16750 Build Finally Complete and Home

[droptopman]

Good morning,

 

My 16750 build is finally complete and home to be enjoyed.  I chose the 16750 over the 1675 simply because I had access to a well priced mint condition genuine dial and that is what really started this project and a vintage Pepsi has always been one of my grail pieces.  Out of all the watches I have owned over the years, I have never had a GMT.  

I want to thank many of the members who provided help on this project.  Mostly I need to thank Matt (mymanmatt) for making this happen as I am sure there are not many people who could have managed this build.  Matt is an amazing watch smith.  

Honestly most experienced members told me not to try it.....And now I know why, this build had many obstacles and was a true test of patience and cost.  Once you get started on one of these builds it is hard to abandon it and even though I did a project budget and had already sourced most of the parts, I went way over......as most of you know this is one of the most difficult builds to do because of the case and there are not really any good aftermarket case options.  I did much research on this across many forums.  Even the high end aftermarket cases are not very gen like.  Matt compared a well known $1500 1675 aftermarket case to a gen and it was not even close and would have needed modification on top of the $1500 cost; therefore, I chose a cartel case and sent it to Rolex Addict in France to modify the crown guards and thin the lugs.  First 2 obstacles came from the donor rep 1675 watch which was suppose to have a Swiss ETA, but ended having a clone.  Next obstacle was when disassembled the donor case was a 1680 dressed like a 1675.  RA worked his magic on the case and while the case is still not perfect to gen, it is much better than it was stock.  At some point I will find a fairly priced gen case set and use it.  

Next obstacle was to find a decent bezel assembly that looked good but also would fit and rotate.  Seen too many nice looking franken GMT's with glued on bezels and we did not want that.  Matt found a nice aftermarket bezel with good looking teeth that fit with everything.  

Matt disassembled and assembled this watch 3 times.  First he got everything right before we sent the case to RA, then when the case came back he reassembled it but RA had removed some metal from the rehaut/case wall and we had a crystal and bezel assy issue.  Matt figured out a way to solve this issue and reassembled the watch again and then it was ready to come home.

 

Build Specs:

Cartel donor 1675 with ETA clone movement.  Movement runs good and everything works as it should.  GMT hand functions correctly.

Case modified by Rolex Addict

Used the hands from the Cartel donor and lumed by Cwazy.

Genuine dial lume work done by Cwazy1 from RWI.  Cwazy's work is excellent, great comms and quick turnaround.  Will use him again.  Some of the best lume work I have seen.

Genuine brand new insert

Genuine crystal

Genuine crown

Genuine Jubilee, got lucky on this.  The bracelet is perfect for this vintage watch-- just enough wear but not too much stretch.  End links fit nicely--thanks to Matt:)  

 

Cannot thank Matt enough.  He put a lot of time into this project and I am very happy with the results.  I learned much doing this project which will help me in future builds.

 

Some pictures from my iPhone:  FYI, the gap in the in the cg's looks much tighter and better in real life than in the macro close ups.  Hope you like her

 

 

 

 

 

 

And of course a complimentary wristie

 

 

     

[coffindodger]

I see some gorgeous watches on RWG but this is the muts nuts as they say. We'll done mate well worth the hard collecting. Oh and just in case PM sent lol

Have to get in 1st you never know

[fabioliveri]

very nice jobs mate! enjoy it

[tomhorn]

Great work ... now get started on that 1016 ....

[droptopman]

Great work ... now get started on that 1016 ....

Thanks T,

jmb case arrived yesterday and dial and hands are on the way.  I need to find a tutorial on shaping the case properly.  I am going to give this one go myself.  

[tomhorn]

I think LHOOQ's posts on the various case options has some good details. Good luck!

[droptopman]

Great thanks.  I ended up going with the Yuki dial and hands as this is suppose to be somewhat of a "budget build".  Going with ETA 2873, gen crown and crystal.  I have the rivet bracelet that came with my cartel 1675 that I did not use, so I will do some finish work on that and let Matt sort out the end links, but I think it should work fine.  If she turns out really nice, I may look at better dial and bracelet options.  Golf club championship this weekend so tied up both days.  Will not get to shaping the case for a couple of weeks.