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"The Official Big Crown Club" - post your pics!
- Thread starter GC
- Start date
Phong case,Vietnam dial,slay hands,Athaya crown, all aging etc done by me ,Vietnam 7206 bracelet
Trying out my new photo booth - need to reduce the hot spots from the leds
Rocking the 16mm Bond strap today. Was tough to find one in this screen accurate size.
Okay so I did a thing
Found my old ratty hands and gave or some
.
My light at my bench is bright so it distorts the macros a bit but the overall appearance on the watch looks pretty badass
Thought id try out a straight seconds hand for that. “ finding parts to keep it running look”.
Overall i like the look and it does gove the watch a very vintage look.
I may be tempted to do this to the hands that were originally on the watch.
Ya dig ??
edit: this was in inspiration for this mod the radium burns on this 6610 look wild.
Found my old ratty hands and gave or some
.My light at my bench is bright so it distorts the macros a bit but the overall appearance on the watch looks pretty badass
Thought id try out a straight seconds hand for that. “ finding parts to keep it running look”.
Overall i like the look and it does gove the watch a very vintage look.
I may be tempted to do this to the hands that were originally on the watch.
Ya dig ??
edit: this was in inspiration for this mod the radium burns on this 6610 look wild.
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That looks amazing!!! Love the black and goldish contrast. Really pops. Dibs if you decide to part ways with it. LolOkay so I did a thing
Found my old ratty hands and gave or some
My light at my bench is bright so it distorts the macros a bit but the overall appearance on the watch looks pretty badass
Thought id try out a straight seconds hand for that. “ finding parts to keep it running look”.
Overall i like the look and it does gove the watch a very vintage look.
I may be tempted to do this to the hands that were originally on the watch.
Ya dig ??
A bit of a history lesson from From Sweeping hand on IG
Day 24 is probably my rarest Rolex. This is a Rolex reference 6538 Big Crown from 1954... 2 YEARS BEFORE it was put into actual production.
Research shows that a tiny batch of reference 6538 watches was made in 1954 alongside the 6200. These very early 6538 were the first Rolex Submariner watches to ever be designated a dive depth of 200m and had a red 200/660 on their dial to signify this. They also all have a unique 6538 caseback, a longer hour hand as seen on the 6200 and all have a very low batched 49,XXX serial number. In addition they all have a similar very tightly grouped movement number.
Of these watches there are 11 known examples to date of which 4 remain unaltered.
The other 7 appear to have been originally issued to the British Military and then were re-cased with a different case/dial/hands/caseback some time in 1957 but retaining their original movements and having the 49,XXX serial number re-engraved.
I guess my odds of finding another are pretty slim and thanks must go to the great Marcello Pisani (RIP) and Rolex Geneva themselves for confirming the find over 10 years ago now and starting my research path on these amazing watches.
They are still out there!
Day 24 is probably my rarest Rolex. This is a Rolex reference 6538 Big Crown from 1954... 2 YEARS BEFORE it was put into actual production.
Research shows that a tiny batch of reference 6538 watches was made in 1954 alongside the 6200. These very early 6538 were the first Rolex Submariner watches to ever be designated a dive depth of 200m and had a red 200/660 on their dial to signify this. They also all have a unique 6538 caseback, a longer hour hand as seen on the 6200 and all have a very low batched 49,XXX serial number. In addition they all have a similar very tightly grouped movement number.
Of these watches there are 11 known examples to date of which 4 remain unaltered.
The other 7 appear to have been originally issued to the British Military and then were re-cased with a different case/dial/hands/caseback some time in 1957 but retaining their original movements and having the 49,XXX serial number re-engraved.
I guess my odds of finding another are pretty slim and thanks must go to the great Marcello Pisani (RIP) and Rolex Geneva themselves for confirming the find over 10 years ago now and starting my research path on these amazing watches.
They are still out there!
bigtiddygothgf
Active Member
- 7/10/18
- 303
- 137
- 43
Would any of you gentlemen happen to know the inner and outer diameters of a gen/gen-spec 6538 bezel insert? Seems like they may be interchangable with 5512 and 5513 inserts and the sizes for those are easily found online, but I'd just like to confirm.
Here four Big Crown of my collection.
From the left:
From the left:
- Custom Heritage
- Rolex 6538 from 19xxx. Here the build story.
- Tudor Black Bay 58
- Tiger Concept 5508V6
Just received an email from Raffles.
He now offers red triangle inserts for his 6538 sub cases
He now offers red triangle inserts for his 6538 sub cases
Hello,
Please, can you explain a bit how do you age hands? I am building a vintage and is my idea,
Thanks