Something, This Way Comes

[freddy333]

The freddy333 Daytona

[freddy333]

The best things in life are free. The 2nd best are very expensive and look like they came from Tiffany's.

[alt.watch.obsessive]

Looks great Freddy!
 

TRL is “thin red line” in honor of our dear departed friend Bob 🙂. 

[alligoat]

Great write up freddy! I thoroughly enjoyed it. Can't decide if I need to get a modern Daytona, I'm more of a vintage guy, but we shall see. A 116500 with the ceramic bezel might do the trick. Cheers!

[freddy333]

On 1/5/2023 at 2:37 PM, alligoat said:

A 116500 with the ceramic bezel might do the trick. Cheers!

 

I would have gone with 1 of those as well (the white dialed 116500 is the 3rd most beautiful watch I have ever seen), but they are much too common now (the most hyped watch in history). So I decided to go with the previous version (116520), since its time as The IT Watch passed several years ago. I think most now assume that those 116520s that remain on wearers' wrists today must be 'old' gens. I also have to say that having lived with a 4130-powered watch for awhile now, I am sold. This thing is a Mack truck wrapped in a Mercedes SL body. The 4130 is just all-around better than ANY other chrono movement ever made. & I do not say that lightly. Everything about this watch is just better than all Daytonas that came before. &, yes, that includes my beloved Newmans. That is how good modern Daytonas are (& the clones are functionally gens). These Daytona clones singlehandedly renewed my PASSION for watches. They are perfect platforms for those of us who enjoy the challenge of frankens.

If you have ANY interest in Daytonas & have the discretionary cash, I would pull the trigger & just get 1 of these clones into your collection as soon as you can.

The Rise And Fall Of The Hype Watch

[ceejay]

Wow! Did you swap out the balance & bridge - straight swap?

Forget that, obviously both as the gen has no regulator arm.

 

 

[freddy333]

The 2023 Platinum Daytona (ref 126500) becomes the 1st sport model offered with a display caseback. It also has an updated 4131 movement. The 4131 is supposed to have a few less parts, but I do not know which parts were removed or why. What I do know is that the new movement is now decorated (not to my liking) & fitted with a skeletonized, yellow gold rotor & 'improved' ball-bearing system. I was not aware of any general problems with the 4130's rotor bearing, so the 'improvement' may be in manufacturing process & not the movement's performance. But, since they greatly increased the number of balls in the bearing (it looks like they went from 7 balls in the 4130 to 30 or 40 in the 4131), I am not sure about this? Rolex says 'the self-winding mechanism is also more durable thanks to the optimized ball bearing in the Perpetual rotor'.

Rolex is now surrounding the ceracrom bezels with metal, which I imagine is designed to address the increasingly common problem of shattered bezels due to side impacts.

[Tribal]

Also new.

Gesendet von meinem 2107113SG mit Tapatalk

[freddy333]

3 minutes ago, Tribal said:

Also new.

Yes, it looks like they installed a 16520 dial in a steel-surrounded, ceracrom bezeled 116500LN. That dial was never my cup of tea.

[freddy333]

Since a few people have messaged me asking about the rubber strap, here is a link to Horus rubber straps.

[freddy333]

Update --

 

After nearly 4 months of nearly daily driving, the Big Kahuna continues to exceed Rolex's specs -- running within +/- 1 sec/day!

On my Timegrapher, in all positions, it returns no more than 2 secs deviation with 0.1% beat error and an amplitude of between 285-310. Typical rates for a modern, well-regulated 4130-powered Daytona. Because the fashionistas are now fixated on the latest, ceramic-bezeled models, these more understated, all-steel classics tend to fly below the-radar, which is more my style.

& values for white, APH-dialed Daytonas (not counting the racy chrono sweep hand) are once again heading for the stratosphere.

[swdivad]

That's a fantastic build Freddy!

Do you think the QF 116520 is the best out of the box these days compared to the others like Clean and BT?

[automatico]

"...Chinese factories are filling the widening void by pumping out fakes that are nearly indistinguishable -- visually, tactilely & functionally -- from what Rolex is producing at a fraction of the cost."

 

I see this as one hundred percent true.

All they need to do to put RWC farther back in the rearview mirror is up the reliability a few notches and supply low cost repair parts.

Otoh, RWC will try every way they can to influence 'Chinese Officials' to crack down on the replica factories, maybe by giving them genuine  rolex watches.  Ha!

One BIG problem with this is (my guess), the 'Chinese  Officials' are crooked as a barrel of fish hooks and will take the genuine watches and  bribes from the replica factories for a win-win and do nothing. 

 

Business as usual.

 

As for me personally...

With the exception of a steel Daytona like Freddy has and very few others, I would not hit a bull in the azz for a modern rolex watch. 

Why not?

Because I am solidly stuck in the quagmire of 'four digit' rolex watches...genuines, Frankensteins, and replikines.

 

"If it don't wear Plastic, it ain't Fantastic."    

[freddy333]

9 hours ago, swdivad said:

That's a fantastic build Freddy!

Do you think the QF 116520 is the best out of the box these days compared to the others like Clean and BT?

Of the 3 factory offerings on Andrew's site, I selected the 1 that contained the fewest & least objectionable sins to my eye. As always, others sensitivities may differ from mine, so you should carefully research each factory's offering & make your selection. Of course, if you are frankening your watch, everything but the case can be corrected with gen parts.

But, as I said, out of the box, these are all so accurate that it is difficult to call them fakes, at least in the way we have traditionally classified non-Rolex-built Rolexes.

1 month ago, I set my franken 116520's time to our server's clock &, as of today, it is still within 1 sec of the server's clock. I continue to be amazed at the technical brilliance of the 4130's design & the Chinese ability to clone it for a fraction of the original's cost.