- 9/7/12
- 22,489
- 17,780
- 113
The JF16610LV V1 wasn't a bad watch - lots of fuss was made of the rehaut engraving, but the biggest defects in this watch were the quality of the printing on the dial (thin, watery ink) the crown, the insert and some details on the case - the crown guards were too thin and incorrectly shaped on the inner side, lugs were too wide, and the general finish of the polishing & brushing was of the usual Chinese rep standard.
Then they brought out the V2, and as usual they took one step forward and 2 steps back - and the crown guards had shrunk down to stumpy little stubs . . .
I got this case quite a while a go, it had been 'worked on' by someone who tried to remove the rehaut engraving and made a very bad job of it - a soft, rounded rehaut with scratch marks going in all directions. That was the first thing that needed to be sorted out - if I couldn't do that then there was no point in continuing with the case.
Second thing was those stumpy, stubby, atrophied crown guards. If you look at a newish looking gen 16610 then you'll see that the crown guards come about 70% of the way up the knurled part of the crown, then over time, with polishing/refinishing by RSC they will drop down to about 60% of the knurled part.
The CG's on the JF only came about 40% of the way up the crown, the sort of thing that once you've seen it you can't stop looking at it.
Through the use of several techniques - notably using nylon jawed pliers to gently pull on the crown guards for several hours at a time to make them longer - I was able to get them to come up about 55% of the way.
Lug width was corrected, and a gentle chamfer was added to the edges. The bezel teeth angle from the top was adjusted and the bezel re-cut from the outside to get a better shape to the teeth. The whole case was re-brushed and polished, which is a big improvement over the standard JF brush and polish.
A Rolex dial, crystal and crown were added, I just need to put a gen insert in this one to complete it.
The end result looks like a gently worn, lightly polished/refinished 16610 from around 2003 or so, fresh looking with just the right amount of wear to the case to make it look convincing.
Then they brought out the V2, and as usual they took one step forward and 2 steps back - and the crown guards had shrunk down to stumpy little stubs . . .
I got this case quite a while a go, it had been 'worked on' by someone who tried to remove the rehaut engraving and made a very bad job of it - a soft, rounded rehaut with scratch marks going in all directions. That was the first thing that needed to be sorted out - if I couldn't do that then there was no point in continuing with the case.
Second thing was those stumpy, stubby, atrophied crown guards. If you look at a newish looking gen 16610 then you'll see that the crown guards come about 70% of the way up the knurled part of the crown, then over time, with polishing/refinishing by RSC they will drop down to about 60% of the knurled part.
The CG's on the JF only came about 40% of the way up the crown, the sort of thing that once you've seen it you can't stop looking at it.
Through the use of several techniques - notably using nylon jawed pliers to gently pull on the crown guards for several hours at a time to make them longer - I was able to get them to come up about 55% of the way.
Lug width was corrected, and a gentle chamfer was added to the edges. The bezel teeth angle from the top was adjusted and the bezel re-cut from the outside to get a better shape to the teeth. The whole case was re-brushed and polished, which is a big improvement over the standard JF brush and polish.
A Rolex dial, crystal and crown were added, I just need to put a gen insert in this one to complete it.
The end result looks like a gently worn, lightly polished/refinished 16610 from around 2003 or so, fresh looking with just the right amount of wear to the case to make it look convincing.