Modifying a Silix 5513

[southcoast68]

Hi all

Its been forever since I have really worked on a project, and just today I had the time to start a modding project I wish to share around. I got this 5513 from Silix-Watch around the holidays with the hope of turning it into something a littel different. This is not a franken, but rather seeing what I can do with the standard issue rep stuff. See pics below, more to come later on, comments are always welcome.

Its rather fun to try and make something look like its 40 years old in one afternoon, leaving just enough little scratches behind to make it more believable. I decided that because of the dial, this one would be good as a pointed crown guard model.

I also dunked the bezel insert in bleach for a bit for a more faded look and took off the sharp edges from the bezel teeth so it feels less new.

A few shots of the new crown guards.

A shot of the case and its movement. Comming up, trying to age the hands and dial. Stay tuned.

Edited July 27, 2008 by southcoast68

[alligoat]

I have that same watch, mine came from Paul. I put in a NOS vintage pearl, trimmed the cg's and finally ended up putting a supposedly vintage 5513 dial- I think it's actually new- maybe from Viet Nam- with the yellow aged markers. The 3-6-9 dial is smaller like a gen dial- around 26mm. My next deal is to try to age the 3-6-9 dial by painting the print with a wash to make it more gold looking- maybe a wash/stain of some sort. I like the dial, except for the dial print- too green for me. Good luck.

[pitimany]

So simulated ageing use smoke or black tee stain.

I have that same watch, mine came from Paul. I put in a NOS vintage pearl, trimmed the cg's and finally ended up putting a supposedly vintage 5513 dial- I think it's actually new- maybe from Viet Nam- with the yellow aged markers. The 3-6-9 dial is smaller like a gen dial- around 26mm. My next deal is to try to age the 3-6-9 dial by painting the print with a wash to make it more gold looking- maybe a wash/stain of some sort. I like the dial, except for the dial print- too green for me. Good luck.

[southcoast68]

Well, this has been a long time comming, amazing how time flies, but this one is done (at least to my satisfaction currently). I started this project as an excersise in what you could do with a stock vintage sub (one costing less than say $200 US), a Deremel, some art supplies and a few weekends time. I also thought this would be a good project to cut some teeth on some case modding.

I started with a 3,6,9, dialed 5513 Submariner from Silix (around $200 or so), my trusty Dremel and a small table mounted vise, some Testors gloss clear coat, Testors flat white model paint, coffee grounds, Clorox bleach, GS crystal cement, fine grit sand paper and some jewelers rouge and polishing disks for the Dremel.

I am not good at taking step by step pictures yet since when I get going on something like this, I usually forget to stop at intervals to take pictures and I usually continue to rock on until the end of my spare time. So, the following are the finished product with some captions above each to describe the highlights.

I was interested to find that Silix carries this version of the 5513, the one with the 3,6,9, dial that also has the registration mark (small white line below submariner). For those who don't know, and I take this info from the book "Vintage Rolex Sport Models" by Skeet and Urul, this small mark was applied during the transition to adding the "T<25" to either side of "swiss made", this was a registration mark to ensure the added text showed up in the right place. I also noticed that this model of 5513 was reported to be a pointed crown guards model, so I decided that it would be good to try some crown guard modding. This picture shows the final result, notice I did not bother to shave the inside of the CG's giving them a more GMT like appearence. If I were planning on changing the crown and tube, I probably would have done the inner sides as well, but this crown and tube worked perfectly together, so I left it alone.

The whole case got the once over with the sand paper and then with the polishing pads to remove the "sharp new edges" that the watch had. The case back in particular needed work since it had a new mirror finish to it. It seemed a shame to rough it up, but the end result looks much more like a 40-50 year old watch would.

I also did some dial work since this rep had a matte black dial with gold and white fonts. I do not know if this model would have had a glossy gilt dial, but it was listed as a model from the early '60s, and given the history of Rolex being somewhat inconsistent with its detail wourk back then, I decided I wanted a glossy dial, so out came the Testors gloss clear coat. Upon applying the clear coat, a strange phenomenom had happened, its called blushing. I tried to get the dryest weather possible, but being in Florida, sometimes humidity is all you have, and sometimes it can cause this blushing condition. Its basically slightly duller spots of clear coat along with glossy patches. Whether it was the dial, the conditions that day, or both, the dial dried mostly glossy with touched of duller spots to the outside. I though it was a cool looking affect and left it that way. I am not sure if this photo catches it, it is something that is hard to photo.

The hour markers came as a light shade of cream color that I left alone. What I did try is to age the hands a bit. I decided to paint the second hand white with some Testors flat white (not sure if this woud have been correct for this model, but I liked the idea of doing so), and then I "packed" the hands in wet coffee grounds for a day or two, periodically checking to see if the grounds were still moist. What I got was slightly darker lume on the hands and a light brown staining to the second hand.

The bezel was also worked on, I sanded down the new feeling pointy serations on the bezel and then polished them to be more representative of a 40+ year old bezel which had seen lots of wear. The bezel insert was continually soaked in bleach (10 minutes at a time) until it turned a dull slightly blued and faded hue. The backside of the insert was also sanded down to sit below the top lip of the bezel. The pearl I did nothing with and does look a little out of place, I did consider removing it alltogether, but what do you all think, should I take the pearl out or change it out for an acryllic one?

I was going to drill out the lug holes for genuine size spring bars, but it looked as though the existing holes are a little too close to the edge for it to work. So, instead of tempting fate, I quit while I was ahead and just used some date just sized spring bars which fit fine and offer an improvement over the stock ones.

I replaced the stock crystal as the one it came with was a little too tall and sat crooked on the case to boot. I picked up some aftermarket Sternkreuz T-19 crystals from Borel. This crystal was a hair too wide to snuggly fit the case on the inside diameter, and a bit too narrow too fit the compression ring on the outside diameter, so this crystal had to be glued into place along with the comression ring. Time will tell if my sealing job is up to snuff for the long haul, but for now, the watch looks fantastic with this lower profile crystal.

To me, this modelk always had a military like look to it, so instead of using the stock bracelet, I opted for a nato strap in Khaki Green color.

Here is the finished project next to my 1680 I bought from carlsbadrolex a while back. Sorry carlsbad, but that wonderful weather beaten looking crystal finally just broke apart, so I had to replace it, again with a Sternkreuz T-127 from Borel. Brothers pictured in classic black and white.

So there you have it. I wanted to try and illustrate that anyone can take a stock rep, some basic tools and time and make something a bit more interesting with it. Sure I would have got a better end result with an MBK series sub, but I hope this shows folks that even a budget priced watch can turn into something cool looking. As always, all your opinions and feedback are welcome.

Cheers

PS My last thought for this project was to remove the nato and carry the watch in my pocket with my keys and change for a while so some additional ramdom scratching can take place.

[mrandazzo]

Only gen crown + tube are missing. Great project!

It's amazing to see how you fit a T19 on this rep!

I'm starting to like the 3-6-9 dial...

[lazarini]

First of all congratulations on a great project ...

i have something simillar on the bench of Tribal but we got a bit stuck since we wanted to remove superlume from a NDT dial that was sloppy lumed we hit the wall as the lume did not want to go of and belive me 3 people tried all the tricks (tribal,takashi,kelster) with no luck do ...

Recently i been lucky enough to pickup a dial fro JoJo and is now in transit to Tribals place ... to see if we can finish this off ... the 5513 i have is also a silix case but has been revorked by previous owner justasgood.

Funny u shoud mention the T19 and the silix case my 5513 came with a T39 from clarks but T had no problem to fit the tropic T19 that i have managed to purchase ...

Other then that watch need the dial to be fitted and were pretty much there ... one thing i need also to find is a better insert atm i have a mbw one that has the bolder font that i personally am not a fan of but this can wait ... this watch also features an aftermarket bezel assembly that is imho way superior then the MBW one and some other goodies

i keep u guys updated ...

regards laz

[llsteve80]

that is nice...definately on a college student's budget

And the 3-6-9 dial....wow....had a gen one like 4 years ago.....let the bad boy go for like 150 USD because I couldn't think of what else to do with it....

[Dizzy]

i love pointed crown guards

[southcoast68]

Thanks for all the kind words, I may continue to upgrade it as time goes by, but for now it is finished. I hope to do some additional "mod projects on a budget" and I hope to share those in pictures as well.

[jjfesq]

Nice Work!

[Raijor]

Well done ... pointy crown guards are a rarity

[freddy333]

Excellent work.

[tmg]

Nice post and great work SC!

I'm a fan of the 369 dial too, perhaps some pointed CG's on mine one day