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Swimming with vintage mbw watches


manuel

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Sometime ago I did a water resitance test to a mbw 1680. (rep crystal was replaced with gen one)

However machine said not good to swim with it.

Anybody has tried that succesfully?

Any idea on this issue? Thanks, your help is much appreciated.

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Hi manuel , and others .

i am swimming with my new age sub , (pauls so caled perfect) with any problems so far .

I know the title was about vintage models but just wanted to chime in if u guys dont mind .

@ Justasgood .... any chance u coud make a 2mpix picture of that rolex tower on some white background or black background even better , woud like to have that as a background wallpaper on my comp .

regards laz

Edited by lazarini
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Sometime ago I did a water resitance test to a mbw 1680. (rep crystal was replaced with gen one)

However machine said not good to swim with it.

Manuel,

ha ha, I think I have that watch now and just spent a week at the beach with it. It's' been in the pool and the Atlantic ocean.

I did not take it to any depth maybe 6' - 8' but no problems AT ALL.

I love this watch !!! The guy that sold it to me was not too bad either. :thumbsupsmileyanim:

I believe the problem you had was that there was no gasket or glue under the crystal.

Either add the crystal gasket or put some glue under it. (or both)

Lube all the gaskets, put some loc tight blue on the crown tube and swim away.

I have tried to mail you for some time now, but your in box was full. Nice to see you have VIP now.

Take care my friend.

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Manuel,

ha ha, I think I have that watch now and just spent a week at the beach with it. It's' been in the pool and the Atlantic ocean.

I did not take it to any depth maybe 6' - 8' but no problems AT ALL.

I love this watch !!! The guy that sold it to me was not too bad either. :thumbsupsmileyanim:

I believe the problem you had was that there was no gasket or glue under the crystal.

Either add the crystal gasket or put some glue under it. (or both)

Lube all the gaskets, put some loc tight blue on the crown tube and swim away.

I have tried to mail you for some time now, but your in box was full. Nice to see you have VIP now.

Take care my friend.

hello sir L.

so from above u took the cristal off and put glue and gasket under it ? did u test the watch prior to taking a swim or u just said " geeeeeeeeeeronimo" spasssssshhhhh :)

regards laz

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Somewhere on here or TRC there are tips for installing crystals. I say this because every mod I have ever done I owe many thanks to the people here that take time to share the tips they have learned. I am moving along nicely on their coat tails.

I used glue and the gasket under the crystal, loc tight blue on the crown tube, and gaslet lube on all the rubber.

I filled the sink with water and emerged the case. I moved it around and looked for bubbles, so far so good.

I shook it and so far so good. So...............

I took it deap sea fishing and a quick dive to cool off, so far so good.

I took it to the pool for a swim, so far so good.

I took it to the beach, played for 5 days with the wife and kids, NO Problems.

I know this was not the RIGHT way to do it, but it is my watch and was my risk alone.

I was willing to take it and i am glad I did.

I can see me taking my dive watch just to splash around in a pool.

I need to buy a camera so i can share with you guys. Thats my next purchase when $$ allows.

I have never taken too many photos, so I am sure I have a LOT to learn, but its time to give back to those who helped me build a watch that I am in love with.

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Nor me....water and vintage, never the twain shall meet. Treat as if gen.

Doc even if it was a gen i would get it wet,, my wife has a rep 217 and a gen Aqua terra, she will wash the pots in the gen but not the rep!

I see what you are saying and protecting your investment though.

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Doc even if it was a gen i would get it wet,, my wife has a rep 217 and a gen Aqua terra, she will wash the pots in the gen but not the rep!

I see what you are saying and protecting your investment though.

Not sure if it's protection and I certainly don't see watches as an investment even my gens - my 1665 is a tool watch and in winter it's usually my daily beater, but it's like I wouldn't drive a vintage Merc 300SL on the supermarket run or to a business meeting....even though in its time, that's what it would've been used for, these days it should be shown a little more TLC and used for more appropriate occasions. A mindset probably instilled by my father who was an antiques dealer.

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I have a 1665 (Double Red) which I can shower and bathe with no problem. Bought a 1665 (Great White) from the same supplier for a friend of mine - he can't even wash his hands without the watch glass misting up!

I guess its the luck of the draw.

Same for me: some support washing hands, some not !

Even so called "waterproofed" by great members became foggy instantly :wounded1:

Opened the case back and unlocked the crown...waited for 24 hours and it was dry again.

I stay away from water now with all my watches except Seikos, Tissot and Swatch...too risky :Jumpy:

Cheers

Stephane

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Just follow Robert Shaws lead....and only go swimmin'with bow legged wimmin'.....!

"This summer I went swimming

This summer I might have drowned

But I held my breath, I kicked my feet

And I moved my arms around

I moved my arms around

This summer I swam in the ocean

And I swam in a swimming pool

Salt my wounds, chlorine my eyes

I’m a self-destructive fool

Self-destructive fool

This summer I did the back stroke

And you know that that’s not all

I did the breast stroke, the butterfly

And the old Australian crawl

The old Australian crawl

This summer I swam in a public place

And a reservoir to boot

At the latter I was informal

At the former I wore my suit

I wore my swimming suit

Oh, this summer I did swan dives

And jack-knives for you all

And once when you weren’t looking

I did a cannon-ball

I did a cannon-ball

This summer I went swimming

This summer I might have drowned

But I held my breath, I kicked my feet

And moved my arms around

I moved my arms around"

The Golden Rule........these replicas are meant to replicate the look of the genuine watch.....not perform like it.....if you want a watch to go swimming or diving with....buy a Hyper Aqualand pro.....if you want a watch for posing with...buy a rep........real diver's do NOT dive with $4000 Rolex Subs.....or vintage 1665 / 1680 / Comexes......believe me....>!

Edited by TTK
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I agree.

Unless you know what you are doing and have personally disassembled, reassembled (with all new gen seals, gaskets & proper sealants) and just water pressure-tested it, I would never swim, bath, shower or dive with any rep (or vintage gen) watch that is important to you. It is just too risky. Buy a Seiko or new gen Rolex for that.

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ive always swam with all my submariners gen or rep and never had a problem. i wouldnt take a rep breitling chronograph in the water though.. haha..

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Thanks for your help!

Been offline these two last days. I have a new job and little time to surf the forums.

@Lancelot: you have pm. I am glad that you like the watch..you know I asked my watchmaster to replace crystal but you says you have done more modifications to make it waterproof. Nice!

I have to say that I didnt add nor remove any part to the mbw 1680. All of you know that mbw vintages do have a retaining ring like the genuine. This retaining ring pushes the crystal so it cant move..After the crystal and retaining ring are secured you can put the bezel again.

I remember that sometime ago a similar topic like this was discussed and some members (me included) comented that in order to fit the genuine crystal you had to trim down the side of the tropic crystal with a hand file..after that you had to polish the side of the crystal too.

I think all of this is because the retaining ring is thicker than the genuine therefore the gen crystal hardly fits unless modifed.

you may remember I told you this and also suggested you to get a new aftermarket retaining ring for your watch to avoid future modifications. Did you get a new retaining ring? If yes, where? Borel & Jules?

All this mods have been performed by my local watchmaster here in Spain, but most people decide to do this themselves. In the end they are saving money by doing this themselves.

Lancelot, my watchmaster did this to your watch and now he has done this to my new mbw 1680 which will go for Lazarini.

Again thanks everybody for your help.

Neil thanks for the song, this thead would have never been the same without your input.

And yes you are right, people dont go swimming with expensive timepieces.

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I think all of this is because the retaining ring is thicker than the genuine therefore the gen crystal hardly fits unless modifed.

you may remember I told you this and also suggested you to get a new aftermarket retaining ring for your watch to avoid future modifications. Did you get a new retaining ring? If yes, where? Borel & Jules?

All this mods have been performed by my local watchmaster here in Spain, but most people decide to do this themselves. In the end they are saving money by doing this themselves.

Lancelot, my watchmaster did this to your watch and now he has done this to my new mbw 1680 which will go for Lazarini.

manuel,

I used the same retaining ring that was on that watch.

I just added a gasket under the crystal and some glue under the retaining ring.

I have a 1680 I bought from Luckyyy, that I put a gen crystal on myself and it was a [censored]. Something needs to be trimmed down either the inside of the retaining ring or the outside of the crystal, because its very hard to do without.

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Senior Manuel ...

i cant wait for it to arrive :whistling: then some wrist time .... me workin hard ... and the beggining august off to first batch of mods :thumbsupsmileyanim:

tik tak , tik tak ... need a time machine to move this forward :)

Regards Laz

Laz,

manuel is one of the good guys.

manuel,

i have no pm from you.

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Just follow Robert Shaws lead....and only go swimmin'with bow legged wimmin'.....!

"if you want a watch for posing with...buy a rep........real diver's do NOT dive with $4000 Rolex Subs.....or vintage 1665 / 1680 / Comexes......believe me....>!

If I had a gen vintage, I would never swim with it. That's very true.

On the other hand, I have a few MBW vintages, and I swim/dive with them without a second thought.

post-223-1184283285_thumb.jpg

Besides, that Ziggy lume means I need not bring a dive light!

LOL

Bill

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