Mitch3390 Posted December 4, 2019 Report Share Posted December 4, 2019 Hi. Respectfully I am new to the site and although I have read a lot on building a 1655 I know I don't posses the skills I ve seen on this site to be able to build one. Could someone kindly advise me on weather there are certain members that actual sell finished watches as I would dearly love to own one of these builds. kind thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HaydenM Posted December 4, 2019 Report Share Posted December 4, 2019 Hey Mitch, welcome to the forum. I've built my own watches and not used them so I can't really speak to who's good and who isn't but there are multiple modders or builders around the forum who will do the work of constructing the watched (I'm sure others will have recommendations). As far as buying "finished" watches you have 2 options there, buying a stock watch from a TD, or buying a second hand watch. For the former look into the Trusted Dealers section and look for who may stock a 1655 or similar. For the latter keep an eye on the fora trading areas. If you're looking to build your own then I'd definitely recommend having a look across all the fora into previous builds, there's a lot of great information. Best of luck. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitch3390 Posted December 4, 2019 Author Report Share Posted December 4, 2019 Hi Haden, thank you for the kind advice, very much appreciated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitch3390 Posted December 4, 2019 Author Report Share Posted December 4, 2019 Hi Haden, I have to ask as again with respect I have spent some time now trying to search but the site just refuses my searches. I've never seen this on the internet before but its restricting my searches to "seconds" Its just so very odd and I've never come across this before on a website. I am just not allowed to conduct any search what so ever now. Is there something I am missing? I also now see that unless I pay I can't view anything that's for sale. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kernow Posted December 4, 2019 Report Share Posted December 4, 2019 You can view M2M sales here, but you need to be a paid member to sell on the forum. https://rwg.cc/forum/352-watches/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alligoat Posted December 4, 2019 Report Share Posted December 4, 2019 If you like the 1655 Explorer II, I'd recommend getting a rep first and see how you like it. https://www.pf-868.com/0-00rlex00104-vintage-explorer-ii-1655-ss-ss-blk-asian-2813.html I bought this model 5-6 years ago from Josh and the DG3804 GMT movement has held up well (josh refers to it as a DG2813, but it's really a DG3804). Or you could spend a few dollars more and get it with the Asian 2836-2 movement. To build one will be a challenge- I've been around for a while and I'm not even sure how I'd go about building one. Buying quality parts will be expensive, but that's what you'll need to do first and when you have all the parts together, then you can find someone to build it for you. Or you keep checking the sales forums here and on other rep sites and see if maybe you can find one already built for sale. I wouldn't recommend buying one with a Rolex 1575 GMT movement- you'll spend too much money and then you'll have to deal with keeping it serviced and running- the old Rolex movements are hard to find parts for these days. Good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
automatico Posted December 5, 2019 Report Share Posted December 5, 2019 Imho alligoat's advice is very good...buy a low $$ model and see how you like it. I have one with a DG3804 and it runs fine and the adjustable 24H hand has not caused any trouble but I set it at GMT and leave it alone. Mine came with aged dial markers and hands with an oyster bracelet and overall it looks pretty good. The movement is held in place by case clamps and screws (like the one in the link) and a genuine 1655/1675 crystal will fit if a replacement is ever needed. Also have an ongoing 1655 project with a Phong case and rlx 1575 movement but it has been a real hassle and I do not recommend a project like this unless you can do it yourself to save $$ and control the outcome. You can read about the 1655 project in the rlx sticky section: "Building an MBW Sub + 'shortcut' rlx 1560/70 GMT conversions..." I have abandoned the project for now until I can find a case other than the Phong case because I do not want to use the 'shortcut' GMT conversion in a $1500 case even though I did not pay a whole lot for the case. The cartel case mentioned in the sticky was the case from my DG3804 watch, the dial opening in the case is just too big for an oem spec dial. Have a 1655 with swiss eta 2836 from Abay in 2005 or so and it used a 1680 case and is not really very accurate to an original model...the cutout for the crown is too big and the outer tips of the crown guards are not too good. There used to be a few of them around but I have not seen one for sale in years. The swiss eta GMT has a non adjustable Asian 24 hour conversion and they were basically trouble free but the 2836 has the wrong beat rate compared to a vintage rlx. As for genuine 1655/1675 watches and parts...the movement, all GMT parts, crystals, and bracelets will interchange. The cases, dials, hands, and crowns are different...1655 has a 6.0mm crown, 1675 has a 5.3mm crown. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HaydenM Posted December 6, 2019 Report Share Posted December 6, 2019 On 12/5/2019 at 1:59 AM, Mitch3390 said: Hi Haden, I have to ask as again with respect I have spent some time now trying to search but the site just refuses my searches. I've never seen this on the internet before but its restricting my searches to "seconds" Its just so very odd and I've never come across this before on a website. I am just not allowed to conduct any search what so ever now. Is there something I am missing? I also now see that unless I pay I can't view anything that's for sale. Hey mate, that seconds thing you've come across I believe is an anti-flooding thing the forum has. Just have to wait a little bit between your searches. As for the sales section the link has already been posted there and you can definitely buy without spending money on membership. I think the other gents have given good advice here though. If you're new to the hobby buy yourself a lower to middle range rep from a TD and get a feel for the watch before dropping any serious money on a build. There are some watches that we all love when looking at them but just don't like to wear for whatever reason, better to figure that out with a rep worth a couple of hundred dollars rather than a couple of thousand. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
automatico Posted December 7, 2019 Report Share Posted December 7, 2019 Mitch... You can go to a search site (I use Bing a lot) and type in what you want to know and many times an RWG thread will come up in the search. I do this a lot to keep from using the RWG search. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nanuq Posted December 8, 2019 Report Share Posted December 8, 2019 Our historical versions of the site are also on the Internet Archive Wayback Machine at archive.org Search for RWG.cc and rwgforum.net Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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