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Vintage Daytona


awltoga

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I want to put together a vintage daytona piece by piece. Been having a tough time finding an asymmetrical case for a v72 other than the super high end(phong) that is available. I have an email into yuki, but haven't seen any info on prices. DW was a bust on price. Any advice would be appreciated, since watching "time machines" on YouTube I've been dreaming of the profile view of vintage daytonas.

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I have not perused the dealer listings for a number of years, but there may be some that now offer properly asymmetrical pushered 62xx Daytona cases that could be modded into accepting a V72. Otherwise, if DW is too rich for your wallet, you may have trouble finding what you seek since he has traditionally offered the best buy in these cases.

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I messaged Dw earlier in the wee but he gave me a price near $4k for the complete watch...so I was obviously shocked. That is too rich for my blood. I thought his stuff was around $400...

 

- note to self - put DW daytona up for sale ASAP !!!!! for $3500. 

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$4k for DW Daytona ?  :nono:

 

My opinion is you should at first time determine your whole budget, before starting anything.

 

Don't forget a v72 is pretty pricey these days, I don't know if it makes any sense to put this kind of money on a movement if your budget is low

 

After we know your budget, it will be easier to advise you :)

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... if you are serious (or just mad like the rest of us...)

 

That's the true problem. Once you started a vintage Daytona build, your budget will explode... :) Better to have a pre-determined budget before starting anything, trust me !

 

I have started with DW case, 7760 movement... and I've now finished with full-gen Daytona, Tritium original dials, hands, bezel, etc...  :bangin:

 

Also, don't forget a vintage Daytona build is VERY hard to finish. If it's your first build, I strongly encourage you to begin with anything else... :)

 

Or go with a ready-to-go build (Spinmaster ?)

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Totally out of touch with Daytonas, as they just aren't my cup of tea, but I was under the impression from listening to you guys, DW was around 400.00USD for his case set, or was that for a case set plus movement?

4 K sounds pretty out of this world to me.

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Total budget we be up to $2500 I think. Which I know isn't the top, but pretty healthy I think.

 

Hm... $2500...

 

- Valjoux 72 => $1050 to $1350 to find one in good conditions these days I think. The "in good conditions" is an obligation, because a service cost a lot of money, not saying if you need to buy new parts to repair it. Don't buy movements alone, that's the rule. Don't buy a movement that do not keep the time (> 1min / day). Ask the seller to double-check all the functionalities. Post some photos of the movement here before to buy to check it's clean and it have the right holes to fit in a Daytona. Some movements do not have the holes and are a mess to put in a Daytona. Don't buy with a seller who tells you "he don't know" about something on it's movement. Etc. :)

 

- DW case set => $400

 

- To me, you should avoid the DW hands as much as possible. I have broken MANY hands with normal use of the chrono, these are bullsh*t, no kidding. A Phong hand set can do the trick for a v72.  => $125

 

From what I learn, I will avoid to use a v726 with aftermarket hands, cause of a very large central chrono seconds pinion, witch is a big problem for Daytona hands

 

- I don't remember if the DW dial comes with the case set ? Anyways, you should try to select a dial with the less printings possible. Ask for photos. Some DW are good, some are just too bad to be used. The black dials are IMO better replicated, because the Silver color is a big problem to replicate correctly. Also, I found the white printings better than the black printings.

 

- I think a gen 78350 bracelet is a must. These are cheap. You can find one for around $450 I think. DW 571 will do the job, these are very good with the DW case.

 

- A gen T21 (crystal) is a must too, to me. Around $180 for a service one. You should buy a sealed Tropic, so many reps are sold as gen, especially on VRF

 

- Considering your budget is restricted, I think a gen 703 crown and 7030 tube will do the trick. Around $260 for NOS. Far less for used one. You can also consider find a used 702 / 7020 or 700 / 7000. Never buy a 702 or a 700 crown without it's tube ;) Tubes are very hard to find, especially alone.

 

- You should think about Ofrei pushers ($50 ? I don't know). DW pushers are bullsh*t sometimes.

 

- DW bezels are both very good for the price. I will prefer the metal bezel from him, the printings can be very good to excellent. The plastic black inserts have the awful "110", and looks too cheap IMO.

 

I think I have not forgot anything. Make a total around around $2500 if I'm right...

 

Good luck :D

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You forgot the 300+$ he will have to pay spin to assemble it all unless of course he will do it himself. Kind of hard without a few important tools and knowhow

 

100% right :) Find a good watchmaker is THE essential part for this kind of build. Spinmaster is known to be good.

 

For my builds, these are too valuable so I cannot send the parts out of my country for obvious reasons of security. This is why I'm on my 2 projects for almost 2 years now. And I have all the parts in my box...

 

Kinda frustrating !

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I messaged Dw earlier in the wee but he gave me a price near $4k for the complete watch...so I was obviously shocked. That is too rich for my blood. I thought his stuff was around $400...

 

I think there must have been a misunderstanding somewhere along the line. DW's assembled A7750-based watches used to be around $400 (this is going back a few years, so the price may have gone up) & his assembled V72-based watches were around $3,000, which I would expect to have risen to the $4k range by now.

If cost is an issue, I would seriously recommend either going the A7750 route or (seriously) rethink your finances & prepare for sticker shock. And before you buy an assembled V72-powered Daytona (from any vendor), keep in mind that these almost always arrive with technical problems & require professional servicing &/or overhaul. There are many threads here detailing this that you can search out (& I would strongly encourage you to spend alot of time reading them *before* clicking the buy button).

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Man...you guys are freaking amazing. More info on daytonas in the last hour than from 3 months of research!

 

 

The (bad) experiences are talking :D

 

About what Freddy is saying, you should avoid to buy pre-assembled Daytona's, these are most of the time over-valued, and movements always needs a good servicing. Plus I will not feel safe to send $3k or $4k to DW...

 

Not worth the cost anyways, whether DW, Phong, or any other dealer

 

If budget is a problem, you should buy the pieces separately. Sometimes you can make some good deals to lower the final bill... The key is the time. The more you are hurry, the more you will pay !

 

~~ And if you are really hurry, forget about the v72 for now, and send a PM to Spinmaster about his builds... These are very good for the money, and you will avoid many (many, many) problems due to the v72 route...

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"Rolls Royce" Daytona builds cost big money,about 1/3 of gen,and can takes years to complete.Difficult builds but with the right collection of parts you can build a very convincing "Franken".....Best case right now is "phong's".It will accept gen parts with minor massaging and retapping.....Plus you can reshape phong case to gen spec easily with very minor work.....

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To add, I also have the opinion that making a v72 based daytona and not using a gen dial is a crime. Putting a rep dial on a v72 daytona is like putting a Ferrari engine in a ford. It makes no sense. Having said that a gen dial is in the 2000$ range. If you're not prepared to do that don't bother with a v72 version, contact spin and get a great sub 1000$ a7750 version that will be rock solid. He puts a gen plexi and crown and better more gen like pushers. So for me it's either make a v72 right with a gen dial etc, which will blow your budget wide open, or spend 1k and have something really cool and well made, but don't put a rep dial on a v72 please.

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I think it may be wise to piece together an a7750 DW, but remove the rotor as to eliminate the rotor noise. I am partial to the black dial and I prefer the metal bezel so it's nice to hear that these seem more accurate. I also like the all black dial with pump pushers. But then again after reading about the Peruvian build....then a gold daytona would be amazing.... I have a gen 1603 and really do love the size. My Pam 111 rep was sold and now I'm thinking my BP subC may go. They just seem too big. And I love the profile of the vintage oyster cases. Rolex really got it right back then. The full on chunky watch trend has been around for a while, wonder how much longer... I'll keep you all updated with my build.

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Dw's a7750 daytonas don't have the rotor but it HAS to go to spinmaster to finalize the conversion to a manual wind. Dw only removes the rotor, there are a few more steps required for a full manual conversion.

Edited by cc33
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I think it may be wise to piece together an a7750 DW, but remove the rotor as to eliminate the rotor noise.

 

 

It's impossible to keep the rotor in a Daytona case anyways, it's too thin :) CC33 is right, removing the rotor is not the only thing to do have a "real" manual winding. As far as I know, only Spinmaster do the conversion properly to the A7760. I also think it's not safe to rewind an A7750 witch has not been converted...

 

Don't bother with a build & buying pieces, just ask Spinmaster to build the Daytona of your dreams (if possible with gen crown, tube, and crystal), I think it's the easier & the best way, and he is a good guy to deal with. Thought, I don't know if he can supply the gen parts & some another pushers.

 

And I agree about the Ferrari engine into a Ford... It does not makes any sense to go with the v72 road if you don't plan, at least later, to put a gen dial. And if you plan to put a gen dial, it makes no sense to use the DW case, witch is good, but not so good... ;)

 

Then, once you have a Phong case, v72, and Gen dial... it does not makes sense too to use aftermarket hands & bezel...

 

Endless game !  B)

 

(Too bad, the wallet is not endless...)

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To add, I also have the opinion that making a v72 based daytona and not using a gen dial is a crime. Putting a rep dial on a v72 daytona is like putting a Ferrari engine in a ford. It makes no sense.

 

Certainly, if you have the funds, a gen dial is always the way to go. That said, 1 could also make the case that if you are going to spring for a gen dial, you would be crazy not to couple it with a gen Rolex movement (as opposed to a conversion using aftermarket parts).

However, if, like me, you prefer the exotic (Newman) dial over the standard fare, a gen, being so costly/rare, is not an option. In that case, I think a very credible project can be built around some of the better aftermarket Newman dials available

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