Top hat 1680 love, my new everyday beater

[denimhead]

I was recently very fortunate to be able to buy an older MBW from a fellow member, best of all it came with the original hollow link 93150(got some small stamped WSO endlinks on the way). The previous owner had previously sent it to Pbdad for case mods and a beautiful vanilla re lume job  on the dial. But it needed a little TLC on arrival so off it went to Mr steel for a spa break in Finland. Full strip down of the movement with a replacement part required. Re polishing of the top hat plexi and a nice case clean up and a pressure test to confirm the Watch was water tight . As always a prompt professional job by M. Funnily enough I was never really a fan of these plexis back in the day when I wore a gen 5513. But it's funny what age can do and I can't imagine the 1680 with anything else but the slightly strange high top. Well it's now my daily beater and put into service like all of the original tool watch rolex's from the 1970s. When they made watches for men? who did dangerous things! 

Enjoy the pictures 

Dh

[SSTEEL]

Lovely watch mate, enjoy!

[interaktiv]

Beautiful !!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Mike on a bike]

Loving it!

[Lolex_panelai]

congrats mate great piece again

[alligoat]

It sure is hard to beat an MBW with some nice mods. I consider them the equal to their vintage Rolex counterparts at one fifth to one tenth the cost of a gen and it sure is easier and cheaper to keep a Swiss eta running than a Rolex 1575! Nice watch!

[dieselpower]

Nice. Might I suggest a flat top 3? Just sayin'.

[automatico]

"...it sure is easier and cheaper to keep a Swiss eta running than a Rolex 1575!"

+1   That's the truth.  

 

edit 12-7:   "It sure is hard to beat an MBW with some nice mods."

+1 again

I have compared MBK '1680' cases to Yuki and IG44 and they are just about as good imho.  An exception would be that if and when MBK cases get close to Yuki prices, it would probably be better to go with Yuki as they are a precise fit for a rolex movement where the MBK is not a fit for no date models.  Something else to consider is MBK cases have ratty numbers/letters and Yuki numbers/letters are very good.  It will cost at least $100 to put high quality numbers/letters on an MKB case and the case back can not be done to a high standard because it is stamped and most number/letter guys can not do that.  

I made a '5512' out of one MBK and a '5513' out of another using rolex 1570 and 1520 with Yuki dials and they turned out fine.  I changed both bezel assemblies to ST/Clark with GS crystals because they just seem to work a little bit better than the supplied bezel assembly and ufo MBK crystal.  I cut the dial seat/dial window out on one more MBK case to allow the use of a genspec 1680 dial and it turned out fine too.  I used rolex movements only because I have a few but Eta would be a better choice, especially for a watch that will lead a hard life because of part$/$ervice prices.  Rolex 15xx movements are not as rugged as their old National Geographic ads claim (in my experience) so in the long run an Eta has the potential of being much more affordable. 

"I consider them the equal to their vintage Rolex counterparts at one fifth to one tenth the cost of a gen..."

Me too.

I have looked at a lot of $7k to $10k genuine 5512/13/1680 for sale on the 'net and most look pretty rough to me for the $$ they ask.  Taking this into account, an MBK case with a 1520/70 and good dial is not that much of an expense if you are careful with it.  Besides, at the end of the run you can part it out and recover most or all of your $$.

[denimhead]

1 hour ago, dieselpower said:

Nice. Might I suggest a flat top 3? Just sayin'.

Good point diesel,

I did think about grabbing one of petes silver overlays but in the end went for the 'service white' option which has the open 6 and 9 and serif numbers.

 

[username here]

It sure is hard to beat an MBW with some nice mods. I consider them the equal to their vintage Rolex counterparts at one fifth to one tenth the cost of a gen and it sure is easier and cheaper to keep a Swiss eta running than a Rolex 1575! Nice watch!

Would you consider a gen dial or a yuki? I have a 5513 with hen crystal and full gen bezel. Thinking about finishing it off with a new dial and hands.

Sent from my LGLS990 using Tapatalk

[Champagnesky]

Looks great! We need those original hollow link 93150

[Nanuq]

It sure is hard to beat an MBW with some nice mods. I consider them the equal to their vintage Rolex counterparts at one fifth to one tenth the cost of a gen

Amen brother. I wear my frankens with ETA movements mercilessly, as tools, as designed by Rolex. Unfortunately parts for the gens are getting so hard to find, they get little use now. I saw a set of NOS reversing wheels for my 1030 at $530 and that sorta opened my eyes!