Slay's Rolex 5513 Vintage build w/ Tropical GILT Dial & Hands

[slay]

My goal was to build a 5513 that aged like it's seen the world. It's not about beating-up a watch, but making it believable that it is 50+ years old. I guess I'd call it "giving the watch it's character". It's the little details that make the difference on your wrist!

I absolutely love the way the dial, hands & case turned out on this one. The dial in particular is absolutely gorgeous and the way the GILT Rolex letters reflect the light alter certain angles is unmatched by any cheap printed dial. There's a reason why a GILT dial alone on a gen Rolex adds about 30.000$ to it's price.

Doing these build properly takes a lot of time, I often start work on a watch and then abandon it for weeks until I have an eureka moment about something I could do to get the look that I want on the dial, hands, case, and so on. I also lost count on how many hand-sets, bezel inserts and dials I wasted due to experimenting (so don't feel bad if you ended up damaging parts while trying something new :)).

 

What I used:
CASE: 5513 from Sead
BEZEL: Phong Fat Font Insert
BRACELET: Yuki 7206 Folded Bracelet
MOVEMENT: Replaced w/ a low-beat 2813
DIAL: Tropical GILT dial from Vietnam
HANDS: Clark's GILT Mercedes Hands
CRYSTAL: Michael Young (CWP) Tropic 19
CROWN/TUBE: Athaya 700

What I did:
CASE:
The stock case was too round for my taste and the stock lugs slightly too thick, so I completely reshaped the case from all sides and angles (including the lugs from top, bottom & side).
I re-defined & polished the bevels/chamfers several times to make them look like they would look on a watch that has been polished (but not extremely over-polished) the years.
Crown guards were trimmed on the inside and re-shaped from the outside. 
After getting the case in the correct shape, I aged it & polished it several times over and over to give it character. 
Last but not least, I drilled the tube hold, tapped new threads and drilled a cut a countersink to install the 700 tube properly (without the countersink, the tube and as a result the crown will stick out too far and look hideous).

DIAL:
I aged the lume of the gilt dial & gave it a nice patina as I'd expect it on a watch that has gone so tropical. I also aged the dial itself a little to give it some patina that goes well with the tropical turned brown color - not full-blown radium dust like I did on another build recently (since this represents a tritium watch), but a little to make it believable that there was some radioactive substance, sun-light and other corroding factors present. 

HANDS:
I used several steps involving different mixtures made of various minerals & chemicals and even soft-drinks to get this look that resembled old gilt tritium hands.

BRACELET:
The 7206 bracelet from Yuki looked like it was brand new, especially the inside of the bracelet (which was brushed) bugged me, since I own a few genuine folded rolex bracelets and a bracelet this old shouldn't be brushed on the inside anymore - even if has been restored at some point.  I aged & polished the inside of the Yuki bracelet to mimic the look of my well-taken-care-off gen folded bracelets.

BEZEL:
It's a phong fat font insert that was aged, browned, re-coated and pressure-fit into the the bezel ring. 

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Note about my Vintage Builds:
I often receive PMs from members asking me if I could build a specific watch for them, but I declined all of these requests for the reason I mentioned earlier - doing these vintage builds properly takes time and passion for the work. I don't think you can do this on a "contract basis". I end up selling many of my watches, but even if I start building something with the intention of selling it later-on, I build each one of them as if I'd build them for myself. 

So if you like some of the watches I build so much that you want one, I appreciate the trust and I'm definitely flattered, but I'd ask you to not PM me and ask me to build a specific watch for you. I'll put up whatever I decide to sell in the Sales Section.

Eye-candy:

[Bart Cordell]

Impressive as always

Did you see my PM ?

[ogladio]

Fantastic build, my hat off to you Sir! You have managed to create something truly unique here with a lot of character and soul - and that also without use of gen or even that expensive parts. Thanks for sharing!

[Nanuq]

Very very nice. I've been thinking about going with dark saturated hands like that on the Big Gonzo.

[slay]

52 minutes ago, Bart Cordell said:

Impressive as always

Did you see my PM ?

Yes I think I saw the notification email while I was on vacation  I'll get back to you tomorrow evening when I have a bit more time

 

28 minutes ago, ogladio said:

Fantastic build, my hat off to you Sir! You have managed to create something truly unique here with a lot of character and soul - and that also without use of gen or even that expensive parts. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks  

 

11 minutes ago, Nanuq said:

Very very nice. I've been thinking about going with dark saturated hands like that on the Big Gonzo.

Make sure you experiment with cheap (or already damaged) hands  I believe I used purple gatorade in the mix, which may have given them that dark color. I can't say for sure though, I made these hands almost a year ago and then used them for this build

[freddy333]

I normally do not like artificially (over) aged Subs, but this 1 just works. Kudos Slay!

[highoeyazmuhudee]

looks very good

[mir36]

Congratulations for the build and thank you for sharing the knowledge.  

Question on how you aged the dial.  Looking at the macro shots, is that lacquer spackling or did you bead-blast the dial?