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My Long Awaited Rolex 16800 Submariner
- Thread starter txrob779
- Start date
That dial reminds me of a dial that I superglued. Superglue leaves a very prominent frost on whatever it touches. I can't say it's a good look, but this watch is pretty damn cool.
That dial appears to be, under a powered loupe, clear paint maybe....like a dusting/rubbing/weirdness to it. The guy I would need to ask specifics about would be the member I got the dial FROM....regaurdless, this "Flat S" Dial is uber hard to find.
I like it , but I think you might have a couple minor scratches on the insert. As for the hands funny how you clearly say in the intro what needs to be done then everyone tells you to do the hands. I'm learning Pinky. I appreciate the passion here. A1 Job.
A few "minor" scratches huh Thrasher :rofl:,,
I mean it takes me some time and some thought to decide which way to go on a special franken build, especially this 16800, which as I learned, has at least 3 distinctive looks/features depending on the year/s you are trying to build around. Of course, as many of us have learned, the Rolex "letter of the law" says THIS and the real world gens are THIS and THAT....depending on how many times they have been to the RSC and shit changed legitimately by Rolex. Hardley 2 Rolex's with age are the same I swear. But haven (is this a word?) came to the model/year I wanted to build too, then came the "IF's". Meaning, when the parts I wanted became available at any given time, what condition were they going to be in? Meaning again, NOS? BTS? (Beat To Shit) RHW (Rode Hard Wet) Rep? Gen? what? etc,,,,and them that changes the play and forces an audible, right guys?
Now I knew from bantering with Mitch "The S'mitch" Baria about the 16800 years ago, that the 1985 "Flat S" 1985 dial was a highly coveted for 16800 builders hypothetically and that most of the 16800's I had seen build and aftermarket dials for sale, for the most part are the early matte dials, which IMO resemble the 1680. But the later 16800/168000's are more like the inaugural 16610's, See, the early 16610's, (for you unknowing guys listen up), has drilled lugs and <T-25> Gloss WG dials. The difference being between the inaugural 16610's and the 168000 (1 year only 1989) is the change to the 3135 from the 3035 of the 168000. The difference in the one year only 168000 and a last 16800 is the steel.....they both have 3035's (more on the wild ass DW of these sumbitches in the next paragraph) but the one year only, 1989 168000 is 904 steel and the 1988 16800 is 316.
* Disclaimer-the dates of these 2 models varies depending on where/when/what you read....so, here again, this is the "real world Rolex" vs. "letter of the law" Rolex crap. So, if you are a transitional lover like me (NO JAFO not TRANSEXUAL....TRANS IT TIONAL) the last years of the 16800's (1985-1988), the one year 168000's (1989) and the first years of the 16610's (1990-1995ish) are bad ass. This shit rocks and takes hours of due diligence to understand and good friggin' luck explaining this to someone in a thread..after all I am not "egro" for crying out loud, The 1000 word blogger king" :rofl: (love you Georgie Poo) so this long ass reply is a rarity.
Date Wheels and mechanism- This was super insane to sort out, according to mitchbaria the 3035's date mechanism spins in reverse of the 3135's, meaning as I see it, the date spins like a ETA DW when you set it....it rolls counter clockwise and that means the date FONT is printed in reverse order, again as I remember it, it's printed like 1,30,29,28 vs 1,2,3,4 on the wheel. AND....get this shit, (this must be a late 1980's Rolex design) the date FONT is open 6 & 9's, ROUND 3's (not flat like a early 80's 70's font) and the font has sherif's....not plain Arabic. This is f***** hard to find fellas..I mean HARDER'N HELL....but check the shit out, the 1675 Cartel uber franken I have, that Rick914, jmb and CLS modded,,,,,was originally bought as one of The Cartels "vintage" dial versions,
what I mean is that the Oyster Perpetual dial markers were yellow and it uses what boils down to a TT's DW that is cream/yellow for the gold of the TT dial....(I have the same DW on my MBW 16613....sherif's and all) so for 2 damn years whilst I gather intel and parts...the right friggin' DW is in my dadgum 1675 all along, I just never looked that closely at it before, BOOM.....
So, just before that DW thing enlighten's me, I contact Ephry73, a guy I have beaten down about this 16800 shit before and bought a bunch of franken parts from in the past, to see if he has any 16800 parts and low and behold, he has the harder'n hell to find "flat S" 1985 dial and the gen BTS insert. So what is a guy gonna do after 2 years of parts hunting...you got it...audible, AGAIN !!!!
...
So fellas, here we are today, November 12, 2014 and this is what I have. I dig the hell out of it too.
Oh, more to come on this strange 93150 Oyster I got from snowball81 in 2013.....it has a strangely marked clasp that leads me to believe it is prolly OLD OLD ass MBW Sub because it is marked "L6 93150" stamped on it and I have never seen another, ever.
And maybe more, if y'all ask, on the CRAZY one off custom made a2826/1570 Rolex movement that was in the "Columbian Plane Crash" 1675 that mrnemo aborted after killing the case. I have'nt found anybody who has ever seen one before, NOBODY. My good friend jmb would be the one that would know something about a Rolex clone 1570, but he was like
hwell:....so.....inquiring minds want to know.
Peace fellas if you stayed reading all the mess,,,,,,be cool
I mean it takes me some time and some thought to decide which way to go on a special franken build, especially this 16800, which as I learned, has at least 3 distinctive looks/features depending on the year/s you are trying to build around. Of course, as many of us have learned, the Rolex "letter of the law" says THIS and the real world gens are THIS and THAT....depending on how many times they have been to the RSC and shit changed legitimately by Rolex. Hardley 2 Rolex's with age are the same I swear. But haven (is this a word?) came to the model/year I wanted to build too, then came the "IF's". Meaning, when the parts I wanted became available at any given time, what condition were they going to be in? Meaning again, NOS? BTS? (Beat To Shit) RHW (Rode Hard Wet) Rep? Gen? what? etc,,,,and them that changes the play and forces an audible, right guys?
Now I knew from bantering with Mitch "The S'mitch" Baria about the 16800 years ago, that the 1985 "Flat S" 1985 dial was a highly coveted for 16800 builders hypothetically and that most of the 16800's I had seen build and aftermarket dials for sale, for the most part are the early matte dials, which IMO resemble the 1680. But the later 16800/168000's are more like the inaugural 16610's, See, the early 16610's, (for you unknowing guys listen up), has drilled lugs and <T-25> Gloss WG dials. The difference being between the inaugural 16610's and the 168000 (1 year only 1989) is the change to the 3135 from the 3035 of the 168000. The difference in the one year only 168000 and a last 16800 is the steel.....they both have 3035's (more on the wild ass DW of these sumbitches in the next paragraph) but the one year only, 1989 168000 is 904 steel and the 1988 16800 is 316.
* Disclaimer-the dates of these 2 models varies depending on where/when/what you read....so, here again, this is the "real world Rolex" vs. "letter of the law" Rolex crap. So, if you are a transitional lover like me (NO JAFO not TRANSEXUAL....TRANS IT TIONAL) the last years of the 16800's (1985-1988), the one year 168000's (1989) and the first years of the 16610's (1990-1995ish) are bad ass. This shit rocks and takes hours of due diligence to understand and good friggin' luck explaining this to someone in a thread..after all I am not "egro" for crying out loud, The 1000 word blogger king" :rofl: (love you Georgie Poo) so this long ass reply is a rarity.
Date Wheels and mechanism- This was super insane to sort out, according to mitchbaria the 3035's date mechanism spins in reverse of the 3135's, meaning as I see it, the date spins like a ETA DW when you set it....it rolls counter clockwise and that means the date FONT is printed in reverse order, again as I remember it, it's printed like 1,30,29,28 vs 1,2,3,4 on the wheel. AND....get this shit, (this must be a late 1980's Rolex design) the date FONT is open 6 & 9's, ROUND 3's (not flat like a early 80's 70's font) and the font has sherif's....not plain Arabic. This is f***** hard to find fellas..I mean HARDER'N HELL....but check the shit out, the 1675 Cartel uber franken I have, that Rick914, jmb and CLS modded,,,,,was originally bought as one of The Cartels "vintage" dial versions,
what I mean is that the Oyster Perpetual dial markers were yellow and it uses what boils down to a TT's DW that is cream/yellow for the gold of the TT dial....(I have the same DW on my MBW 16613....sherif's and all) so for 2 damn years whilst I gather intel and parts...the right friggin' DW is in my dadgum 1675 all along, I just never looked that closely at it before, BOOM.....
So, just before that DW thing enlighten's me, I contact Ephry73, a guy I have beaten down about this 16800 shit before and bought a bunch of franken parts from in the past, to see if he has any 16800 parts and low and behold, he has the harder'n hell to find "flat S" 1985 dial and the gen BTS insert. So what is a guy gonna do after 2 years of parts hunting...you got it...audible, AGAIN !!!!
...
So fellas, here we are today, November 12, 2014 and this is what I have. I dig the hell out of it too.
Oh, more to come on this strange 93150 Oyster I got from snowball81 in 2013.....it has a strangely marked clasp that leads me to believe it is prolly OLD OLD ass MBW Sub because it is marked "L6 93150" stamped on it and I have never seen another, ever.
And maybe more, if y'all ask, on the CRAZY one off custom made a2826/1570 Rolex movement that was in the "Columbian Plane Crash" 1675 that mrnemo aborted after killing the case. I have'nt found anybody who has ever seen one before, NOBODY. My good friend jmb would be the one that would know something about a Rolex clone 1570, but he was like
hwell:....so.....inquiring minds want to know.Peace fellas if you stayed reading all the mess,,,,,,be cool
I was really glad to get this one done for you Rob, I know you had been sweating over it for a long time.
I can not thank you enough Justin. I was a grail deal from the very very first goose bump. Ya did a brilliant job.
I'll banter on this. Its gorgeous. I'm building a >1985 16800. Really I guess it could be an 89 16610 once I'm done since I'll be in a 16610 case, but dial and hands are 16800 gloss.
It's in this watch mate....and works really good. I had to use it. Too friggin' cool not to. Thanks for your reply about the date wheel quest too.