Two years ago, my friend gave me a Regmariner 116610 LV, "Hulk," for free because he couldn't stand how fake it looks. My friend worked in the watch and jewelry industry and he frequently handled many genuine Rolex.
Two years have passed and his birthday is coming soon. For his birthday present, I am currently pimping his old Regmariner 116610 LV by modding it and making it look as gen as possible.
The Regmariner looks like this in its stock, unmodified form:
Step 1: Reshape the clasp coronet
This Regmariner's clasp coronet looked like a crown placed on top of an oval. I decided to make the clasp coronet look closer to gen, using a file.
Once I have access to my dremel again, I will make that recessed, oval area (beneath the safety buckle) wider, like gen.
Before:
After:
Step 2: Reduce the lug-to-lug length
According to Google image, the gen 116610 probably has lug-to-lug length of 42.7mm:
http://nickhacko.blogspot.com/2013/0...-of-rolex.html
I measured the Regmariner and its lug-to-lug length is longer than gen (47.91mm):
Although the difference in dimension looks minimal, it does have an affect on the overall case shape and aesthetics of the watch. Not to mention, reducing even 1mm of steel (with a file only) is painfully slow.
Paying careful attention to the angle and dimension of the lug ends, I filed the 4 lugs and used sand paper and sanding pad to refinish them.
Step 3: Reshape the inside of the crownguard
I noticed that the 2836-2 and 21J variant of the 116610 suffers from having a weird crownguard interior. This is because of the lower crown/ stem/ tube height which affects the shape of the crownguard.
I tried to open up the inside of the crownguard with a file, then I sanded it and polished it with a dremel:
At this stage, here is what the Regmariner looks like with stronger Noob 1.8mm springbar. The stock Regmariner springbar causes the SEL to slack and look weird.
Step 4: Reducing the curvature of the lugs
At this stage, I noticed that 2 of the lugs were curved much higher than the SEL, I decided to use a file to reduce their curvature. Since I don't know if the SEL is made to gen spec, I didn't go crazy making the lugs curve close to the SEL. Regardless of that, the lugs look much nicer now:
At this stage, here is what the Regimariner looks like:
Future plans
1. On the clasp, make that recessed, oval area (beneath the safety buckle) wider, like gen.
2. Seagull 2836-2?
3. Noob V9 Hulk dial?
4. Noob ETA hands?
I will not do a crystal swap because of the bezel construction: the Regmariner uses those finicky bezel wire assembly and reinstalling crystal would be painful.
Two years have passed and his birthday is coming soon. For his birthday present, I am currently pimping his old Regmariner 116610 LV by modding it and making it look as gen as possible.
The Regmariner looks like this in its stock, unmodified form:
Step 1: Reshape the clasp coronet
This Regmariner's clasp coronet looked like a crown placed on top of an oval. I decided to make the clasp coronet look closer to gen, using a file.
Once I have access to my dremel again, I will make that recessed, oval area (beneath the safety buckle) wider, like gen.
Before:
After:
Step 2: Reduce the lug-to-lug length
According to Google image, the gen 116610 probably has lug-to-lug length of 42.7mm:
http://nickhacko.blogspot.com/2013/0...-of-rolex.html
I measured the Regmariner and its lug-to-lug length is longer than gen (47.91mm):
Although the difference in dimension looks minimal, it does have an affect on the overall case shape and aesthetics of the watch. Not to mention, reducing even 1mm of steel (with a file only) is painfully slow.
Paying careful attention to the angle and dimension of the lug ends, I filed the 4 lugs and used sand paper and sanding pad to refinish them.
Step 3: Reshape the inside of the crownguard
I noticed that the 2836-2 and 21J variant of the 116610 suffers from having a weird crownguard interior. This is because of the lower crown/ stem/ tube height which affects the shape of the crownguard.
I tried to open up the inside of the crownguard with a file, then I sanded it and polished it with a dremel:
At this stage, here is what the Regmariner looks like with stronger Noob 1.8mm springbar. The stock Regmariner springbar causes the SEL to slack and look weird.
Step 4: Reducing the curvature of the lugs
At this stage, I noticed that 2 of the lugs were curved much higher than the SEL, I decided to use a file to reduce their curvature. Since I don't know if the SEL is made to gen spec, I didn't go crazy making the lugs curve close to the SEL. Regardless of that, the lugs look much nicer now:
At this stage, here is what the Regimariner looks like:
Future plans
1. On the clasp, make that recessed, oval area (beneath the safety buckle) wider, like gen.
2. Seagull 2836-2?
3. Noob V9 Hulk dial?
4. Noob ETA hands?
I will not do a crystal swap because of the bezel construction: the Regmariner uses those finicky bezel wire assembly and reinstalling crystal would be painful.
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