Daytona Modding Question

[jnkay]

I very much like the "white gold"/charcoal black daytona that trusty, josh, etc. have. The dial is, from the pictures, extremely accurate. The thing that bothers me is that it does not have fat hands like it should. It seems that most all the daytonas still have the skinny hands that Rolex doesn't use anymore. The question is, can I fit genuine fat hands on these reps? I can live with the oversized case/deep rehaut, but the hands have to be accurate.

Thanks to anyone who might be able to help (ubi...?)

[freddy333]

I am assuming you are talking about Josh's black dial 11650x. All current Daytonas are now fitted with the 'fat' hands. Unfortunately, I have not seen any reps with fat hands. But if you can find 1, you should be able to transplant them onto whichever rep you are considering.

However, the gen hands will probably not fit. At least not all 6 of them & those that do will require a good deal of broaching (hole enlarging) & staking (hole reducing). I was able to fit 4 gen chrono hands to my 116520, but the 'fat' hour & minute hands were too small to fit the A7750's pinions

(Gen 'fat' minute hand at left, original 'narrow' rep hand at right)

[jnkay]

Freddy, thanks. I wish Daytonas were more in demand from rep collectors so that the factories had an incentive to improve them. Oh well. How do you stake the hole on a hand?

[freddy333]

Daytonas are 1 of the most sought after reps, so it is not for lack of popularity that they have not been updated or improved. But I would expect to see some new versions for (or just after) Xmas.

There are staking tools (which are part of many staking sets) designed to crimp a tube, which is what you use. You can also use smooth-jawed needle-nose plyers, finger nail clippers (with very dull blades or anything similar that allows you to pinpoint a squeezing action while maintaining good control over operation. This is a very delicate & dangerous procedure & the likelihood of damaging a hand is high. So if you choose to give this a try, I would recommend practicing (until you are competent in your abilities) before attempting to resize gen hands.

[jnkay]

Thanks. I personally will not attempt it; I will leave that to a professional.