A Tale of 2 Daytonas

[freddy333]

As any of you who have been collecting reps for more than a few years probably know, experience is a 2-sided sword. That favorite rep you proudly wore 10 years ago (thinking that it looked like a digital copy of the gen when you bought it) became an embarrassingly laughable hunk of worthless metal as you read & gained more knowledge. Today, that previously coveted piece just gathers dust at the bottom of a rarely opened drawer or back of a closet.

In my case, here is 1 of my 1st vintage Daytonas presented in all of its (almost accurate) glory next to 1 of my DWs (if you need a caption to tell which is which, you have alot of reading to do)

Anyone else have before & after pics of 1 of your 'learning experiences' that you are not too embarrassed to show?

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Mods -- Although the examples included in my post happened to be Rolexes, this thread was not intended to be Rolex-specific (it is open to any & all brands). So why was this moved out of the General Discussion forum?

[giorgio]

I'm sure most of us have far worse examples of what we once thought were "Swiss replicas". I'm thinking faux chronos and chrome plated brass...

[archibald]

I've got a watchbox full of them--not only the "freezed" seconds daytona but also the famous panda dial "PAM 163," a Day date Lange 1815 "chrono," A just plain bizarre quartz/automatic "FP Journe," even a Caltrava with the quartz sub seconds ticking away. My thought on all of them was, "who's gonna know?"

Funny thing is those daytonas look pretty good to me which shows you what I know...I'm wierdly ambivalent about even potentially great daytonas...I've been sitting on a gen gold bezel, refurbished el primero, gen brown strap, and NOS black/gold dial for over two years. For some reason, I can bring myself to neither sell off the parts or shell out the dough needed to complete the project.

[freddy333]

Funny thing is those daytonas look pretty good to me which shows you what I know...I'm wierdly ambivalent about even potentially great daytonas...I've been sitting on a gen gold bezel, refurbished el primero, gen brown strap, and NOS black/gold dial for over two years. For some reason, I can bring myself to neither sell off the parts or shell out the dough needed to complete the project.

Lends new meaning to being stuck between a rock & a hard place.

It sounds like you have already laid out the cash for the expensive parts, so all you need is a case & hands. I recently bought a set of gen Daytona hands for under $300 & I think Ubi or someone recently mentioned they had an extra 16520 case they could make available for anyone building a Daytona. Seems so close to stay so far. Or did you have an all-gold (gen) case in mind? In that case........Waiter, check please.

[youpmelone]

Ow boy, good topic.

I have a tag Monaco which is a joke. Omega's which are far fantasy and a JLC which I love.. only one hand is missing :-))

[llsteve80]

Man I need to check my computer and see if I have the pics I put on the old board. I deleted them from my photobucket unfortunately.

[dippy]

The one of the left is a gen, right???????????????

I too used to have pics from earlier this decade, but I deleted them. I remember my first Daytona rep. It had the nice new bracelet and a smooth sweeping movement. It even told me what day of the month it was because it was a "custom piece"! As long as I didn't take it off and show the "Daytona 24" markings on the back, I was golden!!!!!!!!!!!!

God, I was an idiot back then........

[freddy333]

God, I was an idiot back then........

No, you just had alot to learn.........like everyone else when we are just starting out.

[archibald]

Lends new meaning to being stuck between a rock & a hard place.

It sounds like you have already laid out the cash for the expensive parts, so all you need is a case & hands. I recently bought a set of gen Daytona hands for under $300 & I think Ubi or someone recently mentioned they had an extra 16520 case they could make available for anyone building a Daytona. Seems so close to stay so far. Or did you have an all-gold (gen) case in mind? In that case........Waiter, check please.

Yeah, I was thinking full 18k--I figure the rep gen ratio is a little high w/ TT since I see them on TZ for 7.8k sometimes, and the value of the parts I already have is over 2k.

At first I was going to buy 1 of the ubi-sourced cases and plate it, then thought that would be cheesy and considered having one of those same cases and casebacks induction cast in 18k using a few inherited kugeraands sitting in my safe for the gold content(I figure if I'm going to store gold I might as well do it in a watch I like) but then learned that while the casting can be done relatively easily, matching the gold color of the bezel would be a btch. I may actually make a try @ the casting thing when I run out of the projects I'm already doing. But I bet I end up fantasizing about the day gold prices drop to a sane level and someone decides to come out w/ an 18k rep case.