1680 braclet options?

[Mike on a bike]

Thanks guys a lot of info. Yes HartDoc you are the Doc! Stephane , yes totally agree we are more than a bit anal and pay thru the nose for it. Like I have said before nobody will know it is a pointy or flat four but you in that year & model, just enjoy it. ( I am as guilty as anyone to some extent ,hence this thread!) cjjoyce finding that beauty would be an adventure. I will not pay more than the price of the watch for a strap/bracelet, anal but cheapness saves me ! I have been looking at some nice custom leather for it. ("Zeleni s" looks nice on his) We shall see on the metal will keep looking, the ndt s look nice but with shipping and extra links for my over 8in wrist just to dam expensive. No sense wasting time trying to find an old one (gen) cheap of any configuration no way they will fit me.
 

[panerai153]

i agree with stephane, we are really crazy with some of these mods. The average guy can't tell a Rolex from a Timex, much less whether or not the coronet on your clasp is .0002mm too long!!! The prices of genuine Rolex parts has gotten completely insane. OF course it's "what the market will bear" so if someone sells a stretched out, beat up 9315 for 750.00 USD, that seeems to set a new bottom price.

 

AFA the 7206 Rivet bracelets, i looked high and low for one for my "PanAm" 6542. NDT lists one, but they would never return my emails, yuki was offering them at the time, but his would not accept genuine 2mm spring bars. I ended up buying one from phong.Turns out it's a 7206 stretch, but the end links are wrong 382 instead of 80. But they do fit a genuine springbar, and they fit my case really nicely. I'm happy with the bracelet, wish it had 80's, but who is going to look at the end links anyway? I bet there aren't 200 people in the entire world excepting older Rolex trained watchmakers who can tell you which bracelet/end link combo is correct for all the rolex sport watches. Another thing, if you own a 40 year old genuine Rolex, and had it serviced by your local watchmaker, often times he replaced parts with what he had on hand, especially things like end links,springbars. I have a 16750 that has the correct  78360 bracelet and 580 end links, but the clasp is a 62510 clasp from a Jubilee bracelet. I'm sure the old clasp got bent or broke, and it was replaced with what was on hand. I would like to get the proper one, but it's 200-300 USD and I have more important projects to spend that on. No one knows but me, the fellow who changed it, and now all you guys, so PLEASE don't tell anyone!!! 

 

By the way just to let you know how things have changed, I sold a very nice C & I  7206 with almost no stretch 80 end links and genuine springbars back about 6 years ago, and I got 200.00 USD for it, now the rep 7206's are that much or more!!

[Mike on a bike]

panerai "I ended up buying one from phong" Phong where do I find him to get one/expensive?
 

[panerai153]

panerai "I ended up buying one from phong" Phong where do I find him to get one/expensive?

 

 

phong is jewelryandwatch you can google that and get his website. Oh Heck, here's the link  http://www.jewelryandwatch.com/index.html

you have to register on his website to see the prices, but i believe the bracelet was 300.00 USD, but I'm not sure.

[Mike on a bike]

Whoa 3 bills! not for a watch costing less, but thank you.   For 1/2 that I will have a custom leather made that will knock socks off.

[gavidoc]

By the way just to let you know how things have changed, I sold a very nice C & I 7206 with almost no stretch 80 end links and genuine springbars back about 6 years ago, and I got 200.00 USD for it, now the rep 7206's are that much or more!!

I agree. Sold a 7206 about 5 years ago and was happy I got 300 for it. I was selling 93150s for 4-500 at the time. I just sold a c&I from 78 for 550 and if I had a 7206 know I could get 800 for it.

[Mike on a bike]

Think I may have found a reasonable one, of course it could be a POS.

http://www.watcheden.net/rolex-stainless-steel-strap-for-rolex-vintage-edition-model-i-14976-p-1.html

[automatico]

"...I would NEVER put a 1000$ in a bracelet."

 

Me neither unless it had at least 3/4 Troy oz of 18k gold in it.

 

 

"But after spending a fortune in reps to make them as accurate as possible I am now looking at wearing watches I like to wear!

If they are not 100% accurate, I don't care."

 

I feel the same way. If a watch is 80/90% accurate, it suits me.

 

 

"The average guy can't tell a Rolex from a Timex, much less whether or not the coronet on your clasp is .0002mm too long!!!

"The prices of genuine Rolex parts has gotten completely insane."

 

That's the truth if I ever saw it, especially the parts situation. Crowns that I bought new for $20, $35, and $75 are selling for $60 to $250 each new now. I remember trying to sell 100 nib assorted rlx steel and gold cap crowns (with 10 or 12 new tubes thrown in) for $2000 in the early 2000s at NAWCC shows etc and all the gomers said I was crazy because they "can buy them all day long". Not now.

If I sell 'em one now I make their sorry azz bleed.   After all...bizness is bizness.

 

 

"I bet there aren't 200 people in the entire world excepting older Rolex trained watchmakers who can tell you which bracelet/end link combo is correct for all the rolex sport watches."

"Another thing, if you own a 40 year old genuine Rolex, and had it serviced by your local watchmaker, often times he replaced parts with what he had on hand, especially things like end links,springbars."

 

I know this to be true because I have been trading rlx watches this long and have seen it over and over.

 

 

"By the way just to let you know how things have changed, I sold a very nice C & I 7206 with almost no stretch 80 end links and genuine springbars back about 6 years ago, and I got 200.00 USD for it, now the rep 7206's are that much or more!!"

 

I have two 20mm genuines left from a few years back, one 'stretchey' and one 'stiffey'...I paid less than $25 each for them because people called them 'hairpullers' and considered them to be junk a few years ago.

Also have a few USA oval link jubilees for $0 because watch traders gave them to me. Some old Bulovas etc had the exact same bracelets except for the clasp and hoods, most were 18mm or 19mm though. The 19mm models will work on a 20mm watch just fine.

 

Rlx is hot but other brands are dead in the water...

Last week one of the local watch traders had a like new tungsten carbide Rado Jubile on a bracelet for $100 with no takers. 

Three or four weeks ago I bought a super nice 18k E. Gubelin automatic for $300 because it needed a crown, crystal, and cb gasket and no one would fix it for a reasonable price (about $7 cost using a gf crown). The empty case has 18.6g of 18k yellow gold in it. What's crazy is that I got one just like it in May 2009 for $200.

 

On the down side...it seems like no one has any $$ left to blow.

On the up side...after four more years of this president, a nice 5513 may be going for $200.

 

Q...How come I did not offer to fix the Gubelin for the guy?

A...Because I do not take any outside work in at all.

Q...Why?

A...If you take a few 'trader watches' in, pretty soon you will have 100 pieces of junk to fix...and they all will not pay over $20 for any repair. I learned this the hard way.

[freddy333]

The average guy can't tell a Rolex from a Timex, much less whether or not the coronet on your clasp is .0002mm too long!!!

 

Generally, that is true & I would be the 1st to add that the average genuine Rolex owner is often the least enlightened of all.

However, that said, experience has taught me that there are many young WIS types out there, even if you are not aware of them. & do not assume that because strangers do not comment on the incorrect sized/shaped links in your fake rivet bracelet or screw pushers on your non-Oyster dialed Daytona or neon-like glow emanating from the dial of your 'vintage' Sub, that they are not aware of these glaring mistakes. They are.

 

A few years ago, I ran into these 2 guys in their early 20s, who offered to perform some restorative work on 1 of my vintage cars. As we were looking at the car, 1 of the guys spotted my Bond Sub & began rolling off a laundry list of historical details about early Subs that made my jaw drop. Now, neither of these guys wore watches &, based on their age, dress & overall habiliment, I would never in a million years have pegged them as being WIS types. Had I been wearing a standard Sub rep or even a questionable franken, I expect these guys would have walked away with an entirely different impression of our meeting than they did.

 

Back when I got into reps, the rep world was pretty much word-of-mouth & you could be fairly confident that as long as the name on the dial was not ROLLIE & you did not look like you just fell off a turnip truck, you were unlikely to be found out. But, today, with rep sites often outranking their gen counterparts on google & with every 3rd spam hawking fake Rolex watches, the knowledge pool has greatly expanded among the general public. So, while you may still fool most of the people most of the time, your chances of being viewed as a poser have also gone up.

 

Just sayin...................

[Mike on a bike]

Watch in Pics General D. !