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The Rolex Day-Date in Precious SS


alligoat

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A year or so ago, Ubi built a beautiful pair of Day Dates, one with a black dial and one with a white dial. He used modified Datejust cases in stainless and old 1556 Rolex movements. They turned out beautifully to say the least. I fell in love with the white dialed DD and decided it would be a fun build to pursue. So I slowly began assembling the parts. One of the early items was a DJ 16000 case. Alas, it was only a midcase with a case tube- no caseback. Next I got a white refinished DD dial for the 1800 series watches and finally a couple of months ago I landed a 1556 movt on ebay for a decent price. I picked up some crystals from Clarks (T-114, 135 and 118), some hands and a 1500 series stem. Luckily I was able to use a rep fluted bezel since I had nothing else lying around. The final purchase was a nice 600 series used crown. It all came together today and I'm pretty happy with the results

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The dial is the pie-pan dial and I love the white color on it. The date and day wheels are what might be a light silver color. When I bought the movement, it came with a black dial and I just thought the DD wheels were white. Now I'm not sure- are they an aged white or a light silver? Nevertheless, they are a shade darker than the white dial. Thank God they're not champagne! Finding old stock 1556 parts could be tough these days.

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Here's a parting wrist shot below. I'm still struggling with my iPhone and picture talking- my wife says life would be easier if I got the iPhone 4s! I'm still on a croc like leather strap for a while and may work on a 78360 or an ss presidential. The rep bezel is ok, but a gen fluted bezel would be nice. Like I said, this has been a fun build, but Phong modified my case and it ain't cheap! But Phong did a good job. He put a little nick in the case I furnished him, but he replaced it w/ another 16000 case and everything worked out fine. Now I just need to find another 16000 caseback so that I can put my old DJ back together.

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Thanks guys, and good to see you again Indy!

Love it, I want to know what the mods to the 16000 case are. It looks the rehaut is machined down but what else I don't know.

Day date is a must

I'm not exactly sure what Phong did to the case, but my guess is that he turned the case on a lathe and shortened the inside rehaut so that the movement sits higher in the case and the stem lines up correctly. The hands sit very high and I tried three crystals before a T-118 worked.

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Thanks guys and thanks KBH for the bracelet offer. I've got a presidential bracelet already, it came on my $60 Silix Datejust which I never wear.

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But I'm probably leaning more towards a 78360 oyster at this point if I do go metal. Or maybe a 7836- I think I have one of those also.

My Datejust franken works well on a 93150, but I don't know if i'm going to get that 'sporty' on the DD.

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Well I tried some bracelets today- the presidential fit ok, but it just wasn't my style. The jubilee didn't fit- it's a rep bracelet and the end piecesjust never fit on any gen cases.

Next up was the 7836 off of the Josh 1655 and a set of 455B rep end pieces which were on my 16014 DJ. That combo worked pretty well.

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I don't know if I have a 78360 bracelet in my pile of junk or not. I'll look some more tomorrow. I'd sure love to run across another set of the 455B end pieces- they seem to fit pretty well on the 16000 DJ cases.

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Well I tried some bracelets today- the presidential fit ok, but it just wasn't my style. The jubilee didn't fit- it's a rep bracelet and the end piecesjust never fit on any gen cases.

Next up was the 7836 off of the Josh 1655 and a set of 455B rep end pieces which were on my 16014 DJ. That combo worked pretty well.

photo-14.jpg

I don't know if I have a 78360 bracelet in my pile of junk or not. I'll look some more tomorrow. I'd sure love to run across another set of the 455B end pieces- they seem to fit pretty well on the 16000 DJ cases.

Another option, would be to swap the bezel for a flat one :whistling:;):good:

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