Very Tropical MBW Rlx 1680 Red Sub

[slay]

A few weeks back, someone purchased the very last stock of MBW watches, because the owners are closing down their shop. I wasn't really planning on building another watch, since I already have too many on my bench, but I figured what the heck, this is your last chance to own a piece of rep history.

 

As chance would have it, around the same time I got my hands on a very nice gen old stock Tropic 127 Top Hat Crystal. These are pretty rare and differ from the current T127 in the sense that they look like a top hat and don't have a beveled edge. Pretty hard to get and expensive for a piece of plastic, but the crystal is really what makes the watch, just like a suit makes a gentlemen. Vintage Rollies will look significantly different with one vs. another crystal.

 

The other part that makes a watch look the part is the dial. To distinguish the 1680 a bit from my DRSD, I wanted this one to look tropical. Through a friend, I managed to get a Tropical brown 1680 Red dial with genuine specs. This was a blessing and a curse, because the rehaut in the MBW 1680 case is really made for 5513 dials, so it's about 0.5mm too narrow, so my dial was a 0.5mm too big, or to put it more accurately, my rehaut was 0.5mm to narrow.

 

 

Thankfully, I'm not the type to back away from a challenge and I now have the right tools to correct that. To be honest, I got tired of waiting for other people to do such work for me, often to dissatisfying results, so I started accumulating all tools I need to do case reshaping, crown/tube/crystal installation, servicing movements... you name it. It takes a bit of practice, but it's totally rewarding in the end (and this is from someone who makes his money in an entirely different industry! I think we had one set of 15$ screwdrivers from amazon at home before I ventured out and got all this equipment). Having said that, there are still a few select guys here that I trust with my watches and I still send them to these guys for certain specialty mods that I believe they can do a lot better than I can. But I do as much of the work as possible by myself. 

 

 

 

Case Work:

Reducing the dials diameter by 0.5mm would have been a tough challenge without damaging the dial and it would have made the chapter ring too narrow for a 1680, so I had no choice but to make the rehaut bigger.

 

Using a digital caliper, a Dremel Flex Shaft Attachment and a carbide burr, I started carefully opening up the rehaut and additionally carved a little edge into it to hold the dial. To visualize the process, take a look at the schema below. I basically had to cut out the red part to use the gen spec dial:

 

 

 

You can probably imagine that this was tedious work, I had to disassemble, carve, sandpaper, polish, measure and assemble the watch at least 20 times over and over to get it right. Personally, I need to hold the case in one hand and the burr on a flex shaft in the other to do this right, which is of course pretty dangerous, so I don't recommend doing this when you are tired! It's possible to use a Vise instead of holding it in your hand, but I felt I got better results using both hands.  

In the end, it was totally worth it, I adore this dial! 

 

I slightly aged the rest of the case + lugs as well without overdoing it.

 

Crown Guards:

In addition to the rehaut, I also slightly filed down the crown-guards, not too much, since the 1680 tends to have thicker crown-guards than the 5513 for example, and the CGs are already pretty good on the MBWs. For a lot of other cases (or for other reference numbers), you'll have to trim the CGs from the outside, which is a lot of work. 

 

As you can see here, the gen 1680 has thicker crown guards:

 

 

You also see in the picture above that the gen 1680 has a I__I shape around the backside of the CGs. Most reps don't have this, they are shaped like this: \__/ - which is incorrect for the 1680. Mine is of course shaped like the Gen  

 

 

Bezel:

As you can imagine, the black stock bezel insert looked hideous with the tropical dial, so I had to find a way to make it look the part. This was the first bezel I tried to age, so I figured it's probably a wise idea to experiment with the stock bezel and not with an expensive aftermarket. 

I used a combination of 400/600/800/1200/1500 & 3000 grit sandpaper, UV lamp and a blow-torch to arrive at the tropical brown look you can see below and I'm pretty happy with the result. I may change the insert for a different fat font insert at some point and repeat the procedure, but for now this will do just fine! 

 

I sanded and polished the bezel ring a few times and glued the insert in-place with a tiny amount of resin.

 

 

Crown/Tube:

I re-tapped the case with 3 different M3x0.35 taps to accept a gen spec tube from Clark and installed a genuine 703 crown. I created a counter-sunk for the tube using a round carbide burr.

 

 

 

Lug Holes:

I used a 1.25mm drill to drill the lug-holes for proper 2mm springbars, only to find out that the  MBW rep bracelet's center-end-links don't accept 2mm spring-bars (grrrr). So now I need to get a different bracelet or change the last link that connects to the end-links. It's not feasible to drill a bigger hole into the last center link, I tried with various HSS drills and increased their size by 0.05mm increments, but the metal on these links is just too rigid to open up the hole properly. The drills that I use to drill holes into cases for crown/tube aren't gonna cut it with the bracelet's center-end-link.  

 

 

If anyone has an idea about the bracelet (either opening the last center links hole, or changing the last center link to something more suitable), I'd be happy to hear suggestions! As far as I know the hollow link MBW bracelets are the next best thing to a gen bracelet.

 

 

Considering the time, tools and money I put into the work and the parts I could have probably gotten a genuine 1680, but honestly, it wouldn't looks as pretty as mine. A cheap gen would look like any out-of-the-box rep if you ask me! The pretty and tropical gen specimens go for a 20k and up.

 

 

 

Look at the watch before and after, if you ask me there are world between them!

 

[508-Fanatic]

That's pretty friggin fantastic man, nice work! 

[jackflash]

Very nice! Thanks for sharing. It makes all the difference when you do your own mods.

[slay]

Very nice! Thanks for sharing. It makes all the difference when you do your own mods.

Yeah, unfortunately I had too many bad experience with so called 'expert modders' who had 'raving reviews'

[Ezio]

Amazing actually looking for a 1680  

first dips if you sell haha 

wear It Well mate  

[CharlieUK]

wow!!!

What a great project!!!

The dial is kinda like a mark V but with a different "f" in the ft, very cool.

Who did the relume? Looks amazing.  Are those mbw hands?

As for the bracelet, I just used a drill press and a vise with leather to hold the last link in place.

I used some oil, a low speed, and very slow.

 

[Dlf]

Great looking sub,

nicely executed mods too, great satisfaction in that

congrats!

[Nanuq]

Thanks for detailing how you did this build.  It was a pleasure walking thru it with you.

Now for the really serious question... when can I send you mine for the same treatment!

Congratulations! 

[alligoat]

That dial makes that whole watch- I love it!

[slay]

wow!!!

What a great project!!!

The dial is kinda like a mark V but with a different "f" in the ft, very cool.

Who did the relume? Looks amazing.  Are those mbw hands?

As for the bracelet, I just used a drill press and a vise with leather to hold the last link in place.

 

I used some oil, a low speed, and very slow.

 

Hmm, I'll try reducing the speed and see if that helps, I think 5k rpm is the lowest I can go on my dremel... is that slow enough?

Regarding the lume: I did the hands myself to match the dial, the dial was already lumed when I got it

Thanks for detailing how you did this build.  It was a pleasure walking thru it with you.

Now for the really serious question... when can I send you mine for the same treatment!

Congratulations! 

Likewise, thanks for all your wisdom  Because it's almost impossible to buy exactly the parts you need for one watch, I have way too many more builds in the pipeline, at some point I may start selling some of the pieces

You end up buying a part, doesn't fit your case, then you buy another, but what are you gonna do with the initial part? A second case of course... multiply this by all the parts you need for a build and there you go. It all evens out at some point if you keep building stuff, so waste material is kept to a minimum hehe

Edited December 11, 2015 by slay

[automatico]

You did good!

It would be nice if someone who knows the MBK story (who, what, when, where) would post it now that they are RIP.

[StormTooper4]

Super looking piece. Lovely to behold 

[pam007]

The amount of dedication people have on this forum is incredible

Good job taking it to the next level.

Looks great !!

[wiesn089]

Stunning build, one of the best I've seen on here! Could you share more info on that dial? Origin etc.? A 1680 ropical meters first is still on my list, perhaps the maker has some mf as well... 

[Katerchen]

Very nice built Slay

i can say you developed some decent skills....

wear it well bro!

George

[Nanuq]

What he said.... and it's nice to have you around again George!

[panerai153]

WOW!!!! Man, that is a fantastic job. Kudos to you for all the time and work.

I totally agree about the parts. I probably have three drawers in my tool chest with nothing but parts that were " supposed to fit" but didn't!! I probably need to have a garage sale at some point!

To me the 1680 is probably the icon of vintage Rolex watches. I know that many would not agree, especially the guys who are in to vintage Daytonas. But back in it's day, it was THE watch to have if you wanted a rugged, reliable "tool" watch.

Yours is a beautiful example. Now all you need is a gen Pearl to finish it off. Great job!

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[mjmj]

Wow, great work and effort.Thanks for the great description of your work. The watch looks fantastic.

[Rolexfinder]

Wow. You are the man who can really mod the watch. It is way nicer than the original. ^&^

Sent from my SM-G925I using Tapatalk

[CharlieUK]

Hmm, I'll try reducing the speed and see if that helps, I think 5k rpm is the lowest I can go on my dremel... is that slow enough?

Regarding the lume: I did the hands myself to match the dial, the dial was already lumed when I got it

Likewise, thanks for all your wisdom  Because it's almost impossible to buy exactly the parts you need for one watch, I have way too many more builds in the pipeline, at some point I may start selling some of the pieces

You end up buying a part, doesn't fit your case, then you buy another, but what are you gonna do with the initial part? A second case of course... multiply this by all the parts you need for a build and there you go. It all evens out at some point if you keep building stuff, so waste material is kept to a minimum hehe

5000?!?!? Oh no!
You need a press to be in the hundreds!

Good luck!

 

[slay]

5000?!?!? Oh no!You need a press to be in the hundreds!

Good luck!

 

Even if I use HSS bits in 0.05mm increments? This worked fine for drilling a hole for the tube... I believe I even used 10k rpm for the tube hole.

[dieselpower]

Great to see that plexi on such a fantastic build. Great stuff, wear it well.

[CharlieUK]

Even if I use HSS bits in 0.05mm increments? This worked fine for drilling a hole for the tube... I believe I even used 10k rpm for the tube hole.

Guess it can't hurt to try.But I always broke bits at high speed in my expience. Good luck!

[Tiyal]

Great work and write up!!! Love it

[hugop]

In regard to the bit speed. I have had good success with stainless cases using HSS bits and my drill press set to 600rpm. There is quite a lot of posts on the net discussing bit speed and different materials.

Beautiful result with the insert/dial match!