altesporsche Posted April 1, 2017 Report Share Posted April 1, 2017 On 2017-03-31 at 10:14 AM, Dlf said: I haven't seen much deviation on the bars on a 5517 milsub, all seem to have been press fit. The 6538/a is a little More confusuing . I also believe that even if you welded a case of exactly the same steel 316l for example the only way to verify the new metal is x-ray, I'd love to try and see ..as it's only what I've read on the interweb, and you know how that goes. oh and that 5517 .... glws. It would still be next to impossible to tell as the original cases were not milled from forged ingots. So the grain structure will not have a uniform pattern anyways. The original bars bars were slightly over and press fit in, punched, then polished flat with the case. As many of of have said, everything about this watch stinks. The cornet on the dial is wrong and there was only one dial on these subs, the same dial as the 5513 pre comex feet first. The minute hand is too long, the seconds hand is too long ( so not original) I can see these things from a quick look. The pictures don't show the 660ft where the 6 should be open. The insert is a Replacement for sure with that lume dot and I'm somewhat curious about the hour hand as well, but I'll have to look deeper. This is not a $130k watch and anyone who buys this as an original milsub at any price is a fool and foolish investments like this will have them parting with the majority of their funds on bad investments soon enough. Spending this his kind of money on a vintage Rolex, you really need to know what you are looking at. Yea the milsubs are collectable because they are rare and have a bit of history, but they are base subs and nothing really special in my eyes. To be honest the couple thousand dollar franken I'm building right now is the most I would spend on one lol 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sogeha Posted April 1, 2017 Report Share Posted April 1, 2017 The way I look at watches like this is you can either build a franken or buy at the top end from a very reputable seller. If you do the former, you have a convincing watch you can wear, the later is a watch I doubt many would be comfortable wearing and buying anywhere else in the market is likely to be paying well over the odds for a franken anyway. Same goes for COMEX subs 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dlf Posted April 1, 2017 Report Share Posted April 1, 2017 2 hours ago, altesporsche said: It would still be next to impossible to tell as the original cases were not milled from forged ingots. So the grain structure will not have a uniform pattern anyways. The original bars bars were slightly over and press fit in, punched, then polished flat with the case. As many of of have said, everything about this watch stinks. The cornet on the dial is wrong and there was only one dial on these subs, the same dial as the 5513 pre comex feet first. The minute hand is too long, the seconds hand is too long ( so not original) I can see these things from a quick look. The pictures don't show the 660ft where the 6 should be open. The insert is a Replacement for sure with that lume dot and I'm somewhat curious about the hour hand as well, but I'll have to look deeper. This is not a $130k watch and anyone who buys this as an original milsub at any price is a fool and foolish investments like this will have them parting with the majority of their funds on bad investments soon enough. Spending this his kind of money on a vintage Rolex, you really need to know what you are looking at. Yea the milsubs are collectable because they are rare and have a bit of history, but they are base subs and nothing really special in my eyes. To be honest the couple thousand dollar franken I'm building right now is the most I would spend on one lol Hey so did you get those nice parts? Or what?! Look forward to you're build 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
automatico Posted April 1, 2017 Report Share Posted April 1, 2017 "The way I look at watches like this is you can either build a franken or buy at the top end from a very reputable seller." Yep. I go with option 1. Frankenstein would be the only way to go at current prices. Q...Why? A1...Because I do not trust 'dealers/sellers' no matter what. I have known too many and most of them are slicker'n a newborn maggot. A 2...Because there is no telling where the market will go. A 3...Because we do not know how good the counterfeiters really are. The $130k '100% original and genuine' silly-milly sub sold at auction last year just might be a knockoff and get busted. That would kill the market. Knowing what I know (and it ain't much), I have no doubt whatsoever that it is possible to make brand new 'old' rolex watches today. Just look at how close we can get for $3k or less. How close could we get for $20k or $25k? Prettydamclose is my guess. You take a highly experienced vintage rolex guy with a machine shop and plenty of time (no wife/GF chewing on him 24/7, no cell phone/internet addiction), and he could surely crank out a perfecto case (starting with available offerings) in a month or two that would pass for 45 years old. The remaining hurdles are the dial/hands/bez/insert. No doubt there are 'specialists' somewhere making them too. Probably out west somewhere right now...pizzing on dials to age them in the desert sun. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
altesporsche Posted April 1, 2017 Report Share Posted April 1, 2017 Couldn't agree with you more ? I bet if I really wanted to, along with several others here, could build a 5517 that would be indistinguishable from a gen.. it would cost a lot and a lot of time, but I can put money on it being very hard to tell even with someone who really knows vintage Rollie's ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
manodeoro Posted April 1, 2017 Report Share Posted April 1, 2017 6 hours ago, Sogeha said: The way I look at watches like this is you can either build a franken or buy at the top end from a very reputable seller. If you do the former, you have a convincing watch you can wear, the later is a watch I doubt many would be comfortable wearing and buying anywhere else in the market is likely to be paying well over the odds for a franken anyway. Same goes for COMEX subs +100 ... dont even need to build a real franken Here's a 76K$ 16800 COMEX sub ... not sure anyone would feel comfortable wearing such a watch and here is what you can get with 16610 dial and some skills ... just put it in a modded 16610 case with drilled lugs and 93150 bracelet ... enjoy 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sogeha Posted April 1, 2017 Report Share Posted April 1, 2017 Nice square "O" to that as well. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
automatico Posted April 4, 2017 Report Share Posted April 4, 2017 British mil sub info: http://www.mwrforum.net/forums/showthread.php?78829-The-Early-Rolex-Military-Submariners Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
altesporsche Posted April 5, 2017 Report Share Posted April 5, 2017 The preliminary build of mine looks more the part than the one for $130k ? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RickFlorida Posted May 15, 2017 Report Share Posted May 15, 2017 Yeah, they sell X-ray machines for testing the alloy composition of gold, platinum, etc. Jewelry. When you say "press fit" for the 5517 lug bars.... where they really only press fit in and not brazed/soldered in? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
altesporsche Posted May 18, 2017 Report Share Posted May 18, 2017 On 2017-05-15 at 11:06 AM, RickFlorida said: Yeah, they sell X-ray machines for testing the alloy composition of gold, platinum, etc. Jewelry. When you say "press fit" for the 5517 lug bars.... where they really only press fit in and not brazed/soldered in? The gen bars were knurled and pressed then ground flat and polished. No brazing as far as I know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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