants," and all that!

[ken fingerlove]

Sounds like your watchmaker found exactly the problems with yours as with mine - namely movement fit (though mine didn't need shims!), pusher tube fit, bezel fit, hands, and the stem. I think I waited 2 months for a stem!

But that's a beauty. The dial is very nice indeed. Is there really any way to tell that it's refinished?

Have you considered some serious polishing of the caseback? The PAF casebacks I've seen on't internet all seem to be well polished - your fresh looking engraving is detracting from the overall effect somewhat.

But thanks for posting.

[lhooq]

Sounds like your watchmaker found exactly the problems with yours as with mine - namely movement fit (though mine didn't need shims!), pusher tube fit, bezel fit, hands, and the stem. I think I waited 2 months for a stem!

Yep, there's really nothing new under the sun, and old DW 6263 problems persist to this day! It took me less than an hour to locate a V72 stem, then had the seller send it by EMS. It sucks getting that close to the end and suddenly running out of gas!

But that's a beauty. The dial is very nice indeed. Is there really any way to tell that it's refinished?

The lume dots are all "active" and have a very slight greenish tinge that's noticeable under certain lights. I would have liked to get a closer color match to the lume on the hands, but I didn't want to risk damaging the dial. The RCD text is hazier around the edges than on the gen, and has the inconsistent thickness I mentioned in the OP. Finally, I think the overall color of the dial should be a darker silver. It's a good match for a mid-80s 6263/5 dial, or even a service unit, but older gen dials seem to have a deeper sunburst pattern (if that makes any sense).

Have you considered some serious polishing of the caseback? The PAF casebacks I've seen on't internet all seem to be well polished - your fresh looking engraving is detracting from the overall effect somewhat.

I agree with you and I've thought about it, but it's not noticeable at all, unless you're viewing it through a loupe. Most people don't even look at the caseback until I gently (or not) prod them to do so. I'm still thinking about it...

[Ephry73]

LHOOQ, this one's for you man Fuerza Aerea Del Peru

[lhooq]

LHOOQ, this one's for you man Fuerza Aerea Del Peru

I can still remember when FAP casebacks were selling for EUR 2500... five months ago!

[Ephry73]

That's crazy! I'm gathering parts to build something similar, but more fantasy at the same time. All with inspiration from your project.

E