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Glowing Great White Franken arrives


denimhead

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After owning numerous watches over the years including Gen's and Reps I decided recently that it was time to realise a dream and acquire my own1665 GW. At 6k a pop owning a Gen simply wasn't on the cards so hopefully this comes close.

Many years ago i lived in a small village in Nottinghamshire where in the corner of the local pub resided an older guy who had worked on the oil rigs in the 1970's as a commercial diver. His 1665 was like looking at a Biography of his life. It had travelled the World and judging by the crystal had seen its fair share of action not only below the Oceans of the World but in numerous Bars as well. Very useful for removing beer bottle tops by all accounts.

While I do love the look of aged Tritium dials and faded fat font inserts on the 1970's Sub models, the price of the Gen secondhand parts these days would simply not fit into my build budget.

I also felt that I wanted my watch to look a bit cleaner and as it's going to be my daily wearer the watch had to be reliable,waterproof and legible at night.

I have to initially thank a fellow RWG member who shall remain anonymous at this stage of the game and would simply like to be known as The Mystery Modder part 2. I think a few of you may guess the identity of this gent when I tell you he also shares my taste in Luminova dials.

He has now become a good mate and I'm eternally grateful to him for agreeing to build the watch for me and without his skill and patience it would never have happened.

I would like to thank Tutima for selling me his old school MBW GW and where the story starts.

Many thanks to Modelizer for his help on GW Caseback comparison info. You learn something new everyday,Cheers A.

Many thanks also go to Freddy333 and Ubi for confirming my doubts about whether I'd bought a Gen caseback or an MQ job, thankfully the seller was an honourable chap and I was refunded accordingly.

So onto the build spec -

MBW Mid case and bezel - serial dated 1978, Mr Modder gently worked his magic on the crown guards

Phong Working Helium Valve installed

MQ Caseback, really the best I've ever seen

No idea on the crystal, I'm sure someone will enlighten us

Gen crown and tube

Gen 1570 Hacking movement with Gen silver date wheel - fully serviced

Gen Luminova service dial

Gen Luminova hour/minute hands

Modded eta Seconds Hand. Its a long story ending in me owning a Gen 5512/5513 hand if someone wants to buy it

Gen bezel insert

Gen 93150 with 580 endlinks date stamped VD-1979(only one year out!)

Apologies for the rush job pictures, nice deep scratches on the crystal before you ask. Hope you enjoy the watch as much as me

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That is a watch that I have been wanting to build forever but very few have the contacts needed for a build of this caliber...It looks fantastic!!

Also where was the caseback from or is that secret squirrel stuff as well?

Edited by bwhitesox
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That's it.

I am going to procure a 1570 no matter the cost.. or whatever I have to do to get one.

Denimhead...beautiful! You have a watch that will last the rest of your life, it can also be handed down.

One of the nicest I've seen. What is MQ?

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Hello from Sheffield, Not very long to be honest. Find a nice older MBW, then keep an eye on RVF for Gen parts. Ebay for the movement, but make sure its a good un. That's the easy bit, trying to find someone skilled enough to do the assembly is not, especially when you put a working He Valve into the mix. I think there maybe a handful of members here who can do it properly. Your going to be looking at around 2.5k to 3k by the time you've finished up.

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Hi Woof,

How you doing? mqvintagewatch is a Vietnam based dealer who makes the best case backs I've ever seen. $500 a go though.

There was quite a bit of head scratching on here as to its origin. I bought it as Gen but when it arrived a few things gave it away. Luckily the vendor was ok about a refund.

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Interesting, I know the top tier casesets..no matter who sells them, (Ndt/phong etc) are all rumored to come from VN.

Even my vintage sm300 caseset originally came from there. I have a Yuki GW case back on my mbw 1665....btw mines off getting the Phong hev installed as we speak :)

Boy! that's some Seadweller you have denim! Congrats! :)

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Interesting, I know the top tier casesets..no matter who sells them, (Ndt/phong etc) are all rumored to come from VN.

Even my vintage sm300 caseset originally came from there. I have a Yuki GW case back on my mbw 1665....btw mines off getting the Phong hev installed as we speak :)

Boy! that's some Seadweller you have denim! Congrats! :)

Thanks Mate,

Let me have a couple of shots of it when its Done. Is J installing the valve for you?

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Beautiful watch and a great build. Only thing i would change and it's just a nitpick, but the correct endlinks for the 1665 are 585's. not a biggie for sure as no one would ever know unless you handed them your watch to examine. Congratulations.

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Beautiful watch and a great build. Only thing i would change and it's just a nitpick, but the correct endlinks for the 1665 are 585's. not a biggie for sure as no one would ever know unless you handed them your watch to examine. Congratulations.

That would be nice, but even most of the gens for sale on VRM have 580's.

585's are going for 400-600$ a pair right now :)

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Beautiful watch and a great build. Only thing i would change and it's just a nitpick, but the correct endlinks for the 1665 are 585's. not a biggie for sure as no one would ever know unless you handed them your watch to examine. Congratulations.

Hi Panerai153, they're on the way! and many thanks for the nice comments

Cheers DH

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