And another ST Build

[KJ2020]

Alright guys today is the Big Day gotta it all done and put together!! Well.. with the exception of the crown which is Abviously stainless.

Here's a wristy for ya'll!

I'm gonna give it the weekender run and later give the details & closeups of this beauty in the overall finished product stay tuned!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Beautiful bro, I'm going to have to do one of these! They are such classic beauties and yours is really awesome. Congrats!

 

[McDuck888]

Cool. Your 14k WSO bracelet is solid I think you said. My 18k wso bracelet here is hollow (and doesn’t have engravings on the links.) Nice to see variety is available. Damn your watch looks great ;-)

 

[McDuck888]

Me: 14k solid gold wso, is hollow.
I’ve wanted to know about the polished sides you mention too because I have a feeling the genuine bracelet links might be the gently brushed type, but I’m unsure. Polished sides here too.
And also I noticed this bracelet -being ‘for datejust’ in its style means the links are a tiny bit thinner in their depth/ less chunky than my all-stainless steel five digit sub bracelets. Only microscopically. But quickly eyeballing it I can tell the links are less thick.
I really enjoy it.

 

[sukwonee]

What did I miss? That's gen clasp?

 

[Perpetual]

Beautiful bro, I'm going to have to do one of these! They are such classic beauties and yours is really awesome. Congrats!

Thanks bro!

Yea Definitely gotta get in on one of these they are truly beautiful indeed!

 

[Perpetual]

Cool. Your 14k WSO bracelet is solid I think you said. My 18k wso bracelet here is hollow (and doesn’t have engravings on the links.) Nice to see variety is available. Damn your watch looks great ;-)

Yes, mine is solid Stainless steel wrapping with 14k gold.

That would be correct the 18k wso are hollow as per gen and good to know it lacks engravings didnt know that.

Thanks on the kind words! I think it looks even better now with a gen insert

 

[Perpetual]

Me: 14k solid gold wso, is hollow.
I’ve wanted to know about the polished sides you mention too because I have a feeling the genuine bracelet links might be the gently brushed type, but I’m unsure. Polished sides here too.
And also I noticed this bracelet -being ‘for datejust’ in its style means the links are a tiny bit thinner in their depth/ less chunky than my all-stainless steel five digit sub bracelets. Only microscopically. But quickly eyeballing it I can tell the links are less thick.
I really enjoy it.

Yes, I believe the 14k solid gold would be hollow as well. About the sides being polished I only remember a review video of the 16613 and seeing them polished but who knows maybe someone had it done for personal preference...

Yes. The bracelets wso makes are all the same size links sadly...I've messaged him about it as to why the datejust & submariner are in the same description with this bracelet. Well turns out they are all the slimmer sized as for the datejust. His answer to me was "this bracelet fits both models sub & datejust"

This is where ST 14k & 18k takes the win because they are indeed differ in sizes (one for DJ) and (one for submariner) also the hollow endlinks are (closed) no cut outs for spring bar tool fitment.

Are the wso 18k endlinks have cut outs?

 

[Perpetual]

Ok so I went ahead and modified the end links and bracelet end links to accept the 2mm spring bars. Gotta hand it to wso, this bracelet is very well made drilling these wasn't easy I used a cobalt bit got it through but needed some touching.

Yes, and you can see I drilled through some of the gold!

With such the hassle of drilling the end link I did a different approach on the hollow end links, although to my surprise the loops were thick! Much much thicker then my raffles end links and could definitely withstand the process, but I put a slit in the loops lol

Even then I was impressed! Wso used some real heavy metal opening the loops was a task in result the 2mm spring bars fit nice and snug with absolutely no movement solid!


Figured I'd put this in the thread and share this critical aspect that absolutely needs done to this bracelet, well, to any bracelet really.

A little bath in the baby oil lol

I like to use a zip lock baggie putting a generous amount of baby oil and mashing it into all the cracks and crevices of the movements links of the bracelet.

Then let it marinate for a day or so.

wash it off with soap and warm water afterwards and then enjoy your gen feeling bracelet like butter. I find this works best on solid bracelets the oil gets trapped in the movement pivots.

Happy Sunday ya'll!

 

[sukwonee]

Looks awesome man. Did you use rotary tools to drill the holes? RIP little bit of gold but it looks professionally done.

 

[Perpetual]

Looks awesome man. Did you use rotary tools to drill the holes? RIP little bit of gold but it looks professionally done.

Thanks man, no I actually did not.. I wish I had a drill press.. I simply clamped down the link in my vise and used my drill by hand critical to keep it straight and you should be good

 

[McDuck888]

Cor - Absolutely beautiful !!

Yup! - WSO 18k two tone bracelet here, with a side view of a hollow links. The endlinks sitting unused on my table are WSO engraved 455B.
Attached to the watch are some rolex gen endlinks engraved 458B.
Did you get the same 455B endlinky-bits with yours or something engraved differently? (I'll go back up this page and check it out)

So - Both these WSO 455b and the Rolex 458b endlinks have the opening at the back in the same way, and appear the same as each other in every aspect, colour etc to my eyes, apart from the engraved numbers. Bought M2M here, a really great solution for me personally because I've not committed to making anything period-correct. I'm enjoying everything to the max as it is to be honest.
(I have swiss made on the dial, superluminova, but 93153 bracelet with hollow endlinks style and with a crystal with AR like you'd expect in a modern sub rather than my no AR older style Xtal, lol. A bunch of things I thoroughly enjoy on one watch rather that it appearing how someone might expect.

One extra thing I noticed.. Here is my BP 16618lb bracelet (SA3135) in all gold. The BP 16618 bracelet and WSO 18k bracelet both have some shiny sides. And both feel a scratch thinner than what we're used to on five digit sub bracelets. On my callipers their links are the same dimensions as each other. Although the rest of their construction is a little different, BP has SEL etc. But it just made me think that the BP 16613 two tone bracelet will also be slimmer style, shiny sides probably too - But with sel, bare stainless sides on the centrelink of the sel.

I bought this WSO bracelet M2M from a chap who did an awesome job of removing a permanent link and improving the finish on the bracelet during his franken build. And I couldn't be any happier for it!!! - man, I really treasure the whole watch I have. When they'd bought the WSO bracelet, they said their impression was that it wasn't great nor worth it's pretty darn high pricepoint.
Looking at your WSO bracelet, looks great, I don't see any benefit of people paying any more cash for the hollow style I'm wearing. Yours seems perfect bang for buck and spot on to me when we're comparing all things. Great piece.

I still know nothing about startime bracelets. I'd love to know how they are too. I've never considered buying anything from startime because for some reason I thought we needed a special trade account to buy from them. I don't know why that info was in my head. I'll get investigating.. because I bet I'm wrong

 

[McDuck888]

(It's crazy to me that on my previous few pics there, the BP yellow gold colour tone and WSO 18k yellow gold colour look so different.. In real life, I find them almost identical. Ha! Just strange lighting at home).
I've just looked back to see your endlinks' engraving etc.
Your bracelet just looks so excellent to me. Really superb.

 

[Perpetual]

Alright and we're back.

As promised, some more detailed pics of the case and also bonus glamor shots

Let's get into it!

I Present to you, The Bluesy.

I've tried my best not to slim the lugs too thin to give the case some beef left over from the original ST lol

It's not perfect but over all I'm very pleased with the final results of this case.


I didn't want to go overboard with the thickness of the chamfers either being it a Swiss made dial even though it's a lug holes case just wanted the fine finished look.

I must say after wearing this piece for 2 weeks now it's really been growing on me more and more not being much of a 2-tone guy but the way the gold is wearing in with all those microscopic hairline scratches its just absolutely beautiful.

I definitely have some future plans first and foremost the crown will be replaced with a gold 703 as the 704 seems a bit bulky due to the short lugs...

Currently I have an Athaya crown & tube witch in my opinion doesn't look too bad as far as size vs crown guards.


Couple of wrist shots to finish this photo dump

 

[CarpetRyd]

Great work! It’s a truly beautiful piece… ugh I might have to revisit my 16613 build project!

 

[Perpetual]

Great work! It’s a truly beautiful piece… ugh I might have to revisit my 16613 build project!

Hey Thanks mate nice to hear from you!

Truth be told you've inspired me with your newly finished LV with them lovely slightly meaty (but perfect) lug shape. I knew right away I had to have this in my next build and it turned out to be an 16613LB

 

[Spoons]

Wow! This build turned out really great. I am not usually a yellow gold kind of guy, but the classic blue-gold color combo on the bluesy is really fantastic.

 

[sukwonee]

When did I sign up for this porn? Haha

Love the results Fam! Awesome wrist shots too

 

[Perpetual]

When did I sign up for this porn? Haha

Love the results Fam! Awesome wrist shots too

Thanks brother!!

 

[Perpetual]

Wow! This build turned out really great. I am not usually a yellow gold kind of guy, but the classic blue-gold color combo on the bluesy is really fantastic.

Thanks man!

Yea! I wasn't sure about it at first but wanted something different and I'm liking the different as I already have a blk dial 5 digit sub that's why I didn't go the blk&gold version


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[McDuck888]

I love your consideration for different crown sizes too.