tomhorn Posted January 8, 2015 Report Share Posted January 8, 2015 I spent a bunch of time talking about the concept of "Happy Accidents" coming into play with my vintage builds when I posted my 5514 thread. Amazingly enough, it's happened again. My wallet is crying "uncle" and I think I am going to have to be done for awhile. OK, who am I kidding? As I mentioned in the 5514 thread, I was already looking at the next project I planned to tackle, a Daytona 6265. I had actually purchased most of what I needed for the build. I found one of the early DW v72 cases, along with an early DW dial, DW handset, and DW bezel from eunomians. Picked up a Gen Vintage 703 crown and tube from Omega for a different project but decided to use it here. A Gen T-21 crystal came from djpropel on eBay, and a gen 7835 bracelet from dropbear2007. One strange thing cropped up. After getting the DW case, I noticed that it had two different pushers! Oops ... So, I picked up a pair of the Ofrei pushers to fix that problem. Everything was coming together nicely ... all except finding a Valjoux 72 that wasn't going to break the bank. Can't tell you how many I got outbid on over the last several months. Agonizing to be sure, as I was stuck here: Before I get any further into the story, I thought I would offer up some help to people looking for Valjoux 72's. Here is a list of all of the donor watch brands I found along the way where you can find them: Aristo, Baylor, Benrus, Bovet, Bucherer, Casper, Certina, Clebar, Enicar, Eterna, Fortis, Gallet, Jardur, Kelbert, LeJour, Minerva, Nicollet, Wakmann, Wittnauer, Wyler, and Zodiac. I'm sure there are others. Searching by brand is the way to go if you are trying to find something under the radar on eBay that you can hopefully score for a good price. Not only was the Valjoux 72 getting to be a difficult hunt, but so was finding a watchsmith to service one now that The Zigmeister has retired. I had a couple of leads, but without the movement in hand, it didn't really matter yet. And then the Happy Accident. Again while minding my own business, along comes a deal too good to pass up. Danielv2000 posted this gem up for sale.http://www.rwgforum.net/topic/174953-sold-zigmeister-built-v72-daytona-6263-a-vintage-classic/ So, the build for sale basically contained everything I had already accumulated (except the panda dial, which I preferred anyway), plus the added bonus of a v72 serviced by none other than the Zigmeister himself. And as fate would have it, the gen T-21 I had actually sold to Danielv2000 to begin with ... Imagine that, a part coming full circle. The watch gods had spoken ... I had to buy it. Dealing with Danielv2000 was a pleasure. Payment was sent, and I now had a finished project in one easy step. Danielv2000 was kind enough to bring it to the States on a trip to eliminate potential customs problems. It was handed off to the USPS, and then the wait began. And continued ... and continued ... and continued ... and ... well you get the point. Seems like the Daytona wanted to see a some of the country first, so she traveled to both coasts. Am guessing she felt the need to dip her toes in both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans or some such nonsense. Must admit I'm a bit surprised she didn't also stop in to see Nanuq and go for a dogsled ride, but at last she finally made it to me. Once unpacked, I was excited to find her in one piece. I already had a gen 7835, so it was time to get it installed. Well, it would have been time, except that the 19mm springbars that I thought I had were now missing ... So, a quick purchase from Phong, and finally I was able to get the bracelet installed. The endlinks are 357's, which don't fit great, but at least I can wear her now! Normally I wouldn't have purchased a finished build. I enjoy the parts hunt too much, and also being able to spread the cost of the purchase over time. This was a special case, because the price of the finished product was not going to be much higher than if I had finished it off using the parts I already had. In fact, depending on the final cost of the v72, getting it serviced and then assembled, it likely would have cost me more to do it myself in the long run, and I wouldn't have had the finished product for awhile. I love a win-win situation. Since I would still like to put my own stamp on things, so she's definitely not done yet. The center seconds hand needs to get fixed, and I will look for a better dial as I'm sure the blemish will get to me after awhile. I also prefer the look of the 6265's bezel, so I wouldn't be surprised if I end up swapping it, and my existing DW case does have a 6263 caseback, so I will probably swap that out too at some point. For now, I'm just going to admire her for a bit. Again, thanks to all the people who helped along the way ... eunomians, Omega, djpropel, dropbear2007, and whoopy12 with the parts I collected. Lhooq, The Zigmeister, and Ubiquitous with question answering. It's a great community! And most importantly, thanks to Danielv2000 for buying my T-21 a long time ago, and then selling it back to me at cost ... along with some additional parts ... So, the final build (as of today) looks like this: DW Case NY Watch Bezel DW Dial (relumed by Zigmeister) Unknown Hands (I assume DW) Gen 703 Crown Gen 703 Tube Gen T-21 Enicar V72 (serviced by Zigmeister) Gen 7835 w/357 endlinks Phong Springbars More pictures to come ... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freddy333 Posted January 8, 2015 Report Share Posted January 8, 2015 Snatching up a franken that crossed Ziggy's bench is quite a coup these days. Congratulations on that well honed beauty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dieselpower Posted January 8, 2015 Report Share Posted January 8, 2015 Great story, lovely watch. I look forward to seeing its development, but for the meantime - enjoy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sgtguk Posted January 8, 2015 Report Share Posted January 8, 2015 Great piece mate, never ceases to amaze me how little things work to get you where you want to be D is a pleasure to deal with too, enjoy her ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
508-Fanatic Posted January 8, 2015 Report Share Posted January 8, 2015 I'm in love... seriously. I really crave having one of those, actually...any Daytona that doesn't suck, but particularly a 6263 or 6265... I'd been looking for a V72 donor watch on eBay, ancient off-brands that people shouldn't know exist or have a V72 chrono in them, but it appears everyone is smartening up and now these beaters are going for big money. damnit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomhorn Posted January 10, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 10, 2015 Some more pics ... 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
panerai153 Posted January 11, 2015 Report Share Posted January 11, 2015 What a great story!!,beautiful watch, certainly my favorite model of all the Daytonas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wiesn089 Posted January 11, 2015 Report Share Posted January 11, 2015 What a beauty! Congratulations! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lhooq Posted January 11, 2015 Report Share Posted January 11, 2015 It's about [censored] time, T! Nicely done! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
POTR Posted January 12, 2015 Report Share Posted January 12, 2015 So TomHorn, about these parts you have going spare... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomhorn Posted January 12, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 12, 2015 Finally found my other cheat-sheet. Here is some more help for those of you searching for donor watches. Valjoux 72 Variations: Valjoux 72 Valjoux 72c - has added calendar complication (need to check to see if it can be removed) Valjoux 730 - has added calendar complication (need to check to see if it can be removed) Valjoux 722 Valjoux 726 Valjoux 727 Other brands caliber designations: Certina 29-052 Certina 29-0531 Certina 29-063 Longines 330 Wittnauer 13W-2 Brands I have seen a v72 in: Clebar Certina Certina DS-2 Heuer Camaro Heuer Autavia Jaeger LeCoultre Breitling Navitimer Wittnauer Girard-Perregaux Gallet Concord Wyler Incaflex 15024 1291 Croton 108-a 42063 (movement g4 tg f-418) Enicar 072/003 2305 Olma Wakmann Benrus Sky Chief (VZ-3 and AXZ on movm't) Schild Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prdubis Posted January 12, 2015 Report Share Posted January 12, 2015 Valjoux 72c and 730 are not good for our builts.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomhorn Posted January 12, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 12, 2015 (edited) I asked several people while I was searching if the calendar parts could be removed on the 72c/730, but never got a definite answer from anyone (hence the disclaimer). Those donor watches always seemed to be cheaper, so I was hoping it would have worked. Edited January 12, 2015 by tomhorn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
POTR Posted January 12, 2015 Report Share Posted January 12, 2015 The calendar versions are for "other" coveted pieces for a more mature audience. And some of those donors, well, let's hope someone wouldn't strip most of them to build a Rolex, especially a Heuer, JLC, Breit, Witt, or GP. Just to make bidding harder for myself... Dugena 4000 And Valjoux VZH The 726 is good to go. and the 727 is Rolex (72). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meadowsweet_ Posted April 26, 2015 Report Share Posted April 26, 2015 Tomhorn THANK YOU for all the great info on V72 movement donors/variations, I am frantically taking notes over here. Just purchased a 6263 case set from Jensen and share a love of the parts hunt. Can't wait to get started in earnest on my build and threads like this afford me an opportunity to get a great head start Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alligoat Posted April 28, 2015 Report Share Posted April 28, 2015 Boy, you did get a sweet deal from Daniel- congrats on a beautiful watch! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freddy333 Posted April 28, 2015 Report Share Posted April 28, 2015 Ditto Alligoat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomhorn Posted April 28, 2015 Author Report Share Posted April 28, 2015 Boy, you did get a sweet deal from Daniel- congrats on a beautiful watch! Yes, I consider myself very fortunate in that respect. It really came out to about the same as I would have spent completing the build I was in the middle of, and I saved a lot of time and frustration of getting outbid for donor watches on eBay. She's still not done though. I have a couple of tweaks left to do, including swapping the caseback for a 6263, and perhaps replacing the pushers and crown. I would love to find a better dial too due to the flaw at 12 minutes (which surprisingly doesn't bother me as much as I thought it would). The old school DW dials really are excellent. Finding anything better these days pretty much means going gen I think, but I don't remotely have the budget for that. Tomhorn THANK YOU for all the great info on V72 movement donors/variations, I am frantically taking notes over here. Just purchased a 6263 case set from Jensen and share a love of the parts hunt. Can't wait to get started in earnest on my build and threads like this afford me an opportunity to get a great head start That's what the forum is all about ... sharing intel ... This is not a build for the faint at heart, so good luck on your project. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meadowsweet_ Posted April 30, 2015 Report Share Posted April 30, 2015 Thank you. Definitely in it for the long haul with the build. Wouldn't be able to do it without gents like you and the other resident Dayto experts here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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