5513 Dial question

[sishac]

Hi all..I am gathering the pieces for a 5513 build using a MBW case, Clark crystal and 2846 movement (still in transit)

I just picked up this dial, advertised as a genuine dial that has been refinished. It has a slight glow to it (not tritium) and has Singer on the back. The feet seem to be in the right place.

My issue is this...the dial seems to measure 25.7mm, and I have always heard that it should be 26mm. Is there a way to fit the dial in my case for testing without a movement??

Thanks

[duke1973]

You should be able to remove the case back and drop the dial in through the back. If it fits it will sit flush against the rehaut of the case. Is this dial from Manhand on eBay? I bought a refinished Sea Dweller dial from him a few months back that really good like yours and had a faint glow also.

[freddy333]

Most likely that is a new/aftermarket dial.

[sishac]

You mean like from Yuki or Ingod 44?

[Star69]

You mean like from Yuki or Ingod 44?

or NDT = 100% fake

[Donerix 2.0]

Going by the font I would say Yuki

[sishac]

Well, then, as I liked Yuki's dials (and the price was very comparable to Yuki and Ingod44) ..this one came from FLA, and has some realistic lume on it....Are Yuki's 5513 dials 26mm or a hair smaller? In all honesty, I'm not too upset if it isn't a gen dial...to my novice eyes, it looks pretty good...in person the markers look beautiful and the printing is very crisp. My only issue is that I want to make sure that it fits and I don't have a movement yet to attach it too.

Tonight I will try and just put it in the case and see what happens.

[sishac]

Thank you everyone for your opinion....I was thinking of telling the seller that its a fake but as I am going to keep it as long as it fits my MBW case, maybe I won't...but for my own education, what is throwing things off? The "S" in submariner seems to be too curved, and the "6" are tilted a bit...but as each dial has so many variations, I would assume that it would be very hard to see inconsistencies and say for a fact its a fake.

Thanks again for the education guys!!!

[sishac]

The dial fits (at least it sits in the case, and frankly looks amazing there too)...so it is a fake dial.....well, for what I paid for it, I'm not overly surprised. As I'm going to keep it (because I think it looks great and I'm not going to drop 500-800 on a gen matte dial), should I tell the seller???

[automatico]

From a post I made a while back:

"After looking at the genuine 5512 case with the 26.13 dial window in the post above, I wondered how this could work with a 26mm dial. SInce I have a DW 5513 case that I got from a member (we both thought the dial window was too big), I put the 26mm IG44 5513 dial on a 1520 and mounted it in the DW case with a 26.0mm dial opening. It works fine."

How can it work with the dial window as big as the dial?

The movement is a precision fit in the case and this holds it all in place. The dial might be almost the same size as the dial window but the movement is not...and it is clamped against the front of the case. This is probably why a 26mm dial in a case with a 26mm dial opening using an eta movement and spacer does not work out every time...there is too much slop in the fit and the movement and dial will not stay centered."

I am getting closer to putting this thing together and it looks like it might benefit from a spacer behind the dial that butts against the back side of the dial window. I am not to this point yet though.

Does anyone know the exact size of the dial window opening in a genuine 5513 case? Is it 26.13 +/- like the 5512 in the "Same old question...vintage Rolex wise" post? My DW 5513 is 25.98mm.

Does anyone know the exact size of a genuine 5513 dial? My IG44 dial is (almost) exactly 26mm.

Q...Why does it take me so long to complete a simple project like this?

A...Just Because...

Because I bought the case without the caseback and used a caseback from an old 'River' sapphire Exp II and had to round the back edges off to make it look more 'vintage'.

Because the gasket is in the 5513 caseback and Because I did not have a proper caseback...I had to machine a gasket groove in the DW 5513 case.

Why?

Because the River caseback is too thin where a gasket should go so I had to cut a gasket groove in the case (grind a cutter bit, mount the case in the lathe, cut a little, measure, cut a little, measure...).

All Because the crystal was not gen spec.

And Because the bezel ring that holds the crystal to the case is not gen spec either.

Because of this...I had to make another crystal retaining bezel.

Because this @&$**$%# thing has a 'paperclip' bezel, the crystal retaining bezel had to have a little bitty lip machined on top at precisely the right spot and size...plus it had to be just so tall and exactly right on the id, plus a bevel to allow the bezel spring to slip over it (ask JMB about these projects).

Because I did not want to screw up and have to start over...the bezel ring was slow work (for me anyway).

What's next?

Drill the lugs out to 1.3mm.

Figure out how to make the gen spec aft/mkt case tube seal up to the case.

What's wrong with the case/tube junction?

The groove cut into the case just ahead of the case tube threads is too small for a gen spec gasket.

How to fix it?

Get a cutter and see if I can cut it exactly where it needs to be in the milling machine...without screwing up the case.

But I do not have the cutter or want to take a chance on screwing up the case.

What will I do?

Probably cut the case tube to fit the groove in the case.

Nothing is easy.

Edited April 25, 2012 by automatico